Revieics — Prof. Golems Open-air Studies. 477 



la IE "V" I IE AA7" S. 



Open-air Studies : an Introduction to Geology out-of-doors. 

 By Grenville A. J. Cole, M.R.I.A., F.G.S., Professor of 

 Geology in the Eoyal College of Science for Ireland, Dublin. 

 London: Charles Griffin and Co. (Limited), Exeter Street, 

 Strand, 1895. 8vo, pp. xii and 322, with Eleven full-page 

 Illustrations, and Thirty-three Illustrations in text. 



PROFESSOR COLE has done excellent service to our science 

 if only by pointing out to his readers that geology is a study 

 for the open air, and can no more be acquired satisfactorily in 

 a museum or a laboratory than can the stu(]y of biology. We are 

 reminded of a story told of the Swedish Botanist Solander, who 

 had looked for so long a time at plants in the Museum Herbarium, 

 that when a green living plant was brought to him by a lady to 

 be named, he studied it attentively and then said : " Madam, if you 

 shall take this plant home and put it between paper and shall sit 

 upon it for a week, I shall tell you its name." 



It is by a visit to a quarry by the roadside, or to the cliffs on 

 the seashore, that boys may be stimulated to become geologists ; 

 and it is doubtless due to the inveterate love of bird's-nesting among 

 country schoolboys (and all schools ought to be in the country) 

 that we owe the passion for ornithology which has so long prevailed 

 amongst us, and is still a dearly-loved pursuit of Englishmen. 



While, however, the love for Natural History and the passion for 

 enquiry are usually born, and must always be nurtured in the field, 

 yet we are compelled to admit that no progress can be made without 

 the aid of books and teachers ; and that those who seek not only to 

 acquire, but to advance, knowledge relating to rocks or fossils, must 

 now-a-days prepare themselves by a course of study in a petrological 

 or biological laboratory. Such training is as needful to the geologist 

 as it is to the engineer or the surgeon. 



We would not deter those living in the country, who have no 

 means of special training, from giving attention to geology. 

 Regarding it as a recreative science they may do useful work in 

 collecting fossils and recording sections of the strata; but one chief 

 lesson which all of us have to learn is how far our own knowledge 

 can be relied upon, and when to depend upon others for the 

 identification of minerals, rocks, and fossils. Wonder and interest 

 may be aroused by personal observation among the rocks ; but the 

 lessons which can be learnt in the field will not be fruitful without 

 close attention to the literature of the subject and to present methods 

 of research, 



Professor Cole recognizes the need of all this, and although he 

 explains as many technical terms as he can in the field, he gives us 

 a severe introductory chapter on the materials which form the 

 earth's crust, before he asks us to accompany him out-of-doors. 

 In a work dealing with so complex a subject as geology it is 

 impossible to explain every term that is used ; but this account of 

 rocks and minerals, and elements, will show the student the kind 



