70 
HINTS TO TRAVELLERS. 
In collecting fossils, it is useless to take many specimens of one kind 
unless carriage is exceptionally plentiful. Two or three good examples of 
each kind are usually sufficient, but as many kinds as possible should be 
collected. Great care is necessary that all the specimens from one bed 
be kept distinct from those from another stratum, even if the bed be 
thin and the fossils in the two beds chiefly the same species. If there 
is a series of beds, one above the other, all containing fossils, measure 
the thickness roughly, draw a sketch-section in your note-book, apply 
a letter or a number to each bed in succession on the sketch, and label the 
fossils from that bed with the same letter or number. 
Remains of Vertebrata, especially of mammals, birds and reptiles, are of 
great interest; but it is useless to collect fragments of bones without 
terminations. Skulls are much more important than other bones, and 
even single teeth are well worth collecting. After skulls, vertebrae 
are the most useful parts of the skeleton, then the limb bones. If com¬ 
plete skeletons are found, they are usually well worth some trouble in 
transporting. If fossil bones are found abundantly in any locality, and 
the traveller has no sufficient means of transport, he will do well to carry 
away a few skulls, or even teeth, and carefully note the locality for the 
benefit of future geologists and explorers. The soil of limestone caverns, 
and especially the more or less consolidated loam, rubble, clay, or sand 
beneath the flooring of stalagmite, if it can be examined, should always 
be searched for bones, and also for indications of man or his works. 
The foregoing remarks are intended for all travellers, especially for 
those who have paid little or no attention to geology. It would be far 
beyond the object of the present notes to attempt to give instruction in 
the methods of geological observation; all who wish to know more fully 
what questions are especially worthy of attention, should consult the 
article on Geology by the late Dr. Charles Darwin and Professor J. Phillips 
in the ‘ Admiralty Manual of Scientific Enquiry/ But a few hints may be 
usefully added here for those who have already some knowledge of geology, 
who do not require to have such terms as dip, strike, fault, or denuda¬ 
tion explained to them, and who are sufficiently conversant with geo¬ 
logical phenomena to be able to distinguish sedimentary from volcanic, 
and metamorphic from unaltered rocks, and to recognise granite, gneiss, 
schist, basalt, trachyte, slate, limestone, sandstone, shale, &c., in the field. 
Assuming then that a traveller with some knowledge of field geology is 
