Lxxvi PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [MayiO,H, 



If the Geographer wishes to repay some of this debt, it may be 

 suggested to him that we, for our part, require far more detailed 

 observations on such results of particular geographical phases, under 

 varying climates and in ^different parts of the world, as are likely 

 to throw light on the method of formation of the rocks. But 

 neither the observations made nor the record of them are likely to 

 reach the utmost possible value to the Geologist, unless the 

 Geographical observer possesses a practical knowledge of the actual 

 difficulties which confront the Geologist. The observer in deserts 

 should be equipped with some knowledge of those strata which 

 by some are supposed to have been formed under desert conditions, 

 so that he may be on the look-out for points of resemblance or 

 dissimilarity. The observer of volcanoes will be of far more use to 

 us if he knows something of the nature and position of con- 

 temporaneous and intrusive rocks, as laid bare in some of our great 

 areas of dissected volcanic groups. The estimation of the denuding 

 action and other work of the British rivers now being carried out 

 by the research department of the Royal Geographical Society is a 

 good illustration of the type of work desired. 



To the Oceanographer and the marvellous work accomplished 

 by him during the latter half of the last century, we are deeply 

 in debt. He has discovered vast areas of slow deposit of previously 

 unexpected materials in the profound depths of the ocean, and 

 quickened us in our search for truly abysmal deposits among the 

 strata. But we would now ask him for much more detailed 

 observations of those prosaic terrigenous sediments which line 

 our shores and compare so closely with the deposits that make up 

 the bulk of the geological record. The great value of the results 

 obtained from the Funafuti borings, not half of which have yet 

 been fully utilised by geologists, give some inkling of what may 

 reasonably be expected when geographical observers with a geological 

 grounding are able to make a detailed study of the shallower- water 

 deposits that everywhere fringe the land-areas. 



(8) Palseogeography. 



While we owe to Bams&y the most striking of the early attempts 

 to picture for us certain of our phases of palseogeography, it was 

 Clifton Ward and Prof. E. Hull who endeavoured to express the 

 facts with regard to British deposits upon maps. They have been 

 followed by Mr. A. J. Jukes-Browne, whose work on ' The Building 

 of the British Isles ' has been of great service in making it possible 



