15.^ 



GEOLOGY 



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Lrfect. VJ. 



ture and succession of the strata in tlie conntries visited 

 For this end, he can hardly collect too copiously, for 

 errors in the naming of the rocks may thus be corrected, 

 and the careful comparison of such specimens will often 

 reveal to him curious relations which at the time he did 

 not suspect. 



In order to make observations of value, some reading 

 and much careful thought are necessary: but perhaps 



uo science requires so little preparatory study as geu- 



and none so readily yields, especially in forei.Tn 



log}. 



countries, new and striking points of interest. Some of 

 the highest problems in geology wait on the observer in 



distant regions for explanation ; such as, whether the sue 

 cessive formations, as judged of by the character of their 

 fossil remains, correspond in distant parts of the world to 

 those of Europe and North America, or whether some of 

 them may not correspond to blank epochs of the nortli, 

 when sedimentary beds either were not there accumu- 



lated, 



or have been subsequently destroyed. 



Again, 



with 



whether the lowest formation everywhere is the same 



that in which living beings are first present in the 

 countries best known to geologists. These and many 

 other such wide views in th.^ history of the worid are 



open to any one, who, applying thought and labour to his 



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quented countri 



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has the good fortune to geologise in little fre- 





person wishing to commence geology, is often de- 

 terred by not knowing the names of the rocks ; but this is 

 a knowledge, he may rely on it, easily acquired. With 

 half a dozen named crystalline rocks, or even by pa- 

 tiently familiarizing his eye (aided by a lens) to the 



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