GEOLOGY. 179 
Enquiry, and revised by Sir A. Geikie. A few additions have been 
made from the geological portion of ‘ Hints to Travellers,’ issued by 
the Royal Geographical Society. It would be well for anyone who 
has no previous acquaintance with geology, and who is likely to 
have an opportunity of making observations in the Antarctic regions, 
to study the ‘General Instructions for Observations in Geology’ 
written by Sir A. Ramsay in the ‘Arctic Manual’ of 1875. 
A person embarked on a naval expedition, who wishes to attend 
to geology, is placed in a position in some respects highly advanta- 
geous, and in others as much to the contrary. He can hardly expect, 
during his comparatively short visits at one place, to map out the 
area and sequence of widely extended formations, and the most 
important inferences of geology must ever depend on this having 
been carefully executed ; he must generally confine himself to isolated 
sections and small areas, in which, however, without doubt, many 
interesting facts may be collected. On the other hand, he is admi- 
rably situated for studying the still active causes of those changes, 
which, accumulated during long-continued ages, it is the object of 
geology to record and explain. He is borne on the ocean, from which 
most sedimentary formations have been deposited. During the 
soundings which are so frequently carried on, he is excellently 
placed for studying the nature of the bottom, and the distribution of 
the living organisms and dead remains strewed over it. Again, on 
sea-shores, he can watch the breakers slowly eating into the coast 
cliffs, and he can examine their action under various circumstances. 
In the wasting operations of air, rain, frost, rivers, waves, and the 
other denuding agents on the surface of the globe, he sees the pro- 
cesses which have planed down whole continents, levelled mountain 
ranges, hollowed out great valleys, and exposed over wide areas rocks 
which must have been formed or modified under the enormous pres- 
sure of an overlying mass of rock since removed. Again, as almost 
every active volcano is situated close to, or within a few leagues of 
the sea, he is admirably situated for investigating volcanic phenomena, 
which, in their striking aspect and simplicity, are well adapted to 
encourage him in his studies. 
The mere collecting of fragments of rock, without some detailed 
observations on the district whence they are brought, is of compara- 
tively little value. The simple statement that one part of a coast 
consists of granite, and another of sandstone or clay-slate, can hardly 
be considered of much service to geology ; it may be remarked, how- 
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