A 



The Nicol Memorial. 



(PLATE VI.) 



MUEAL tablet, to the memory of Professor James Nicol, 

 F.E.S.E., F.G.S., formerly of Aberdeen University, was 

 unveiled by Dr. John Home, F.E.S., in Marischal College, and 

 entrusted to the Principal, Sir George Adam Smith, on July 1. 



The memorial was presented by a number of well-known geologists 

 who were his friends and admirers and desired to commemorate 

 in some permanent form their high estimation for this distinguished 

 teacher in the University during a quarter of a century, and also to 

 record his original contributions to Scottish geology, the value and 

 importance of some of which were not fully apjoreciated and confirmed 

 until after his death. 



The memorial (see Plate VI) is placed side by side with that of 

 Professor Nicol's successor, Professor Henry Alleyne Nicholson,^ 

 in the same chair, and was designed and executed by the same artist, 

 Alice B. Woodward, daughter of Dr. Henry Woodward, F.E.S., 

 in the form of a bronze tablet in repousse-work mounted on 

 oak (measuring 4 feet by 3 feet), bearing the modelled profile 

 medallion of Nicol with name and titles. Beneath the portrait in 

 close raised letters, in twelve lines, is given an epitome of his 

 career with dates, as follows : — 



BOEN AT MANSE OF TRAQUAIR 

 PEEBLESHIRE AUG. 1810, DIED IN 

 LONDON AP. 1879. PROFESSOR OF 

 GEOLOGY & MINERALOGY CORK 

 1849-53. OF CIVIL AND NATURAL 

 HISTORY ABERDEEN 1853-78. 



HIS VIEWS Olf THE SUCCESSION OF THE 

 ROCK GROUPS OF THE NORTH-WEST 

 HIGHLANDS, DISPUTED WHILE 



HE LIVED, AVERE CONFIRMED 



BY THE OFFICERS OF THE 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN 1884. 



Below is quoted a phrase used by the Professor himself — 



" LEAVING TIME AND THE UNCHANGING 

 MOUNTAINS TO CONFIRM OR REFUTE." 



Above, the tablet bears the words — 



BONUM CERTAMEN CERTAVI, 



and in low relief is given a sketch of Na Tuadhan, a mountain north 

 of Ben More Assynt, showing typical foldings. 



On the border of the tablet are figures of Graptolites, Monograptus 

 vomerinus Nich. and drawings of Maclurea PeacJdi Salter and two 

 of the Trilobites, Olenellus Lapworthi and Olenelloides armafMS, 

 discovered in 1892-4 by the Geological Survey.^ 



1 See Memorial Tablet to Professor H. A. Nicholson, F.E.S., Geol. Mag., 

 1903, pp. 451-2, Plate XXI. 



^ See Drs. B. N. Peach & J. Home, " Olenellus Zone in the North-West 

 Highlands of Scotland": Quajjt. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xlviii, 1892, 

 pp. 227-41, with sections and plate v (Trilobites). Id., addition to fauna of 

 same, vol. 1, 1894, pp. 661-75, pis. xxix-xxxii (Trilobites). 



