JAMES GEIKIE THE MAN AND THE GEOLOGIST
Transcriber’s Note
The cover image was created by the transcriber, and is placed in the public domain.
Variant spelling is retained.
The illustrations have been moved near to the text they illustrate. The page numbers in the list of illustrations are for the original position of the plates.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the paragraph to which they relate.
Changes that have been made are listed at the end of the book.
Frontispiece
JAMES GEIKIE
THE MAN AND THE GEOLOGIST
[Photo by John Horsburgh.
Prof. James Geikie, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S.
James Geikie
JAMES GEIKIE
THE MAN AND THE GEOLOGIST
BY
MARION I. NEWBIGIN, D.Sc. (Lond.)
Editor of the Scottish Geographical Magazine
AND
J. S. FLETT, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.
Of the Geological Survey of Scotland
EDINBURGH
OLIVER AND BOYD
LONDON: GURNEY & JACKSON, 33 PATERNOSTER ROW
1917
PREFACE
This biography of Prof. James Geikie is based uponhis own letters, papers, and diaries, and upon informationsupplied by many of those who were closelyassociated with him, both during his earlier days onthe Geological Survey and the later in Edinburgh.Much of the material was sorted and arranged byMrs Geikie before it was placed in my hands, and toher I am indebted for many notes, memoranda, andverbal statements which supplemented the documentssupplied. Mrs Geikie had herself composed, for theuse of the family, a brief account of her husband’searly days, and on this manuscript the first chapteris largely based; without its aid the composition ofthat chapter would have been very difficult.
For later years I am under great obligations toProf. Geikie’s many friends and correspondents, athome and abroad. Correspondents across the seas,especially, deserve warm thanks for their willingnessto trust valuable original documents to the post, ata time when the phrase “perils of the sea” hadtaken on a new meaning. It is satisfactory to beable to state that in no case was such material lostas a result of hostile action. Prof. Stevenson ofNew York and Prof. Chamberlin of Chicago must bespecially mentioned as having supplied much material.[Pg viii]It should perhaps be added that the circumstancesunder which the book was written made it impossibleto obtain letters or information from many continentalgeologists, who, in happier times, would doubtlesshave been glad to render assistance.
A large amount of material was also kindlysupplied by geologists and others in