650 REPORT— 1903. 



special knowledge as the water engineer, but will naturally he more interested in 

 getting rid of surface water without contaminating it more than he can helj) than 

 ill obtaining it ; he will also need a more detailed acquaintance with superficial 

 deposits than any other class of professional men. 



The quarryman and architect ought to know the rocks both macroscopically 

 and microscopically, in tlieir chemical and mineralogical character, their grains 

 and their cements. But he ought to be well acquainted Avith the laws of bedding, 

 jointing, and cleavage, with questions of outcrop and underground extent, and all 

 those other characters which make the difference between good and bad stone, or 

 between one desirable and undesirable in the particular circumstances in which a 

 building is to be erected. Further, he should make a particular study of the action 

 of weight and weather on the rocks which he employs. 



The road engineer and surveyor, now that it has been discovered that it is 

 cheaper and better to use the best and most lasting road-metal instead of any that 

 happens to be at hand, requires to have an extensive acquaintance with our igneous 

 and other durable rocks, He needs, however, not only petrographic and chemical 

 knowledge, but also a type of information not at present accessible in England, the 

 relative value of these rocks in resisting the wear and tear of traffic, the cementing 

 power of the worn material, and the surface characters of roads made from them, 

 in order that he may in each case select the stone which in his particular circum- 

 stances gives the best value for money. It would surely pay the county councils 

 to follow, with modifications, the example of the French and Americans, and 

 carry out a deliberate and well-planned series of experiments on all the material 

 accessible to them in their respective districts. 



The teaching of the application of Geology should therefore take some such 

 form as the following :— First, the principles should be thoroughly taught with the 

 use for the most part of examples drawn from the economic side ; thus cementing 

 might be illustrated on the side of water percolation, jointing from the making 

 of mine roads and from quarry sites, faulting from effects on coal outcrops and 

 veins, unconformity from its significance to the coal-miner ; while in teaching the 

 sequence of stratified rocks the systems and stages could be mainly individualised 

 by their economic characters. When this has been done the class must be divided 

 into groups, each paying special attention to the points which are of essential im- 

 portance to it. 



The teaching at all stages should be practical and, so far as can be, experi- 

 mental, and in all cases where possible a certain amount of field work should be 

 attempted. For the field after all is the laboratory of the geologist, where he can 

 observe experiments being made on a gigantic scale under his eyes. 



The aim of the teaching .should be to give to students the equipment necessary 

 to deal with the chief geological problems that they will meet with in their 

 varied professions ; it should show them where to go for maps, memoirs, or descrip- 

 tions of the areas with which they are dealing ; and in cases of great difficulty 

 should enable them to see where further geological assistance is required, and to 

 weigh and balance the expert evidence given them against the economic and other 

 factors of the problem before them. 



From men educated thus Geology has the right to expect a valuable return. 

 There is a vast amount of knowledge on economic subjects in existence but not 

 readily accessible. It has been obtained by experts, and after being used is locked 

 up or lost. And yet it is the very kind of knowledge which is wanted to extend our 

 principles further into the economic side of the subject. So well is this recognised 

 that many geologists are attracted to economic work mainly because of the wide 

 range of new facts that they can only thus become acquainted with. It is possible 

 to make use of many of these facts for scientific induction without in any way be- 

 traying confidence or revealing the source from which they are obtained ; and even 

 if they cannot be used directly they are often of great service in giving moral 

 support, or the contrary, to working hypotheses founded on other evidence. 



