i866-i867 RAMSA Y BECOMES SENIOR DIRECTOR 291 



the importance of my position is very much raised, 

 seeing that I shall have three times as many men to 

 command as Jukes, and four times as many as Geikie. 

 To this I reply, not satirically, that I feel the compli- 

 ment of being considered able to do four times the 

 work of other people, and hope it will be duly con- 

 sidered when pension time arrives. . . . The gale is 

 tremendous, and the rivers are flooded. 



The changes in the organisation of the Geological 

 Survey referred to in these letters were the most 

 important that had been made since the foundation of 

 the service under De la Beche. The staff in Great 

 Britain was divided into two, Scotland being made a 

 distinct branch of the Survey under a separate 

 Director. The title of Local Director for Great 

 Britain being abolished, Ramsay became Senior 

 Director for England and Wales. Jukes remained as 

 before Director for Ireland, and the corresponding 

 office in Scotland was given to the present writer. A 

 new grade, that of District Surveyor, was created, in 

 order that separate areas in which a number of the 

 staff were at work might be more continuously super- 

 vised. The number of assistant geologists and 

 geologists was largely increased, and it was arranged 

 that there should be one geologist for every three 

 assistants. When the new appointments were all 

 filled up, the Senior Director had under him a staff of 

 thirty-seven men, the Director for Scotland nine, and 

 the Director for Ireland fourteen. 



As a consequence of this transformation, Ramsay 

 ceased to have any control over the progress of the 

 work in Scotland, and no longer paid his annual visit 

 of inspection to the surveyors north of the Tweed. 



