September 17, 1903] 



NATURE 



485 



because the geological structure, the anatomy, is present 

 in his mind throughout, and the outside form is the in- 

 evitable consequence of that structure. Indeed the reading 

 of a good geological map to the geologist is like the read- 

 ing of score by a musician. 



Surely it would be most unwise if the Committee on 

 Military Education were to cut out of their curriculum the 

 one subject which has exercised and educated this faculty, 

 and one which is at the same time doing a great deal to 

 counteract that degeneration of observing faculties insepar- 

 able from a town life. Some cadets at least ought to be 

 chosen from amongst those men who have been trained by 

 this method to see quickly and accurately into the topo- 

 graphic character and possibilities of a country, and pro- 

 vision should be made for educating their faculties further 

 until they become of genuine strategic value. 



Ihen I believe it would be correct to say that no class of 

 men get to know their own country with anything like the 

 minuteness and accuracy of the geological surveyor. The 

 mere topographer simply transfers his impressions on the 

 spot as quickly as may be to paper, and has no further 

 concern with them. The geologist must keep them stored 

 in his mind, watching the variation and development of 

 each feature from point to point for his own purposes. He 

 must traverse every inch of his ground, he must know 

 where he can climb each mountain and ford every brook, 

 where there are quarries or roads, springs or flats ; what 

 can be seen from every point of view, how the habitability 

 or habitations vary from point to point ; in short, he must 

 become a veritable walking map of his own district. Why 

 not scatter such men in every quarter of the globe, par- 

 ticularly where any trouble is likely to arise? They are 

 cheap enough, they will waste no time, and they will be 

 so glad of the chance for research that they will not be 

 hard to satisfy in the matter of pay and equipment. Thus 

 you will acquire a corps of guides, ready wherever and 

 whenever they are wanted ; and when trouble arises they 

 may do a great deal by means of their minute knowledge 

 of topography to save millions of money and thousands of 

 lives, and to prevent the irritating recurrence of the kind 

 of disaster with which we have become sadly familiar within 

 the last five years. 



In dealing with the relationship of Geology to Geography 

 geologists are frequently charged with claiming too much. 

 On this point at least, however, there can be no difference 

 of opinion, that the majority of geological surveyors and 

 unofficial investigators have kept their eyes open to this 

 relationship, and have often contributed new explanations 

 to old problems. They have been compelled to observe, and 

 often to explain, surface-features before making use of 

 them in their own mapping, and in doing so have often 

 hit upon new principles. It is hardly needful to mention 

 such examples as Ramsay's great conception of plains of 

 marine denudation, Whitaker's convincing memoir on sub- 

 aerial denudation, Jukes's explanation of the laws of river 

 adjustment, Gilbert's scientific essay on erosion, Heim's 

 demonstration of the share taken by earth-movement in the 

 modelling of landscape features, and the exceedingly valu- 

 able proofs of the relation of human settlement and move- 

 ment to underground structure, worked out with such skill 

 and diligence by Topley in his masterly memoir on the 

 Weald — the jumping-off place, if I may so term it, of the 

 new geography. 



No one is more pleased than geologists that geographers 

 have ceased to draw their knowledge of causation solely 

 from history, and that they have turned their attention to 

 the dependence and reaction of mankind on nature as well. 

 But while hoping that geographers will continue to study, 

 so far as they logically can, the relationship of plant's, 

 animals, and mankind to the solid framework of the globe 

 on which they live, we must draw the line at the invention 

 of new geological hypotheses to explain geographic difficul- 

 ties on no better evidence than that furnished by the difficul- 

 ties themselves ; on the other hand, we must insist that each 

 new geological principle must take its place amongst 

 geographic explanations as soon as it is freely admitted 

 to be based on a sound substratum of fact. 



I must confine myself to a few instances of what I mean. 

 Mr. Marr's geological work on the origin of lake-basins 

 has led to some remarkable and unexpected conclusions 



NO. 1768, VOL. 68] 



with regard to the history and origin of the drainage of 

 the Lake district. Some of the very difficult questions 

 raised by the physical geography of the North Riding of 

 Yorkshire have received a new explanation from the re- 

 searches of Prof. Kendall and Mr. Dwerryhouse, an ex- 

 planation which is the outcome of purely geological methods 

 of observation of geological materials. Again, the simple 

 geological interpretation of a well-known unconformity 

 between Archaean and Triassic rocks has made it extremely 

 probable that many of the present landscapes, not only in 

 the Midlands but elsewhere, may be really fossil landscapes^ 

 of great antiquity and due to causes quite different from 

 those in operation there at the present day. In mountain 

 regions, too, it can only be by geological observation that 

 we shall ever determine what has been the precise direct 

 share of earth-movement in the production of surface relief. 

 Such e.xamples seem to indicate that many of the principles, 

 must be of geological origin but of geographic application. 



While Geology has been of direct scientific utility in topo- 

 graphy and geography there is another domain, that of 

 Economic Geology, which is entirely its own. The appli- 

 cation of Geology extends to every industry and occupation 

 which has to do with our connection with the earth on 

 which we live. Agriculture, engineering, the obtaining of 

 the useful and precious metals, chemical substances, build- 

 ing materials, and road metals, sanitary science, the 

 winning and working of coal, iron, oil, gas, and water, 

 all these and many more pursuits are carried on the better 

 if founded on a knowledge of the structure of the earth *s 

 crust. Indeed a geological map of this country, showing 

 rocks, solid and superficial, of which no economic use could 

 b'i made, would be nearly blank. Yet so much has this side 

 of the science been neglected of recent years that our only 

 comprehensive text-books on it are altogether out of date. 



But in teaching Geology as a technical science, or rather 

 as one with technological applications, one of the greatest 

 difficulties before us is to steer between two opposing 

 schools, the so-called theoretical school and the practicat 

 school. 



There are those who say that there is but one geology, 

 the theoretical, and that a thorough knowledge of this 

 must be obtained by all those who intend to apply the 

 science. Others think that this is too much to ask — that 

 the time available is not sufficient — and that it is only 

 necessary to teach so much of the subject as is obviously 

 germane to the question in hand. 



The best course appears to me to be the middle one 

 between the two extremes. If the engineer or miner, the 

 water-finder or quarryman, has no knowledge of principles, 

 but only of such facts as appear to be required in the 

 present position of his profession, he will be incapable of 

 making any improvement in his methods so far as they 

 depend upon geology. If, on the other hand, he is a purely 

 theoretical man without a detailed practical and working 

 acquaintance with the facts which specially concern him, 

 he will be put down by his colleagues as unpractical ; he 

 will have to learn the facts as quickly as he can and buy 

 his experience in the dearest market. 



It seems to me that there is certain common ground 

 which must be acquired by all types of professional men. 

 The general petrographic character of the common rocks, 

 enough of their mode of origin to aid the memory, the 

 principle of order and age in the stratified rocks, the use 

 of fossils and superposition as tests of age, the nature of 

 unconformities, the relation of structure to the form of the 

 giound, the occurrence of folds and faults, and above all 

 the reading of maps and sections, and sufficient field work 

 to give confidence in the representation of facts on maps — 

 these things are required by everybody who makes any use 

 of geology in his daily life. 



But when so much has been acquired it should be possible 

 to separate out the students for more special treatment. 

 The coal-miner will require especially a full knowledge of 

 the coal-bearing systems, not in our own islands merely, 

 but all over the world ; a special acquaintance with the 

 effects of folds and faults, and an advanced training in the 

 maps and sections of coal-bearing areas. The vein-miner 

 should be well up in faulting and all the geometrical pro- 

 blems associated with it, and he should have an exhaustive 

 acquaintance with the vein and metalliferous minerals. 



