The Practical Encyclopedia of Rocks & Minerals

"Back in the early 19th Century, when the whole idea of rock and mineral collecting was just getting under way, the famous Scottish poet Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) described geologists thus, "Some rin uphill and down dale, knappin' the chucky stones to pieces like sa' many roadmakers run daft. They say it is to see how the warld was made!""