i86s PUNCH ON THE GEOLOGISTS 283 



them will still owe their mountain features to disturb 

 ance alone. Ever sincerely, ANDW. C. RAMSAY. 



In the sixth edition of his Elements of Geology, 

 published in January 1865, Lyell noticed the theory of 

 the glacial origin of lake-basins, and adduced various 

 arguments against it. Ramsay once more broke 

 through his resolve not to get into controversy, and 

 replied to these arguments in a paper contributed to 

 The Philosophical Magazine for the following April. 

 These controversies among the geologists were 

 cleverly indicated in good-humoured caricature by an 

 artist in Punch, who portrayed some leading charac 

 teristic of each combatant. Murchison sits in front 

 cross-legged throwing up three globes like an Indian 

 juggler. Lyell to a rapt audience of hammers illus 

 trates the origin of terrestrial features by breaking 

 open a globe and lifting up a large fragment of it. 

 Ramsay, on the other hand, is busy by himself in a 

 corner sitting astride his globe, and digging out his 

 valleys and basins with a big spade. 1 



But though these disputes seem to bulk large in the 

 scientific work of the day, they really occupied a very 

 subordinate place, and certainly in Ramsay s daily 

 work they were not allowed to take up much time or 

 thought. While he remained in London, the editorial 

 supervision of maps, sections, and memoirs left him 

 but little time for extraneous work. His health being 

 now rather better, he could once more push on the 

 completion of the bulky Memoir on North Wales. 

 His part had been finished, but the palaeontological 

 appendix by J. W. Salter was still incomplete. That 

 able but uncertain and procrastinating naturalist had 



1 Punch, 23rd September 1865. 



