Handy

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Buckland.jpg

Dean Buckland, the geologist, when riding once with friends and the party lost their way and were overtaken by night, alighted from his horse, picked up a handful of earth, smelled it, and at once declared they were near Uxbridge. He knew the geology of the land and the smell of the soil.

— Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, March 23, 1921