THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE II. VOL. IX. 



No. VII.— JULY, 1882. 



I. — Eminent Living Geologists. — No. 5. 



Sir Andkew C. Kamsay, LL.D., F.R.S., V.P.G.S., etc., etc. 



(WITH A POETEAIT.)! 



THE recent reth-ement of Sir Andrew Eamsay from the post of 

 Director- General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, 

 affords us a fitting opportunity to place on record in the pages of the 

 Geological Magazine a short account of the career of this eminent 

 living geologist. 



Andrew Crombie Eamsay was born in Glasgow in 1814, being the 

 son of William Ramsay, a chemist of more than local distinction, the 

 inventor of several chemical processes, such as the manufacture, on 

 a large scale, of bichromate of potash, and of pyroligneous acid. 

 As was naturally to be expected from such a man, he impressed 

 upon his children his own love for science, and he cultivated in them 

 a strong taste for literature. 



It was not till Andrew was 23 years of age that his attention was 

 drawn to geology. The science had then, under the influence of 

 Buckland, Sedgwick, De la Beche, Phillips, Murchison, Lyell, and 

 others, begun to take its true position, and was advancing with 

 rapid strides. Desiring to know if there was any reality in its 

 teachings, Mr. Ramsay commenced reading Scrope's " Volcanoes of 

 Auvergne," and Lyell's " Principles of Geology." The future of 

 Andrew Ramsay was thus fixed, though he had yet to labour for 

 some time in a sphere which was uncongenial to the young and 

 ardent lover of science. Had the British Association effected no 

 other good, it has done great service by drawing from the crowd in 

 which they were obscured, many a true inductive philosopher. 

 A committee was formed in Glasgow in 1839, to prepare for the 

 reception of that body. Mr. A. Ramsay was a member of that 

 committee, and in this capacity the task of constructing a geological 

 map and model of the Isle of Arran fell entirely to him. Though 

 inexperienced, the young geologist set to work with a will ; he 

 surveyed the island, collected specimens of its rocks and minerals, 

 mapped and modelled it on the scale of six inches to the mile. This 



^ "We are indebted to the courtesy of the publishers of the "Leisure Hour" for 

 permission to reproduce the excellent portrait of the subject of our present Memoir. 

 —Edit. Geol. Mag. 



DECADE II. — VOL. IX. — NO. YII. 19 



