1848 FIRST LESSONS IN GLACIAL GEOLOGY 137 



Had a grand find of large Or t hides to-day in the ashy 

 sandstones above the nodular trap. Gibbs and I 

 climbed to the summit of that huge tower-like precipice, 

 from which the masses of volcanic breccia have fallen, 

 misnamed a cromlech. It is a fearful cliff to look 

 down, but wide and quite secure at the summit.' 



To geologists, and especially to those who are 

 familiar with Sir Andrew Ramsay's name as a writer 

 on glacial phenomena, and who remember his early 

 descriptions of the ice-work in the Pass of Llanberis, 

 it may be of interest to know that he seems to have 

 been at work for some months in that district before 

 his attention was arrested by its glaciation. We have 

 seen how he curtly dismissed Buckland's views when 

 these were criticised adversely at the Geological 

 Society. While he makes many notes about other 

 geological matters observed by him on ground which 

 he was examining for the first time, or mapping in 

 detail, he never alludes to the superficial phenomena 

 which a few years later so fascinated him. The first 

 reference to the subject in his diary occurs under date 

 3rd August 1848, on the occasion of a visit of Robert 

 Chambers 1 to him at Llanberis. It runs as follows: 

 ' Selwyn, Reeks, and Smyth up Snowdon ; Chambers 

 and I out on glacial excursion up the Pass, etc. Very 

 instructive work.' Next day he remarks that the 

 party, including Chambers, 'started for Llyn Idwal, 



1 Robert Chambers, born 1809, died 1871, best known for his contributions 

 to general literature, took much interest in science, especially in geology. He is 

 now known to have been the author of the famous Vestiges of the Natural History 

 of Creation. He especially studied raised beaches (see his volume on Ancient 

 Sea-margins'] and the traces of ancient glaciers, and in pursuit of his researches 

 in these subjects travelled not only over most of Britain, but into Switzerland, 

 Scandinavia, Faroe, and Iceland. He wrote numerous papers giving the results 

 of his observations, many of which appeared first in Chambers 's Journal, and 

 were sometimes separately reprinted, as in the case of his Tracings of the North 

 of Europe. 



