The greater part of the facts [with] which geologists have to deal possess for the general public a recondite character. They concern things which are not within the limits of familiar experience. In treating of them, the science uses a language of its own, an argot as special as that of the anatomist or the metaphysician.

Aspects of the Earth: A Popular Account of Some Familiar Geological, Phenomena, Rivers and Valleys (p. 143)