Excerpt from Geology, Vol. 1: Physical GeologyMineralogy, Petrology, Stratigraphical Geology, Terrestrial Cosmogony, Palaeontology, and other lines of research, though they may fairly be looked upon as subdivisions of Geology, are fast becoming separate Sciences.But while it has become almost an absolute necessity for most Geologists to concentrate their attention on some one department of the science and be content with a less perfect grasp of the rest, there is yet a certain basis or groundwork, with which every one who meddles with Geology, whatever be the branch to which he specially devotes himself, must be acquainted if his work is to be sound. For want of a knowledge of this groundwork the Petrologist, looking merely to chemical and mineralogical composition, classes together rocks which differ totally in their origin or manner of occurrence the Palaeontologist pure and simple is apt to force into an unnatural connection, on account of similarity in fossils, formations which physical evidence shows ought to be kept widely apart, the Field Geologist is content with tracing boundaries on his map, and forgets to ask himself how his lines were produced and what they mean.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.