50 Eminent Living Geologists — 



have been completed during Professor Geikie's tenure of the Director- 

 Generalship. The survey of the superficial deposits over those 

 parts of England and Wales, where they are not previously mapped, 

 is now being carried on. The Survey is at present also gathering 

 up the results of its long labours in the form of descriptive Memoirs 

 of each of the geological formations of the country. 



Those who consider the work of the Geological Survey all very 

 easy and plain sailing will probably change their views when we 

 mention that, as a matter of fact, the maps of the Coal-fields and 

 mineral districts have continually to be revised and kept up to date. 

 Constant supervision, too, is necessary on the part of the Director- 

 General in the field-work and office-work connected with the 

 engraving of maps and sections, and the editing of the Memoirs. 



. Though Dr. Geikie's hands are very fully occupied with 

 his official duties, he has yet found time to engage extensively in 

 exhaustive original research. Amongst the more important investi- 

 gations carried on by him over and above his official work, may be 

 mentioned his " History of Volcanic Action in Britain." This he 

 has developed in a series of papers wherein the volcanic phenomena 

 of the Old Eed Sandstone, Carboniferous, Permian, and Tertiary 

 periods have been illustrated. He has also discussed in numerous 

 papers, and more particularly in his "Scenery and Geology of 

 Scotland," the subjects of denudation and the origin of scenery. 

 His " History of the Glacial Period " gave the first systematic 

 arrangement of the deposits of that period with reference to the 

 probable series of events of which they were the records ; while his 

 " History of the Old Eed Sandstone of Western Europe " is a 

 laborious investigation, of which the first part is published, and the 

 second part is far advanced. In the prosecution of these researches 

 Dr. Geikie has travelled over much of Europe, and has also studied 

 the broad features of the Geology of the United States and of Canada. 



Dr. Geikie has long been intimately associated with the progress 

 of educational work. He has always taken a deep personal interest 

 in promoting the establishment of Natural Science as an instrument 

 in Education. In this connection it may be mentioned that he is 

 the author of primers of physical geography and geology, which 

 have had a very large sale, and have been translated into most 

 European languages, and even into some of those of India. He is 

 also the author of some advanced class-books on the same subjects, 

 of his well-known text-book of geology (now in its second edition), 

 and of geological maps of Scotland and the British Isles. 



When appointed in 1871 to the University Chair in Scotland 

 specially devoted to Geology, Dr. Geikie had the whole work of that 

 department to organize. He also prepared a large number of the 

 diagram illustrations used in connection with his lectures with his 

 own hand, and gathered together a valuable class museum. 



Dr. Geikie has been largely engaged in literary work, as dis- 

 tinguished from purely scientific dissertation. In this connection 

 it may be said that he has always recognized the importance of 

 cultivating the literary element in scientific essay-writing. He has 



