The Nicol Memorial. 391 



Peeblesshire,^ and subsequently for one on the Geology of 

 Roxburghshire. 



During the ensuing years he made extensive geological journeys 

 throughout Scotland, more especially in its southern portions. The 

 results of these investigations were published in the form of A Guide 

 to the Geology of Scotland, illustrated by plates and a small geological 

 map of Scotland. 



In 1847 James Nicol was appointed Assistant Secretary to the 

 Geological Society of London, and for two years he edited the 

 " Quarterly Journal " of the Society. Here he gained the friendship 

 of many of that illustrious group of British geologists which then 

 assembled at its meetings. In this congenial atmosphere Nicol's 

 mineralogical studies were prosecuted with increased ardour ; and 

 in 1849 he published his well-known textbook of mineralogy. 



First among his geological friends stood Sir R. Murchison, and 

 through his influence, and that of Sir H. De la Beche and Sir Charles 

 Lyell, Nicol was appointed in 1849 to the post of Professor of Geology 

 and Mineralogy in Queen's College, Cork. But in 1853 he 

 relinquished the post for the more lucrative position of Professor 

 of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen, which he retained 

 till his death in 1879. 



In spite of his predilection for mineralogy, it is beyond question 

 that Nicol will be remembered less for his mineralogical works 

 than for his numerous and valuable memoirs upon the stratigraphy 

 of Scotland. His papers upon the Geology of the Southern Uplands 

 of Scotland are of especial interest and value. In 1848 he published 

 a memoir " On the Rocks of the Valley of the Tweed " (Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc, iv, p. 195), demonstrating their fossiliferous 

 character, and a general view of the entire succession among the 

 transition rocks of South Scotland, and applying to them for the 

 first time the title of '' Silurian ". In 1849 he communicated a 

 memoir ." On the Silurian Rocks of the South-East of Scotland " 

 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. vi, p. 53), in which for the first time 

 Graptolites were figured from these ancient deposits. In 1850 he 

 accompanied his friend Sir R. Murchison in a tour through the 

 Southern Uplands, and aided him in his detailed investigation of 

 the geology of the fossiliferous Girvan area. In 1852 he com- 

 municated a complete resume of the results of his extended researches 

 into the geological structure of the Southern Uplands, illustrating it 

 by the first complete transverse section through the Silurian rocks 

 from the Pentlands to the Cheviots. A reduced copy of this section 

 illustrated all the subsequent editions of Murchison's Siluria, 

 and stood substantially unmodified in the official publications on 

 South Scottish geology, until the true order of succession, based on 

 the graptolites, was established by the late Professor Lapworth. 



During his residence in the University of Aberdeen Nicol 



^ In the first of these publications the presence of fossils in the Lower 

 Palaeozoic rocks of the Inverleithen district was first made known. 



