Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IIL ACCOUTREMENT FOR THE FIELD. The nature and extent of a geologist's accoutrements will, of course, be regulated by the kind of work he proposes to undertake, and the character of the rocks among which he is to be engaged. If his object be the collection of specimens of minerals, rocks or fossils, he will require one sort of apparatus : if it be the study of the geological structure of the region, he will provide himself with another sort. It must be distinctly understood at the outset, that the popular idea that a geologist must necessarily be one who amasses stones and comes home with a fresh burden from every excursion, is a popular but rather mischievous delusion. Field-geology does not mean and need not include the collecting of specimens. Consequently a formidable series of hammers and chisels, a capacious wallet with stores of wrapping paper and pill-boxes, are not absolutely and always required. Rock-specimens and fossils are best collected after the field-geologist has made some progress with his examination of a district. He can then begin to see what rocks really deserve to be illustrated by specimens, and in what strata the search for fossils may be most advantageously conducted. He may have to undertakethe collecting himself, or he may be able to employ a trained assistant, and direct him to the localities whence specimens are to be taken. But in the first instance, his own efforts must be directed to the investigation of the geological structure of the region. The specimens required for his purpose in the early stages of his work do not involve much trouble. He can detach them and carry them off as he goes, while he leaves the full collection to be made afterwards. It is of paramount importance that the field-geologist should go to his work as l...