32 W. W. Watts — British Geological Photographs. 



Cave presses home this truth, and makes a good deal of fun out 

 of the old illustrations and drawings of this curious featui'e when 

 compared with a photograph. The comparison is quite justifiable 

 ■when and where photographic illustration is possible, and one would 

 be only inclined to point out that, not a single photograph, but 

 several, are usually required, so that the thing may be seen in the 

 solid and not in one plane, and that drawings are, and always will 

 be, the necessary adjunct to the photograph if we are to interpret as 

 well as see. Very many phenomena readily submit to photographic 

 treatment, and though the first qualifications of a geologist should be 

 travel, and travel, and again travel, he cannot see everything, and 

 even the most experienced traveller may be guided and helped 

 by seeing photographs before he visits a place, and may correct 

 his impressions by means of them when he comes back, or, if he 

 himself does not need such an aid, they may at least be useful to 

 him in convincing his friends who have not been so fortunate. How 

 we should like to have, for instance, a photograph marked by Salter 

 himself, to show exactly where he drew his line between the 

 Caradoc and Llandovery rocks, or of some of the older type fossils 

 which it is so hard to recognize in our museums. 



It is still more important to preserve such photographs as have 

 been used to pi'oduce process blocks for scientific purposes, or as 

 a basis for the preparation of drawings ; the committee has already 

 begun this work, and proposes to continue it if the friendly aid of 

 editors of geological publications can be secured. As an example 

 of what can be done we may refer to the splendid series of photo- 

 graphs of the dry valleys about Clapham in Yorkshire taken by 

 Mr. Bingley to illustrate Mr. Tate's paper in the Proceedings of the 

 Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society. This is but one 

 of the more recent examples, but many others might be quoted. 

 Microphotographs of organisms and rock sections, views of quarries, 

 boulders, glaciated surfaces, pebbles, structures in aqueous, igneous, 

 and foliated rocks, and a host of other things, frequently reproduced 

 by process or drawings, ought to be represented in this collection 

 by permanent prints from the original negatives. 



Again, for educational purposes it would be a very good thing 

 to replace many of the venerable drawings which have so long done 

 duty in the textbooks for representations of unconformity, bedding, 

 dykes, cleavage, joints, faults, contortions, and many other elementary 

 phenomena, by reliable photographs representing the actual facts as 

 the student will really see them. When the collection has further 

 advanced it should be possible to make a very perfect selection from 

 it to illustrate such points, but hitherto it has not been large enough 

 for the purpose, nor has any publisher been found willing to under- 

 take the risk of reproducing such a set of illustrations, although it 

 has often been asked for by those engaged in teaching. It is true 

 that it is not so difficult to obtain illustrative photographs as it once 

 was, and there are some educational series issued by professional 

 and skilful photographers in England, Scotland, and especially in 

 Ireland, which provide a great deal that is required ; it is not quite 



