And now in right earnest let us begin our examination of the earth’s crust. Some of the terms we may use will, perhaps, at first sight appear repulsive from their novelty and difficulty; such words we will explain as we proceed, and will only stay the student’s course to remark, that there is a necessity for the use of the dead languages in the formation of compound terms that are to become descriptive names, and in their application to newly discovered objects. This necessity arises from the fact that it is only in this way that scientific men of different nations can understand the character of each other’s researches, and compare notes with one another. A fossil is found, let us suppose, in the lias formation; it proves to be the organic remains of some very strange and anomalous creature. People go down to Lyme Regis to examine it, and, in doing so, discover others. Comparative anatomists arrange the dislocated parts and give them a name; this must be intelligible to geologists on the Continent as well as in England; and therefore some term descriptive of the animal, once the living possessor of these “dry bones,” must be given, and finally it is called _ichthyosaurus_. Any one in Russia, or Austria, or Italy, who happened to be acquainted with the rudiments of Greek, would know at once the kind of animal referred to by its very name, derived from _ichthus_, a fish, and _sauros_, a lizard. This would indicate to all scientific men the nature of this remarkable animal, of which we shall have to tell some stories by and by as full of wonder as any modern or ancient book of marvels; while, if we had called it _fish-lizard_, only those who understood English would know what we meant. Our object is to simplify as much as possible every difficult term that may be used; but while we solicit our readers to master each difficulty as it rises, we hope they will not think that, when they have read this little book, they are masters of Geology, our highest ambition being only to impart a _taste_ for the science.