UNCOMPROMISING UNIFORMITARIANISM 363 



cases from the Lower Silurian, Old Red Sandstone, 

 and Carboniferous formations are still less conclusive. 



As a contribution to Physiography his volume on 

 The Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain 

 is worthy of special mention. It puts in clear and 

 untechnical language the evidence on which geology 

 proceeds to trace the bygone history of a terrestrial 

 region. Unfortunately, the last edition was brought 

 out by him when his powers had already begun to fail, 

 and he was led to weight the book by the addition of 

 various already published papers and essays which, 

 though excellent for the purposes for which they were 

 written, were somewhat out of place in his otherwise 

 charming little volume. 1 



V. Sir Andrew made few contributions to the litera 

 ture of the History of Geology. His two inaugural 

 lectures at University College presented a rapid sketch 

 of the leading features in the progress of geological 

 research up to this century, and his last address as 

 President of Section C of the British Association at 

 York in 1881 gave an outline of the advance of 

 geology during the fifty years preceding that date. 



He was a thorough uniformitarian in geology. 

 Having early imbibed his theoretical views from Ly ell s 

 Principles, he maintained them to the end, and took 

 occasion when he was President of the British Associa 

 tion at Swansea, and consciously approaching the end 

 of his active career, to proclaim them as a last declara 

 tion of faith to his contemporaries. 



VI. In this retrospect of the literary and other 

 work which Sir Andrew Ramsay accomplished, refer 

 ence should not be omitted to his contributions to the 



1 A new edition of this book is now in preparation under the able editorship 

 of Mr. H. B. Woodward of the Geological Survey. 



