254 
HUGHES : INGLEBOROUGH. 
country to which it has happily fallen to our lot to have our 
attention called, is thwarted at every step and, perhaps, alto- 
gether deterred from seriously pursuing the work by the intro- 
duction of theory into nomenclature and the consequent perpetual 
change of the common names by which we try to call up the idea 
of the thing about which we are talking. I write for students. 
There is many a one vvho Avould of all things like most to have 
offered to him some subject for original research. To such we 
may say that a walk in any district or round any museum must 
suggest many points which he does not clearly comprehend. 
To work out such is for him original research. But that is 
not what he wants, for he often finds, when he has examined 
and collected, and is beginning to understand, that the work 
has been done before. He seeks, and a legitimate ambition it 
is, to dc something new — to add something to the sum of know- 
ledge. What advice shall we give to such a one, whose tastes 
lead him by flood and fell to study the building up of the rocks 
and the story of the changing life that in successive ages dwelt 
upon the earth ? Go and see and record what you see. 
The first essential for geological research is mapping. If 
it has not been done for you, you must put down on a plan 
the geographical " appearances " of the rocks from which you 
get the geological sequence which you indicate on sections. 
Then you may examine in detail each horizon, so that 
you can, hy the lithological character and the fossils, identify 
each bed even when the exposures are separated by intervening 
masses of drift and the rock is seen only here and there. 
You mast remember that characteristic fossils are not 
only those which are peculiar to a bed, but those also which 
are so numerous at a certain horizon or in a certain spot as 
to make the rock easily recognisable by them. The zones of 
the Carboniferous rocks of Ingleborough are not yet worked 
out, and this work wiW not be quickly done. It requires much 
knowledge and much study of palaeontological literature. But 
valuable contributions are being offered from time to time, 
and every step makes the next easier. 
Supposing our student asks for something more definite 
and limited in scope, let him tak-e certain forms of life, such as 
