

FOSSIL ICE CRYSTALS " y^ 



By J. A. Udden {yflf-A 



I 



AN INSTANCE OF THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF "PURE SCIENCE" 



The practical value of the service of the geological pro- 

 fession is, with every year, being more and more appre- 

 ciated, especially among people who are developing the 

 mineral resources of our country. Nevertheless, we still 

 hear men who speak of geologists as theorists that render 

 our profitable industries but little assistance. It is true that 

 much of the work that geologists do has but a remote bear- 

 ing on practical questions. The fact is that in geology, as 

 in other sciences, one can never know when a purely scien- 

 tific observation may turn out to have a practical applica- 

 tion. Paleontologists who study the minutest details of fos- 

 sils have been held up as impractical people, even though 

 their science has more than once proved to be of the greatest 

 practical importance for the finding of valuable natural de- 

 posits. Certainly those who have been most prominent in 

 the promotion of paleontology as a science have seldom, if 

 ever, had any economic motive in the pursuit of their work. 

 I think the same is true of our leading petrographers. I 

 believe that the men who have advanced the science of 

 geology most, have seldom contributed much to the prac- 

 tical application of the principles they have discovered. 

 Much scientific work naturally appears unprofitable or use- 

 less to the uninitiated. I shall here relate a case that sug- 

 gests how entirely wrong it may be to regard as of no 

 economic value any geologic fact, however insignificant it 

 may appear. 



In the summer of 1890 I took occasion to make a trip to 

 the Black Hills in South Dakota in order to profit, as I 

 could, by a few weeks' tramping in this interesting region. 

 Going one day in a southwest direction from Minnekahta, 

 to look for fossil cycads, I stumbled on a block of sandstone 

 with a rather smooth surface on which were some peculiar 



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