614 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 69. 



otherwise be utterly unrelated to Inm. 

 Again in treating of seashore phenomena, 

 the history of harbors and their relation to 

 the development of states, affords a basis 

 on which to rest the account of coastline 

 work. Yet again, in the matters connected 

 with the formation of mineral deposits, 

 which from the nature of the subject are 

 apt to be somewhat elusive, it is easy to fix 

 the attention by reference to the relation of 

 those stores to the needs of man. So, in- 

 deed, in all parts of this preliminary work 

 of awakening and developing interest in his 

 subject, the teacher of geology, if he is to be 

 successful, must go about his task on the 

 supposition that he has to extend existing 

 interests to his field. When men have for 

 some hundred generations appreciated the 

 earth as we would have them do it, the pro- 

 cess of selection or the inheritance of ac- 

 quired characteristics may give a birthright 

 interest in the large problems of geology ; 

 but while here and there a youth may be 

 found with a Hugh Miller's taste for the 

 science, the teacher who reckons on having 

 his class thus inspired will fail to achieve 

 success. 



Methods of Field Teacliing. 

 As soon as the teacher through his work 

 in the lecture room has succeeded in ex- 

 tending the natural inborn interests of his 

 pupils to the problems of geology, instruc- 

 tion in the field should begin. In this part 

 of the work there is need of a great change 

 in the methods and aims of the teaching. 

 While in the lecture room the conditions re- 

 quire the didactic method and exclude that 

 of investigation, the reverse is the case in 

 the field. When I first essayed peripatetic 

 teaching I made the grave mistake in en- 

 deavoring to lecture with the phenomenon 

 as a text. In time I found that the fatigue 

 and other disturbing conditions of the open 

 made students unable to profit by any such 

 didactic method, and that all such direct 

 instruction should be done while they were 



in the more receptive conditions of the 

 house. The true use of the field is to awaken 

 in the pupils the habit of seeking for them- 

 selves. The teacher may trust in this task 

 to the existence of an observant motive in 

 men which is at its best when they are in 

 the open air. All of us, however dull we 

 may be in the housed state, have when 

 afield a discerning humor which prompts us 

 to learn the reasons for the unexplained oc- 

 currences of nature. This precious relic of 

 the savage life, of the original motive of 

 curiosity, which has been the source of 

 man's advance on the most of his intellec-- 

 tual upgoings, is in average youths strong ; 

 it requires the deadening effects of a long 

 and misspent life to eradicate it in any 

 normal human being. It is to this element 

 of curiosity, informed by the preliminary in- 

 struction of the lecture room, that the 

 teacher of field geology should mainly trust 

 for his success. 



In practice it will be found impossible 

 completelj' to exclude didactic teaching in 

 the field — such arbitrary divisions. of meth- 

 ods are generally impracticable — but when 

 in face of an exhibition of any geological 

 phenomena, with the briefest possible pre- 

 liminary, designed to fix the attention of 

 the class upon the facts, the teacher should 

 at once become a mere questioner, a goad to 

 arouse the men to a like interrogation of 

 the things they see. It is important that 

 the first problems of interpretation which 

 are essayed should be of the simplest order, 

 for immediately successful woi'k in the un- 

 accustomed harness is much to be desired. 

 Thus the determination of strikes and dips, 

 the identification of visible faults, and, 

 above all, the careful recording of such facts, 

 should come first and the work be carried 

 to distinct success before any effort is made 

 to use the results in the larger intei'preta- 

 tions as to the attitudes of strata. In my 

 experience it is the most desirable in the 

 early part of the field training to give all 



