260 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



Scotland, Ireland and New England. Geology answers 

 the question, which else would remain totally dark. Why 

 do we rarely find in a northern land splintery peaks like 

 those of the Dolomites, or sand-worn cliffs like those of 

 Arabia ? Here again it is only geology which can tell us. 



Botany does more for the traveller than Zoology, partly 

 because the range of plants depends more obviously than 

 that of animals upon geological structure and soil, and 

 also because plants affect the scenery in a way that animals 

 can never do. An inquiring naturalist will raise deeply 

 interesting questions of plant- distribution from very 

 limited excursions, whereas it is only when studied on the 

 continental scale that the geography of animals has proved 

 instructive. 



But all branches of natural history are good. The bird- 

 man, the insect-man, the naturalist of any good sort (I 

 mean any naturalist who inquires) will find in every foreign 

 land abundant opportunity of carrying his studies farther, 

 and giving them a wider scope. 



The reader has very likely taken his own line, and knows 

 perfectly well what he wants to work at the next time 

 he has a chance of visiting an unfamiliar country. If so, 

 I will wish him good luck, and hasten to stand out of 

 his sunshine. There are other tourists who are eager 

 but totally inexperienced, and here and there such an 

 one may be glad of hints which his forerunners have found 

 profitable. 



To a young tourist with a taste for geology who is about 

 to visit Switzerland for the first time, I would say : do 

 not waste your leisure and strength by speeding over a 

 great tract of country. Take one river- valley and work it 

 well. There is none better than the Upper Aar valley 

 for a first study. Begin at Meyringen, examine the Aar- 

 schlucht as an example of what running water can do, 

 work your way up to the Grimsel, and then photograph 

 the glaciated rocks till you have learned something of 

 what moving ice can do. The Obar Aar glacier will teach 



