Eminent Llcing Geologists — 8ir Andrew C. Rammy. 291 



formity with the changes of genera and species. In 1857 he was 

 deputed by the Geological Society to the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science. Professor Eamsay then visited Canada 

 and the Northern States in company with Sir W. Logan and Prof. 

 James Hall, thus learning much of Laurentian and Silurian geology, 

 and writing, on his return, a paper on the " Glacial Phenomena of 

 North America." He also delivered a discourse at the Eoyal In- 

 stitution on this subject. 



No geologist has studied the phenomena of glacial action with 

 more assiduity and laborious attention to the minute, as well as 

 large indications of the action of ice, than Professor Eamsay. In 

 1852 he made his first journey to Switzerland, since which time 

 he has made several, for the purpose of studying the glaciers of 

 that country. In pursuit of this knowledge he has -visited various 

 parts of Germany and the North of Italy; he has crossed many 

 high glacier passes, and climbed the Lysham and other mountains. 

 At different times several memoirs and essays on this subject have 

 appeared from the pen of Professor Eamsay. Amongst others, the 

 "Old Glaciers of Switzerland and North Wales," which appeared 

 in the first volume of " Peaks, Passes and Glaciers," and which was 

 subsequently published as a separate volume by Messrs. Longman. 

 A paper on '' Permian Ice, on the Occurrence of Glaciers and Ice- 

 bergs during the Permian Epoch," was the first that grappled with 

 the subject of glacial epochs in old geological periods ; some vague 

 hints had previously existed as to the possibility of such phenomena, 

 but the fact was proved by Professor Eamsay from the size, shape, 

 and ice-scratches of the stones in the Permian breccias, and the great 

 distance fi'om whence many large boulders had been transported. 

 Pursuing the same inquiry, Professor Eamsay published in the 

 "Eeader," notices of ice-smoothed and ice-scratched stones in a 

 conglomerate of the Old Eed Sandstone near Kirkby Lonsdale, an 

 idea first conceived by him in 1841, and the confirmation of which 

 he was long looking for. The previous paper, taking up an entirely 

 new position, was treated with some indifference by the older geo- 

 logists, while the novelty of the views by degrees excited some 

 interest in the younger men. Now that, on astronomical grounds, 

 geologists begin to admit the probability of the recurrence of glacial 

 periods, they also begin to refer to the Permian paper by Professor 

 Eamsay, which lay half dead for eleven years, and the time may 

 be near when they will quote with approval the hypothesis of the 

 recurrence of periods of cold. These enlarged generalizations from 

 the most painstaking observations speak of a I'are combination in 

 the character of Professor Eamsay's mind. He has never been a 

 mere geological observer, for whilst he has been unwearying in his 

 field-labours, he has at the same time been cautiously drawing 

 his deductions, and at length boldly enunciating views of a high 

 philosophical character. This is strikingly shown in a much earlier 

 paper " On the Denudation of South Wales and the Adjacent 

 Counties of England," which appeared in the first volume of the 

 Memoirs of the Geological Survey in 1846, 



