Training of a Geologist. — J\in }Jise. 163 
wagon, by railway, by vessel, various prodircts some of them 
to the remoter parts of the earth. From each center, by letter, 
telegram, telephone, communications diverge; if the center 
be a large one, by thousands of lines. To each center, mater- 
ials and thoughts in a like manner converge. In a similar way 
one class of geological phenomena is related to nearly all other 
classes. They are related as to their material parts, as to the 
forces and agents acting, and as to principles concerned in their 
production. For instance, an economic geologist will apprec- 
iate that the development of an ore deposit depends upon the 
nature of the adjacent rocks, upon earth movements, upon the 
resultant deformation, upon fractures, upon vulcanism, upon 
erosion by water and ice and wind, upon the circulation of 
underground water, upon complex physical and chemical 
conditions. One who hopes to gain even an approx- 
imately adequate idea of the genesis of an ore deposit, and an 
insight as to what is probably beyond the point where the de- 
pO!-it is "shown up,' must be able to handle the intricate prin- 
ciples of geology. In so far as a geological or mining engineer 
is a master of these, he rises in his profession. In so far as his 
knowledge of facts and principles is meager, an ore deposit 
seems a lawless thing which can be only dealt with on the rela- 
tively simple principles of the doctrine of chances, — if an ore 
body happens to be found at any place, follow it; if for some 
unknown reason it is lost or depreciates in value, prod the 
ground in all directions, up and down, to the right and left in 
the blind hope that chance may find more ore. In many cases 
nine-tenths of this expensive chance work would have been 
shown in advance to be wasted, had the mining engineer a fair 
knowledge of the occurrences, relations and princi]:)les of ore 
deposits. 
If the statement thus far be founded on truth, the training 
of a geologist is a valuable one from an intellectual point of 
view. It is the fashion for professors in all departments of 
learning each to hold that a knowledge of his subject is nec- 
essary for a liberal education. I have heard each of half a 
dozen professors, including the classics, history, economics, 
english, in a single evening each prove to his own satisfaction 
that a "man could not be a good citizen or liberally educated 
if a knowledge of his special subject were neglected. And at 
the present time some universities still hold similar views in 
