GEOLOGY 
HE County of Cumberland affords an excellent illustration of 
the close connection that exists between the geological structure 
of a district and its local history. That such is the case will be 
sufficiently evident from a consideration of the fact that the 
great surface features are in all cases due to causes of a geological nature. 
It need not be insisted upon here that it is the relative position of the 
hills, the passes, and the plains, quite as much as the configuration of the 
coast line, which have repeatedly proved to be factors of prime impor- 
tance in determining both the locations of the earlier settlers and the 
movements of those others who in later times have tried to gain a footing 
in the land. Equally important factors in the evolution of historical 
events are such matters as the distribution of mineral wealth, the con- 
ditions relating to water supply, and the suitability or otherwise of 
particular areas for agricultural purposes. With all of these geology is 
very intimately concerned. Indeed, one may justly remark that the true 
sequence of many historical events of far-reaching importance can only 
be rightly understood by tracing those events back to a starting-point 
which may date many thousands of years prior to the dawn of history, 
and which are due entirely to those operations of nature with which it is 
the special province of the geologist to deal. This statement may be 
regarded as equivalent to saying that the respective provinces of the 
archeologist and the geologist of the present day extensively overlap. 
This of course is most especially the case in that part of the domain of 
science which includes the study of prehistoric man, in which branch 
of enquiry it is difficult, or impossible, to indicate precisely where the 
science of archeology ends and that of geology begins. Under these 
circumstances it is obvious that the best way of regarding their relative 
positions is to consider them as continuous with each other, and to treat 
the geology of a district simply as a record of all the events which have 
taken place in the interval between the dawn of civilization and the 
remotest periods of which there are traces in the past. 
J I B 
