r18 Notes and Comments. 
Geikie was born at Edinburgh in 1839. In 186r he joined the 
Geological Survey of Scotland. For twenty-one years*he was 
engaged on this survey, and rose to be District Surveyor, and 
Local Director of the Survey in Scotland. On the retirement 
of his brother, Sir Archibald, from the Murchison Professorship 
of Geology and Mineralogy in Edinburgh University, in 1882, 
James Geikie was appointed his successor, and that same year, 
on the institution by the Royal Commission of a Faculty of 
Science in the University, he was at once elected Dean of the 
Faculty. 
JAMES GEIKIE’S BOOKS; 
He was the author of several books that enjoyed considerable 
popularity with students ; notably, ‘ The Great Ice Age in its 
relation to the Antiquity of Man,’ which was first published 
in 1874, and reached its third edition in 1894; ‘ Prehistoric 
Europe—a Geological Sketch,’ 1882 ; ‘ An Outline of Geology,’ 
1884 ; fourth edition, 1903 ; ‘ Fragments of Earth Lore,’ 1893 ; 
‘Earth Sculpture, or the Origin of Surface Features,’ 1898, re- 
issued 1909. In a different vein from his scientific work was a 
book on ‘The Songs and Lyrics of Heine and other German Poets,’ 
published in 1887. His latest books were, ‘Structural and Field 
Geology,’ first published 1808, and again issued in a third edition 
in 1912; ‘ Mountains, their Origin, Growth, and Decay,’ pub- 
lished in 1913, and ‘ The Antiquity of Man in Europe,’ 1914. 
HIS HONOURS. 
Professor Geikie was one of the founders and an original 
member of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and the 
honorary editor of the ‘Scottish Geographical Magazine ’— 
the organ of the Society. He was awarded the Macdougall- 
Brisbane Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Mur- 
chison Medal of the Geological Society in 1889, and the gold 
medal of the latter Society in rgto. He was also an honorary 
and corresponding member of many foreign scientific societies. 
From Edinburgh University he received an honorary LL.D. 
and D.C.L., and he was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and 
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
THE TAMING OF STREAMS 
Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, F.G.S., has favoured us with a copy 
of his paper in The Geographical Journal on ‘ The Taming of 
Streams.’ In this he says, ‘ In uninhabited regions the rivers 
are wayward and restless, ever shifting from place to place 
within the bounds of the valleys, that are theirs to sprawl across 
at will. If a flood should heap up a bar in the channel ; or 
fallen timber gather into a dam; or swamp-vegetation block 
the fairway in a sluggish reach ; the stream swings easily aside 
into a fresh course. In a new country the tangled swampy 
bottom-lands of the valleys are the most difficult of all to 
Naturalist, 
