CHAPTER II 



THE ORDNANCE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



IN the Geological Survey of Great Britain, to which 

 Ramsay was now appointed, he spent more than forty 

 years. The work of his life was so intimately bound 

 up with the progress of the Survey that it cannot be 

 intelligently followed unless this relationship is clearly 

 understood. At the outset, therefore, it will be desir- 

 able to trace the origin and development of the organ- 

 isation of which he now became a member, and of 

 which for many years he was the guiding spirit. 



The Geological Survey owes its existence to the 

 sagacity and energy of Henry Thomas De la Beche. 

 This distinguished man the last male representative 

 of a family of Norman barons who came to England 

 with the Conqueror was born in 1796. From his 

 father, who was in the army, he inherited some landed 

 estate in Jamaica. But the halcyon days of this island 

 had fled, and left him by no means wealthy. It was at 

 first intended that he should follow the profession of 

 his father, and with that end in view he was sent to 

 the Military College of Great Marlow, where he had 

 been preceded some five years earlier by his future 

 friend Murchison. But the close of the great war 

 seeming to shut out any hope of distinction in the 

 career of an active soldier, he turned his thoughts in 



