NATURE 



{May 6, 1875 



done, as we may say, through some power of natural selec- 

 tion, by one whose qualities are adapted for that purpose 

 and for that alone, and whose greatness consists in being 

 exactly fitted in that respect to the time in which he lives, 

 and it may be in nothing besides. Before we consider 

 the relation which Murchison held in this way to Geology, 

 we may pass in review the chief incidents of his life as 

 detailed for us in these volumes. 



Sir Roderick was descended from a sturdy Highland 

 stock, whose courage and perseverance he inherited, but 

 who contributed no further to his fortune. His father 

 was a surgeon, who, after making a fortune in India, 

 returned to his native land and bought the estate of 

 Tarradale, in the eastern part of the county of Ross, 

 where Roderick was born on Feb. 19, 1792. When the 

 boy was only three years old the family removed to Lath, 

 where the father died in 1796. Three years after, 

 Roderick's mother married a second time, and the boy, 

 at the age of seven years, was sent to the grammar 

 school of Durham. Here he seems to have learnt Httle 

 but mischief; but educational requirements were not 

 great in those days, and he probably knew at the end of 

 his six years as much as most of his contemporaries. Cer- 

 tainly his education here had no manner of influence, 

 as far as we can see, on his future career ; and the 

 absence of scientific culture in youth, if it did not pre- 

 vent him from rising to greatness and doing good work, 

 would most decidedly have done so had he been thrown 

 into other circumstances and lived in days like our own, 

 and it certainly confined him to the limits of a geological 

 worker instead of allowing him to become a geological 

 philosopher. 



After leaving Durham, and visiting his uncle, General 

 Mackenzie, who persuaded him he would make a good 

 soldier, he was sent to the military college at Great Mar- 

 low. The two J ears he spent here cannot be said to have 

 been without use to him, for if he learnt but little from 

 books, he was forced to undergo the more special training 

 for a soldier's career, which in after life had a solidifying 

 effect on his character. At this time his uncle wrote of 

 him : " He is a charming boy, manly, sensible, generous, 

 warm-hearted. I think he has talents to make a figure in 

 any profession." At the age of fifteen he was gazetted 

 Ensign in the 36th Regiment, which, after picking up 

 some scraps of knowledge in Edinburgh, he joined in 

 Ireland. He had not long to wait for work, for in the 

 following year (1808) his regiment was ordered to the 

 Peninsula, and he received his "baptism of fire" at the 

 battle of Vimieira. We need scarcely say of any English 

 soldier that he behaved with bravery in battle, and forti- 

 tude under tr}ing circumstances : but, after a short dis- 

 play of these quahties, a retreat was ordered from 

 Corunna, and Murchison returned home, being nearly 

 wrecked in the transport. Though he joined his uncle 

 Mackenzie as aide-de-camp in the following year, he 

 never again succeeded in getting into active service, and 

 this induced him, after eight years' career, to retire from 

 the army. 



Murchison was evidently a keen soldier, and it seems 

 probable that, had he found adequate scope for the 

 irrepressible energy of his character in this direction, 

 Geology would have lost his^ services. At the age of 

 twenty-three, on August 29, 1815, he married Miss Char- 



lotte Hugonin, daughter of General Hugonin, of Nursted 

 House, Hampshire ; an event which had a more than 

 usual influence on his future career. In the first place, 

 her fortune, combined with his own, enabled him to devote 

 himself to any pursuit he might take up, without having 

 the distractions of bread-winning routine duties, and in 

 later years to keep up that state and hospitality which 

 made him the representative of science in the upper 

 circles of society. But also, and to her honour, she exer- 

 cised a most salutary personal influence over him, almost 

 imperceptible, but always in the right direction. Prof 

 Geikie says, " to his wife he owed his fame ;" but a 

 perusal of his life assures' us that this must be taken in a 

 very qualified sense. Such a steady attachment to science 

 as he showed for more than forty years argues a natural 

 bent that way that would sooner or later have been 

 developed under any circumstances ; yet at one time 

 certainly she was his " better half," and her influence de- 

 serves all admiration. It was soon after his marriage 

 that he retired from the army, chiefly to avoid introducing 

 his wife to the monotony of barrack life. What pursuit 

 was he to follow now ? Something it must be that, while 

 it would not engross too much time and effort, would 

 leave him plenty of scope for the satisfaction of that mus- 

 cular energy which was continually craving for some ade- 

 quate outlet. Should he become a country' parson, 

 trudging for miles over the wild country side to visit 

 some outlying houses, varying his duties occasionally by 

 a fox-hunt or a day's shooting ? He actually thought of 

 this ; but his creed, as given in his own words by his 

 biographer, shows that this was really an impossible 

 solution of the question. So he tried travel ; and for 

 two years roamed over Italy and examined the treasures 

 of art with a quickly ripening critical eye. His enthu- 

 siasm in this pursuit, which was quite new to him, proved 

 how vast was his energy, and that it only required guid- 

 ance into a suitable channel to accomplish valuable work. 

 But he found out in time that art was not his calling ; 

 and, tired of continental travel, he brought back his wife 

 to England. Then there was nothing but fox-hunting 

 that he could think of to employ his energies; so he spent 

 five of the best years of his life, from twenty-six to thirty- 

 one, in this important occupation, and succeeded in gain- 

 ing the glorious distinction of being the best rider in his 

 neighbourhood. 



But the wild oats ^yere sown at last, and partly from 

 enmii, partly from meeting with Sir Humphry Davy, and 

 greatly from the influence of his wife, he once more 

 looked the question in the face— Was there no employ- 

 ment that would be worthy of a man of energy, that would 

 require and repay his enthusiasm ? 



At that time (1825) Geology was in need of such a man 

 as he. Some few years before the Geological Society 

 had been started, and its principle was this : " In the 

 present state of geological science, facts are more 

 wanted than theories." Now, while the facts of most 

 other sciences are obtained in the closet, many of those 

 of geology are to be gathered in the field. Prof. Geikie 

 gives in this connection a pleasant outline of the state of 

 theoretical geology of the time, on some details of which 

 there may possibly be difference of opinion, but it is 

 certain that no sound progress could be made on account 

 of the backwardness of stratigraphical geology ; almost 



