1814-1840 EARLY GEOLOGICAL RAMBLES 15 



At the latter end of April 1836, or beginning of May in that 

 year, I was going down to Arran, and was reading Lyell s Geology^ 

 which I had got as a prize at Graham s Class of Chemistry. Sitting 

 beside me in the steamboat was a charming lady, who entered into 

 conversation with me, and I showed her my book. I expressed 

 great admiration for the author, and she smiled, and then called a 

 gentleman from the other side of the steamer, to whom she intro 

 duced his young admirer. This was my first introduction to the 

 Lyells. At Arran I used to help Mrs. Lyell in collecting shells, for 

 at that time I knew something of conchology, while Lyell geologised 

 in the interior of the island. Ramsay joined me in Arran after a 

 few days, and I told Mr. Lyell that my friend would like to help 

 him in his excursions, which thereafter they used to make 

 together. 



In the letter to Lyell, given at p. 92 of this 

 Memoir, Ramsay himself dates the beginning of his 

 serious study of geology from about the year 1836, and 

 acknowledges his great indebtedness to the illustrious 

 author of the Principles of Geology. 



It is not possible now to recover traces of the 

 successive tours and excursions by which the young 

 geologist gradually filled up the geological map of 

 Arran. He had been preceded by several able ob 

 servers, who had published accounts of the structure of 

 the island, notably by Macculloch, Jameson, Sedgwick, 

 Murchison, and Necker de Saussure. But their descrip 

 tions could not be regarded as more than outlines of a 

 wide subject, which would require years of patient 

 research before its details could be mastered. It was 

 with no idea of testing, still less of criticising, their 

 labours that Ramsay followed in their footsteps along 

 the shores and up the glens. He had not originally 

 proposed to himself to publish any of his observations, 

 which were made entirely for the pleasure they 

 brought in their train, as they led him year after year 

 over hill and dale. Gradually he found that various 

 facts met with by him in the course of his rambles had 



