THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. V. 



No IV.— APRIL, 1898. 



OIRIG-XIsrjLL JLI?,TIG3LES. 



L — The Eakliest Geological Maps of Scotland and Ireland. 



By Professor J. W. Judd, C.B., LL.D., F.E.S., V.P.G.S., etc. 



rflHE first geological map of Scotland has a history not leas 

 1_ interesting than that of Smith's famous map of England ; 

 seeing that what Smith accomplished, single-handed, for the southern 

 part of Britain, John Macculloch did, with the same independence of 

 all extraneous aid, for the northern half of the Island. Smith's fame 

 has happily been long since vindicated ; but, owing to a variety 

 of circumstances, Macculloch has never received full credit for his 

 grand work ; on the contrary, his fair name and even his veracity 

 have been too often cruelly aspersed. Macculloch, though of Scotch 

 descent, was born in the Channel Islands, and educated first in 

 Cornwall and afterwards as a medical student in Edinburgh. He 

 was an excellent chemist and mineralogist, and brought to the study 

 of geological problems an amount of exact scientific knowledge rare 

 in those who at that day turned their attention to the subject. 

 Commencing life as an Army-surgeon, he in 1803, when thirty 

 years of age, was made Chemist to the Board of Ordnance, though 

 the appointment did not prevent him from practising privately 

 as a medical man at Blackheath from 1807 to 1811. In the latter 

 year, however, he gave up medical work and was sent to Scotland 

 to make inquiries as to the best rock suitable for powder-mills. 

 SuL sequently, a Commission was formed to ascertain what mountain 

 in Scotland would prove most suitable for experiments similar 

 to those carried on by Maskelyne at Schiehallien, to determine 

 the earth's density. 



In this way Macculloch was led to spend much time in travelling 

 about Scotland and in studying the rocks of the country, and between 

 the years 1811 and 1821 he each year devoted portions of every 

 season to geological work in the North. In 1814 he received the 

 appointment of " Geologist to the Trigonometrical Survey," a post 

 to which it had been proposed, as we have ah'cady seen, to appoint 

 William Smith in 1805. 



John Macculloch was an original member of the Geological Society, 

 and soon became one of the most active workers in it. His paper 

 entitled " Account of Guernsey and the other Channel Islands " was 

 the first which was honoured with a place in the Transactions of 

 the Society, and many other valuable memoirs from his pen found 



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