SKETCH OF ANDREW CROMBIE RAMSAY. 259 



SKETCH OF ANDEEW CKOMBIE EAMSAY. 



SIR AECHIBALD GEIKIE, from whose Memoir the material 

 for our sketch is derived, speaks of Sir Andrew Kamsay as having 

 stood in the forefront of the geology of his time, and as having " by 

 the charm of his genial nature, as well as by the enthusiasm of his 

 devotion to science, exercised a wide influence among his contem- 

 poraries." Having joined the British Geological Survey when it 

 was still in its infancy, and having remained on its staff during the 

 whole of his active scientific career — " so entirely did he identify 

 himself with the aims and work of the survey, and so largely was 

 he instrumental in their development, that the chronicle of his life 

 is in great measure the record also of the progress of that branch 

 of the public service." 



Andrew Crombie Ramsay was born in Glasgow, Scotland, 

 January 31, 1814, and died at Beaumaris, island of Anglesey, Wales, 

 December 9, 1891. His father, William Ramsay, was a manu- 

 facturer of commercial chemicals, and invented processes that might 

 have made his fortune if patented, but gave them to the world. He 

 was a child of remarkable determination. Being in delicate health, 

 he was sent to the parish school in the seacoast village of Salcoats, 

 where in the natural and physical features and scenery of the region 

 there was much that might have contributed to rouse the observing 

 faculties. In time he was enrolled in the grammar school at Glasgow. 

 After the death of his father, in 1827, he was placed in a counting- 

 house, with the expectation that he would follow a mercantile career, 

 and afterward in the warehouse of a firm of linen merchants, where 

 he seems to have been unhappy. He had acquired a taste for literary 

 pursuits, was " an omnivorous reader," and from the very outset 

 " kept his interests broad." One of the developments of this side of 

 his life was seen in the production of a manuscript periodical, Ram- 

 say's Miscellaneous Journal, by himself and a few other young men, 

 of which he was the editor during 1835 and 1836. About 1837 he 

 formed a partnership with a Mr. Anderson as dealers in cloth and 

 calico, the failure of which after three years left him poorer and dis- 

 gusted with an occupation that had never had any great attraction 

 for him. 



His attention was gradually drawn to geology by the remarkable 

 features presented in the island of Arran, where he was accustomed 

 to spend his summer vacations. Having become acquainted with 

 some of the professors and students of the University of Glasgow, 

 he used to meet Prof. J. P. Nichol there, and enjoy long walks with 

 him, and was introduced to Lyell by Lyon Playfair, who as a student 



