September 29, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



177 



is nearly undermined. Why? Explain how the earth, 

 carried from these i^arts, is droj)ped, gradually, farther on. 

 Thus far our work has been adapted, in the main, to the 

 city pujjil with only a limited field for his sand and gravel 

 explorations, the street gutter and an occasional excursion 

 to some picnic ground, a grove and a creek. If a bank 

 of Drift should be at hand, he will have a bonanza for 

 these happy lessons. Pupils will then find some stones 

 with strange markings, suggesting a nhell, or one of the 

 corals on the mantel. They have learned to observe and 

 compare, and now draw their own inferences with a cer- 

 tainty that these are shells and corals, in the stones. Is the 

 marking the inside, or outside, of the shell? Is it a com- 

 plete shell, or only one valve ? Did it probably have two 

 valves, like a clam, or was it like a snail, coiled or straight? 

 Teach them to note not only degrees, but kinds of resem- 

 blance and difference ; really to distinguish between anal- 

 ogies and homologies. A child often really knoivs more of 

 a thing than he has the power to tell, unless drawn out by 

 questions. How did these shells and corals come here so 

 high above the water ? Mother's shells came from the dis- 

 tant ocean. Once, long, long ago, did the ocean overcome 

 here ? and were these alive then ? Yes, but they are " fos- 

 sils," now, petrified thoughts of God, kept all this time for 

 us to study. They are masks without the actors, poems of 

 life written unconsciously. Tell the class something of 

 the habits of similar animals now, enough to stimulate 

 them to further research. Never, by chart, picture or 

 word, tell them directly what they can find out themselves 

 from their own specimens, or walks, or speculations. Al- 

 ways manifest an interest in every new thing they discover 

 and bring you, however trivial it seems to you. To lead 

 them on, if possible, ask some question the answer to 

 which is not obtained from a casual examination. 



With a little plan on the part of the teacher, a very fair 

 working cabinet of the locality may be built ujj for the 

 school-room. Most children will gladly give their best 

 specimens " for the school, " especially if their names 

 may appear as the donors upon the labels. Here they get 

 an idea of permanent labels and hoiv to prepare them. 



Before advancing farther, we may note some of the in- 

 cidental, but not less valuable, benefits to accrue from 

 these studies — not only the habit of interest in common things 

 — habits of observation, investigation, comparison, and 

 classification, but those of industry, honesty, a supreme 

 love for truth, a seeking for it earnestly, and a careful ex- 

 amination as to evidence, also to recognize the fact that 

 one may often, by a single omission, reach a ivrong conclu- 

 sion and have to ackyioivledge and correct his error. These 

 effects are not immediate, not strikingly apparent, but 

 sure and enduring. I venture to assert that no single 

 study in the usual curriculum of high school and col- 

 lege, aside from the Bible, will more fully fortify against 

 evil influences in youth, adolescence and middle life, and 

 cheer in declining years, than an early, continued and 

 devoutly reverent scientific study, f>re-eminently of geol- 

 ogy, for it gives constant occupation to the senses and 

 tends inevitably toward the highest and grandest induc- 

 tions and deductions. The pleasures of observation any 

 and everywhere, of the imagination and of reflection, con- 

 nected with this science, involving as it does, and must, 

 more or less, all the others, are themselves almost a guar- 

 antee against vice. If "the undevout astronomer is mad," 

 much more the undevout geologist, who touches the very 

 handiwork of the great Creator of this and all worlds. 



Thus far we have considered Primary and Grammar 

 grade work. In any grade, teacher and student should 

 work together, and with the same great end in view. A 

 stream rises no higher than its source. No extended lab- 

 oratory is essential and but few instruments, though the 

 .more complete the reference library the better. President 



Garfield said casually that " a saw-log and the society of 

 Dr. Mark Hopkins was a university of itself," so largely 

 is the student the result of his environment. If he feels in 

 every breath, sees in every act of his professor or teacher, 

 a consecration of energy, a spirit of investigation, a love 

 and zeal for the work, born of intelligent enthusiasm, 

 every latent joower in that student's being is, perforce, 

 awakened, and his whole life is aglow with scientific re- 

 search. Books have their place, and a very large one, 

 yet any geological study founded on book knowledge 

 alone is of little worth. The student must verify for him- 

 self, and learn by many mistakes to recognize and inter- 

 pret the ordinary geologic phenomena of the field and 

 laboratory. The teacher and pujjils, with hammer, cold 

 chisel, compass, basket and note-book, and pencil, should 

 go together to the field, the quarry, the ravine, the gravel 

 bank, all these being lacking, to the gutter of the street 

 after a heavy rain, or even to the oj^en prairie. Just the 

 direction of the geologic study, whether structural and 

 physical, or palffiontological, must necessarily dejiend 

 upon the locality of the school. The jsrime object to be 

 secured is to train pupils to see for themselves, to collect 

 their own data, then study and arrange them, drawing 

 their own deductions. Every teacher should require of 

 the pupils carefully drawn sections or diagrams of this or 

 that special locality, the course of a creek for half a mile, 

 a ravine, a sandpit or a particular quarry. So far as may 

 be, let them be on an approximate scale, giving altitude, 

 thickness, dip and strike of strata, etc. They should also 

 collect any fossils characteristic of the layers, labelling 

 each as from its layer, to avoid confusion in farther study. 

 Having made a number of these investigations, each pupil 

 should compare his or her own j)apers and specimens 

 one with another, noting down their resemblances and 

 differences, how the strata alter from one layer to another; 

 what fossils are common to all, which abundant, which 

 frequent, which rare; which, whether abundant or rare, 

 are confined to a limited district, etc. 



In all science study and teaching our first object should 

 be to be natural. In geology this requires a familiarity 

 with rocks, their form, structure, position and chemical 

 composition. If the course, as previously indicated for 

 primary and grammar grades, has been followed, the stu- 

 dent is now ready, with great zeal and profit, to take up 

 more extended field observations, and the regular lecture 

 with a text book. All field study should be followed by 

 a lecture or quizz by the teacher, developing the knowl- 

 edge of the pupil, and adding to it materially by refer- 

 ences, with page and paragraph, to the best authorities, 

 the presentation of charts, pictures, photos, specially illus- 

 trative specimens, chemical experiments, etc. Far better 

 results are obtained if, under each head, some single illus- 

 tration is taken and traced as far as possible. For in- 

 stance, under igneous agencies take Vesuvius, giving 

 every thing that can be gathered, its cone, materials 

 erupted, and their amount, the buried cities, — include, it 

 may be, even some poetic references. Then will natural- 

 ly follow the kinds of volcanoes, their location, age, the 

 theories of their origin, and earthquakes and their phenom- 

 ena. Under aqueous agencies nothing can be more stim- 

 ulating and convincing than a study of our own Missis- 

 sippi Eiver, as fully described by Abbott and Humphrey. 

 Let the pupil identify all he can. For erosive action of 

 water on a large scale take Niagara. For both erosion 

 and sedimentation, on a very small but quite as true a 

 scale, take a city gutter, near its source and at its outlet. 

 Present one tj'jjical illustration under each head so fully 

 that it will be a standard for the pupil in all similar pro- 

 cesses, whether in field, laboratory or class room. 



In our own section, about Eoekford, 111., we have the 

 Galena Division of the Trenton, outcropping in various 



