286 PRESIDENT OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY CHAP, ix 



witty, belong to a rapidly -vanishing past, but Sir 

 Douglas Maclagan remains to delight his privileged 

 listeners. His ' Battle of Glen Tilt ' will be popular 

 in Scotland as long as cultured conviviality holds a 

 place in the country. Ramsay heard that and other 

 famous ditties, and used to speak enthusiastically of 

 the way in which the philosophers of the north play 

 their 'high jinks.' 



There was another gratifying presentation a fort- 

 night later. The staff of the Survey gave their 

 esteemed Local Director a handsome gold watch 

 as a mark of their appreciation of his long and 

 devoted exertions in the cause of the Survey, 

 and of his personal kindness and helpfulness to 

 themselves. 



At the meeting of the British Association at 

 Nottingham in 1866 Ramsay again led the geologists 

 as President of Section C. Since his previous tenure 

 of the office, ten years before, a custom had crept in 

 that the presidents opened the business of the sections 

 with a specially composed address. He had been 

 called unexpectedly and rather late in the day to 

 occupy the chair, and had not had time to prepare 

 such an address as he could have wished to deliver to 

 his brother geologists. He therefore discoursed to them 

 generally upon the influence of geological structure on 

 external topography, and more particularly upon the 

 influence of igneous rocks. He introduced, but with 

 some hesitation, his views of the origin of some so- 

 called igneous rocks, such as granite, from the action 

 of heat, 'with the aid of alkaline waters.' He also 

 found a place for his doctrine regarding breaks in 

 succession of life, and proclaimed himself once more 

 a thorough uniformitarian. 



