452 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. Xo. 4o8. 



sight into the structure of the country 

 deepening, one can see them growing up 

 under one's eyes. They come into the field 

 a rabble of larky boys; they begin to de- 

 velop into men before they leave it. 



And what is true of students is more 

 than ever true of the working geologist. 

 I hold that every geologist, whatever his 

 special branch may be, shoiild spend a por- 

 tion of every year in the field. Though 

 a petrologist may have specimens sent to 

 him from every variety, even the common 

 ones, in a rock mass and have their rela- 

 tions and proportions properly explained 

 to him, it is quite impossible for him to 

 feel and appreciate these proportions and 

 relationships so well as if he had studied 

 and collected in the field and gained a per- 

 sonal interest in them. Besides this the 

 conclusions drawn in the field are the 

 crystalline and washed residuum, so to 

 speak, left on the mind after the handling 

 of dozens of specimens, weathered and un- 

 weathered, and the seeing them in a host 

 of different lights and aspects. The rock 

 is hammered and puzzled over and its rela- 

 tions studied until some conclusion is ar- 

 rived at which bears the test of application 

 to all the facts observed in the field. 



Again, once a paleontologist is divorced 

 from the field he loses the significance of 

 minute time variations, the proportion of 

 aberrant to normal forms, and the value of 

 naked-eye characteristics which- can be 

 'spotted' in the field. Huxley once asked 

 for a paleontologist who was no geologist; 

 I venture to think we have now had enough 

 of them. What we want above all at the 

 present time is the recognition of such char- 

 acters as have enabled our field paleontol- 

 ogists to zone by means of the graptolites, 

 the ammonites and the eehinids, so that 

 every rock system we possess may be sub- 

 divided with the same minuteness and 



reliability as the Ordovician, Silurian and 

 Jurassic systems and the Chalk. 



If this is once done the biological results 

 will take care of themselves, and we may 

 feel perfect confidence that new laws of 

 biological succession and evolution will re- 

 sult from such work, as indeed they are 

 now doing — laws which could never be 

 reached from first principles, but could 

 only come out in the hands of those to 

 whom time and place were the factors by 

 which they were most impressed. It is 

 only by field work that we shall ever get 

 rid of the confusion which has been in- 

 evitable from the supposed existence of 

 such so-called species as Orthis caligramma, 

 Atrypa reticularis and Productus gigan- 

 teus. 



As for the geological result, it is only 

 necessary to read the excellent and work- 

 man-like address delivered to this section 

 at Liverpool in 1896 by Mr. Marr to realize 

 how many problems of succession and 

 structure, of distribution and causation, of 

 ancient geography and modern landscape, 

 are still awaiting solution by the applica- 

 tion of minute and exact zonal researches. 

 On the other hand it goes without saying 

 that the more a field geologist knows of his 

 rocks and fossils the better will his strati- 

 graphical work become; but this is too 

 obvious to require more than stating. 



Geology, again, is of value as a recreative 

 science, one which can be enjoyed when 

 cycling, walking or climbing, even when 

 sailing or traveling by rail. Indeed, it is 

 difficult to find a place in which to treat 

 the confirmed geologist if yoii wish to make 

 him a 'total abstainer.' There are others 

 than those M'ho must make use of their 

 science in their professions, those in need 

 of a hobby, those interested in natural 

 scenery, veterans who have seen much and 

 now have leisure and means to see more, 

 and those fortunate ones who have not to 



