Open-Air Studies: An Introduction to Geology Out-of-Doors

Excerpt from Open-Air Studies: An Introduction to Geology Out-of-Doors

In 1895, in the preface to the first edition of this little book, I sought to excuse its imperfect mode of treatment of a wide and impressive subject. Some slight knowledge of chemistry and physics may happily be presupposed; and the first chapter is chiefly intended as a reminder of what may be learnt in school. The main part of the book, however, is addressed to those who are willing to look out upon the world, to those who spend their summer holidays in walking, or cycling, or travelling in any sense from home; and it is hoped that the details given of certain special districts may be applied to places immediately familiar to the reader. Nowadays, when journeys by road have become more than ever possible, the geography and geology of nearer Europe are keen realities to many of us; and, at the risk of incompleteness, I have dwelt as far as possible on things that I have personally seen.

But it is one thing to see and to enjoy, and another to seek for an explanation. Hence references have been given to the work of those who have patiently set us on the proper path. The wider our view of what others have done, the more we recognise that science owns no country, and that in every land we find our colleagues and our friends. In this spirit, moreover, metric and English measures have been wilfully mixed throughout the book, especially as Continental maps are based upon the refined and rational metric system. Such maps form the best illustrations to many of the descriptions in the text.

In this edition a few new pictures have been added, and it would be tempting to increase them largely; but the intent, after all, is to urge the reader to see for himself how "the mountain falling fadeth away, and the rock is removed out of its place; the waters wear the stones; the overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the earth."

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