84 Reviews — Life of James Geikie. 



gives an appreciation of his scientific work. The first part sketches 

 in a somewhat brief but thoroughly interesting way the career of one 

 of the best-known British geologists of the second half of the 

 nineteenth century, a man who had a great influence on the trend of 

 geological thought in this country and who was mainly responsible 

 for building up a highly successful school of geology in the University 

 of Edinburgh. Tlie authoress deals in a sympathetic way with 

 Professor Geikie's private life, with his career on the Geological 

 Survey, and with the part he played in the scientific and social life of 

 ■Scotland in his time. Although prinuirily an investigator and field 

 geologist, Professor Geikie ultimately became a great teacher and his 

 books are known everywhere for their breadth of view, lucidity, and 

 charm of style. Perhaps, however, his success as a teacher and on 

 the Survey was still more owing to his personality and to his power 

 of communicating some of his own enthusiasm to his fellow-workers 

 and pupils. 



As a geologist James Geikie was a specialist in two directions : 

 he was always deeply interested in the origin of physical and 

 structural features, and in his teaching and writings he endeavoured 

 to draw out the connexion between topography and geological 

 structure. But his name will always be indissolubly connected with 

 the study of glaciation. In the second part of this book Dr. Flett 

 has given us an admirable and impartial summary of his work on 

 tliis thorny subject. The glacial controversy has been a long one, 

 comprising several distinct phases; even now it seems almost as far 

 as ever from an end. The life of James Geikie may in a certain 

 sense be regarded as an impersonation of the history of glaciology. 

 When his work bejjan the submergence theory was dominant, though 

 soon to be replaced by the land-ice conception. In this change of 

 view his own work played a great part. The course of evolution in 

 this respect may be traced in the successive editions of his book, 

 The Great Ice Age. Some twenty years ago land-ice appeared to 

 hold almost undisputed possession of the field, although some notable 

 geological authorities have always questioned its applicability to 

 districts such as central and eastern England, far from any system of 

 mountains. However, of late years a certain number of awkward 

 facts have cropped up and the still small voice of doubt is again 

 making itself heard in the ears of some of the younger generation ; 

 at any rate, it is clear that the time has not yet arrived for a definite 

 decision, and it would be well to suspend judgment for a while. 



Another phase of the glacial controversy relates to the occurrence 

 of periods of milder climate between successive glaciations. It is 

 with this part of the subject that Professor Geikie was always most 

 closely connected. He will ever be remembered as the apostle of 

 intergiacial periods. In his later writings he maintained a succession 

 of six separate glaciations with temperate periods between. In tliis 

 respect his views agree closely with those of many Continental and 

 American avithorities, and, although he did not at the time receive 

 much support in this country, the trend of recent work has 

 undoubtedly been unfavourable to the hypothesis of a single advance 

 and retreat of the ice, which at one time was the orthodox view. 



