394 RELATION OF STUDENT AND TEACHER 



enthusiasm for geological investigations, dulls the imagination of the 

 prospective scholar and causes his attention to be attracted to some other 

 field of study more alluringly presented by another instructor. 



The economic status of the geologist is as good or better than that of 

 an investigator in other lines. This is shown by a recent investigation 

 of the professional incomes of geologists in universities and State sur- 

 veys, which indicates that they receive on an average from 50 to 100 per 

 cent more than the salary of corresponding college and university pro- 

 fessors. This comes about from the fact that geologists have knowledge 

 which is commercially valuable, and are able to do consultant work either 

 during term time or in the summer vacations. Moreover, the industrial 

 demand for geologically trained men is greater than the supply. During 

 the last century many men have gone into commercial geology and min- 

 ing engineering, but a canvass of the names in our various societies and 

 in the bibliographies of geological literature shows that the annual supply 

 of adequately trained investigators in American geology seldom exceeds 

 twenty. 



To build up a corps of geologists embued with a love of the science 

 and a desire to investigate in order that the bounds of the subject may 

 be extended by additions to our present knowledge, it is necessary that 

 collegiate professors of geology, in their contact with students deciding 

 upon their vocation, shall display the riches of the subject with contagious 

 enthusiasm and impress upon them that the work of a geological worker 

 is worth while and is rewarded by a satisfaction of the scholar's yearn- 

 ings and a financial support that will yield a comfortable, though far 

 from luxurious, living. 



