152 The American Geologist. March, i89o 
such unpractical, uninteresting and useless animals as the 
barnacles. 
A lofty structure can not be built upon a narrow founda- 
tion, neither can a man be great in science who hasn't broad 
culture. And as only close attention to minor details in the 
material used can secure a great building against calamity, so 
care and skill in special investigations — in little things as it 
were — areessentialto a great and broad-minded man of science. 
You will probably exclaim that the requirements of which 
I speak and which I find essential are entirely too many to 
be complied with ; that life is too short to allow one to under- 
take so much purely preliminary work. It can not be denied 
that to become a good geologist is a serious undertaking, and 
all I have to reply is that this is the kind of geologist I have 
been seeking and am still seeking. How many have you 
found? you will ask. Not many, I must confess. Indeed 
men with such preparations are few, and when one finds them, 
he dosen't find them "looking for a job;" their services are 
always in demand. I may say, however, that it is not to be 
expected that the student should get all this training as 
undergraduate work. College men going into law, medicine 
and theology, if they get the technical training required by 
their professions, spend two or three years in law, medical or 
theological schools. The geologist must do what amounts to 
the same thing — that is, he must, beyond his general training, 
qualify himself specially for geologic work. When our geol- 
ogists are so trained Ave shall have a better science, better 
geologists and better results all round. 
The demands that are made upon a geologist require no 
particular kind of an intellect, save, of course, that it be a good 
one, but broad culture and broad mental grasp are essential to 
the pronounced success of any man. in any calling. A man is 
wanted not to work up this or that deposit as it may occur in 
some limited area, or this or that formation, and much less 
some county or other artificial area, but who, in work- 
ing up a topic, can and will take up the problem as a whole, 
and study it as a whole, not in one locality, but wherever it 
maybe found in the world, who can work up the bibliography 
of his subject, and who can sift and put to good use the facts 
gathered W others in his deductions, and whose knowledge of 
allied sciences will enable him to draw proper conclusions 
