THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 1 5 



man, or on yon prominent bluff that o'erhangs the rocky steep as if 

 it too was seeking to evade the exterminating hand, and we look ex- 

 pectantly from day to day to see the same varieties occupy the self 

 same places that they did in the year that has gone, and we are not 

 disappointed. The faculty of observation is thus cultivated by such 

 studies so that we can with almost certainty tell where is to be found 

 this or that object of natural history. The more we study natural 

 history the more deeply we are impressed with the innumerable 

 phases it presents to our view. 



Here in this museum we are surrounded by objects collected 

 by the different sections — Geological, Biological, Photographical, 

 etc., and as you will have an opportunity to examine the specimens 

 for yourselves, which I have no doubt will prove to be of interest to 

 you, and will engage your attention more fully and satisfactorily 

 than I can in the few minutes left at my disposal, I shall, however, 

 briefly allude to the Geological section of the Association carried on 

 under the direction of the able chairman. Col. C. C. Grant. 



This branch of scientific study claims to be one of the most im- 

 portant of all the sections. The effectual work of the members of 

 the Geological section is quite apparent in this museum. See the 

 large number of specimens in the cases, besides a large number of 

 duplicates which are stored away under the side cases, as well as 

 the hundreds which have been sent to different parts of the world 

 by our chairman. Let me say here that the large collection of 

 fossils does not represent the whole work of the members of the 

 section. The term Geology comprises, strictly, a knowledge of the 

 physical history of the earth, as revealed to us by the study of the 

 rock-masses which lie around and beneath us, and by a comparison 

 of the results of ancient phenomena, with the forces and agencies 

 still at work in modifying the surface ot the globe. As Geology is 

 thus essentially based on the study of rocks and their contents, and 

 as rocks are made up of a certain number of simple minerals, it is 

 necessary, or at least advisable, to obtain a knowledge of these lat- 

 ter, so as to be able to recognize them where met with, so that the 

 student can assign each fragment ot rock, because of its mineral 

 composition, to its proper place in the formation or the system 

 which marks the different geological periods of time in the forma- 

 tion of the rocky crust of the earth. Practical Geology may be ar- 



