The Training of a Geologist. — Branner. 155 
operations, even when he does it in the frankest, most open, 
and most upright manner, and with no idea of doing other- 
wise than as any citizen may honorably do, does nothing 
wrong in itself, but he must remember that he does so at the 
risk of his reputation and standing as a consulting geologist. 
The man who is not willing — does not try — to save his ener- 
gies, may be relied upon to not give the world the benefit of 
his best services. How often we see men who had an idea 
that there is some virtue in doing a thing the hard way, who, 
when suggestions are made for the purpose of saving their 
energies, assure us that that is all right, that they'll get it 
done, and if their way is a little harder, they are the losers 
by it. 
A certain engineer has a three-sided scale in his drafting 
room. There are six different scales cut ujDon it. A person 
using this scale is liable in taking it up to turn the wrong 
division upon his line, and, in order to avoid this risk, and to 
save the time and thought that must be used in watching to 
see that one doesn't get the wrong side, a simple piece of 
metal has been devised to clasp it in such a way that it is 
impossible to use the wrong side. Some of his assistants 
remove this safety attachment, because they are not "used to 
it" and insist on running the risk of making mistakes and of 
using up the time they are paid to work, in examining their 
scale to see whether they have turned it over. Another man 
doing topographic work doesn't want to signal to his assistant, 
preferring to call out his directions to him at long distances, 
often more than a quarter of a mile, so that at the end of the 
day he has done three-quarters of a day's work on the 
topography, and the other quarter in yelling — a bit of labor 
the geologist can not utilize. These mistakes are unpardon- 
able errors of judgment, and young men should be warned 
against such. If we spend our time and energy in unnecessary 
work we shall have just so much the less energy for the essen- 
tial. There may be some excuse for the man who isn't able to 
discriminate between the essential and the non-essential, but 
in such cases as those referred to, and indeed in the majority 
of cases that arise, there can be no such question. In his 
methods the geologist must always be willing to profit by the 
experience of others. Methods and appliances of research 
are constantly being improved, but these improvements are 
