444 Professor. JF. W. Watts— 



facts as appear to be required in the present position of liis 

 profession, lie 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 petro- 

 graphic 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 ground, 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 

 problems associated with it, and he should have an exhaustive 

 acquaintance with the vein and metalliferous minerals. 



The water engineer needs to know especially well the porous and 

 impervious rock types, the texture and composition of these rocks, 

 the nature of their cements and joints, and the distribution of water- 

 levels in them. Further, he must know what there is to be known 

 on the problems of permeability and absorption, the relation of rain 

 to supply, the changes undergone by water and the paths taken by 

 it on its route underground, and the varying nature of rocks in depth. 

 He must also realise the effects of folds and faults on drainage areas 

 and on underground watercourses, the special qualities of water- 

 yielding rocks, of those forming the foundation of reservoir sites, and 

 those suitable for the construction of dams. 



The sanitary engineer will need to be acquainted with the same 

 range of special knowledge as the water engineer, but will naturally 

 be more interested in getting rid of surface water without con- 

 taminating it more than he can help than in 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 their chemical and minera- 

 logical character, their grains and their cements. But he ought to 

 be well acquainted with the laws of bedding, jointing, and cleavage, 

 with questions of outcrop and underground extent, and all those 



