SKETCH OF SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE. 261 



distribution of races, national history, industrial and commercial 

 progress, and national temperament and character. Prof. Geikie 

 found in the United States an emphatic confirmation of his theory 

 in one of the most impressive features of our geology, which he 

 records, in 1887, in a review of Newberry and Macomb's Survey 

 of the Upper Colorado. "The whole of this Colorado basin or 

 plateau is justly regarded as the most magnificent example on 

 the face of the globe of how much the land may have its features 

 altered by the action of running water." 



The method based upon this theory prevails in Prof. Geikie's 

 Physical Geology, which is described by Dr. Jukes as " an ex- 

 ample of the treatment of geographical questions from the point 

 of view of the geologist." The author is actuated, the reviewer 

 continues, " by the conviction of the necessity for a broader and 

 more vivid presentation of the action and reaction upon one an- 

 other of the various forces acting and reacting upon the surface 

 of the globe than is usually found in works on physical geogra- 

 phy, in order to convey a just idea of the character and signifi- 

 cance of the features which it presents." 



The subject is again presented in the presidential address at 

 the Edinburgh meeting of the British Association in 1892, the spe- 

 cial topic of which was the commemoration of the centenary of 

 Button's theory and unif ormitarianism, and in which special stress 

 is laid on Hutton and Playfair's recognition of the fact that exist- 

 ing inequalities in topographical detail " are only varying and 

 local accidents in the progress of the one great process of the 

 degradation of the land." 



This breadth of view concerning the methods and purposes of 

 geological study marks those of the author's addresses of which 

 that was the principal subject. In the opening lecture before the 

 class in geology of the University of Edinburgh, delivered in 1871, 

 he advises his hearers, " Let us turn from the lessons of the lec- 

 ture-room to the lessons of the crags and ravines, appealing con- 

 stantly to Nature for the explanation and verification of what is 

 taught." 



The introduction to his Class Book of Geology, published in 

 1886, concludes with the words : " Geology is essentially a science 

 of observation. The facts with which it deals should, as far as 

 possible, be verified by our own personal examination. We should 

 lose no opportunity of seeing with our own eyes the actual prog- 

 ress of the changes which it investigates, and the proofs which 

 it adduces of similar changes in the far past. To do this will 

 lead us to the banks of rivers and lakes, and to the shores of the 

 sea. We can hardly take any country walk, indeed, in which, 

 with duly observant eye, we may not detect either some geological 

 operation in actual progress, or the evidence of one which has now 



