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:d 
I IT. 
GEOLOGY. 
Bij W. T. Blanford, f.r.s. 
A traveller who has not devoted some time to studying geology in the 
field must not be surprised or disappointed if the rocks of any country 
which he may happen to traverse appear to him a hopeless puzzle. If he 
desires to investigate the geological structure of an unknown region, he 
should previously devote some time to mastering, with the aid of a good 
geological map and description, the details of a well-known tract. 
Under the term “ Geological Observations,” two very distinct types 
of inquiry are commonly confounded. The first of these, to which 
the name of Geological Investigation ought properly to be restricted 
consists in an examination of the rocks of a country as a whole, so as 
to enable a geological map, or, at all events, geological sections, to be 
constructed. This demands a knowledge of rocks (petrology), some 
acquaintance with the details of geological surveying, and, usually, with 
the elements of palaeontology—a science that, in its turn, requires a 
preliminary study of biology, and especially of zoology. Despite all these 
hard terms, any intending traveller who has a taste for geology—if he 
has none he had better not waste time upon the subject—will find that a 
few months’ study in any good museum, a course of geological lectures, 
and, above all, a few days in the field with a good geologist, will start 
him very fairly equipped with the great requisite to all successful 
scientific investigation, a knowledge of how to observe, and what to observe. 
The term “ Geological Observations ” is, however, often, but incorrectly, 
used in a second sense, which implies a restriction of the observations to 
the useful minerals found in any country, or to what is termed economic 
geology. Here also a preliminary knowledge of the elements of geological 
science will be found very useful, and will frequently enable the traveller 
to form much more trustworthy conclusions as to the nature and value of 
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VOL. IIo 
