My credo in two quotations:

 

The world is so full of a number of things,

I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

 

— Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses

  

“My dear, dear aunt,” she rapturously cried, “What delight! What felicity! You give me fresh life and vigor. Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains? Oh, what hours of transport we shall spend! And when we do return, it shall not be like all other travelers, without being able to give one accurate idea of anything. We will know where we have gone—we will recollect what we have seen. Lakes, mountains and rivers will not be jumbled together in our imaginations; nor when we attempt to describe any particular scene, will we begin quarreling about its relative situation. Let our first effusions be less insupportable than those of the generality of travelers.”

 

—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

 

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And after that, the official disclaimer: The images contained herein may not be used, reproduced, or altered in any way without my express written approval. My photos are ©; all rights are reserved.

  

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I'm a geologist, natural-history author, and retired college educator based in northern Illinois, USA. I have written six published books on architectural geology and Earth-science and botany topics. My latest title, Milwaukee in Stone and Clay: A Guide to the Cream City's Architectural Geology, has just been published. For more on it, see the album page My Books or click on the publisher's webpage link:

 

www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501774645/milwaukee...

 

My previous book in this series, Chicago in Stone and Clay: A Guide to the Windy City's Architectural Geology, has been honored by the Chicago Reader as one of the "Ten Best Chicago Books of 2022," and has also won the Geoscience Information Society's Best Popular Geology Guidebook Award for 2023. For more on this volume, go to www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765063/chicago-i... or raymondwiggers.com.

 

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While friendly and informative comments are most welcome, any unhinged, terminally cryptic, egregiously self-serving, or snide comments by postliterate persons who have not bothered to thoroughly read my text sections will be removed. And their senders will be promptly blocked.

 

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For a time scale keyed to the units of geologic time cited in my photo captions, I suggest that you go to the gold standard, the latest version published by the Geological Society of America.

 

And here's a key to the abbreviations used in my captions:

 

cm = centimeters

ft = feet

Ga = billions of years

in = inches

ka = thousands of years

km = kilometers

m = meters

Ma = millions of years

mi = miles