34 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The next few years were apparently spent by him in extended geo- 

 logical journeys throughout Scotland, more especially in its southern 

 portions. The fruits of these investigations, as supplementary to 

 those of his more immediate predecessors in this field, were given to 

 the world in a work entitled ' A Guide to the Geology of Scotland.' 

 This little book, which was very carefully illustrated by plates and 

 a small map of Scotland, was a valuable production in its day, and 

 bears upon every page the marks of the untiring energy and in- 

 dustry of its young author, aud of his extended acquaintance with 

 the geognosy of his native land. 



In 1847 we find him appointed Assistant Secretary to the Geo- 

 logical Society of London. Here he edited the ' Quarterly Journal ' 

 of the Society, and 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 text-book of mineralogy, which even at the present 

 day holds no mean place amoug our books of reference. 



First among his geological friends stood Sir E. Murchison ; and 

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

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

 logy in Queen's College, Corlr. In 1853 he relinquished the post 

 for the more lucrative position of Professor of Natural History in 

 the University of Aberdeen. This he retained till his death, which 

 took place in 1879. 



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

 that Nicol will be remembered among us here less for his mine- 

 ralogical 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 in our Journal an elaborate memoir " On the 

 Eocks of the Yalley of the Tweed " (Quart. Joum. G. S. iv. p. 

 195), demonstrating their fossiliferous character, and giving the first 

 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. This was succeeded in 1849 by a memoir " On the Silurian 

 Rocks of the S.E. of Scotland " (Q. J. G. S. 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 tbe Southern Uplands, and aided him in his detailed investi- 

 gation of the geology of the fossiliferous Girvan area. In 1852 he 

 communicated a complete resume of the results of his exteiided re- 

 searches into the geological structure of the Southern Uplands, illus- 

 trating it by the first complete transverse section through the Silu- 

 rian rocks from the Pentlands to the Cheviots. A reduced copy of 

 this section has illustrated all the subsequent editions of Murchison's 

 ' Siluria,' and stands substantially unmodified in the official publica- 

 tions on South-Scottish geology. 



On his translation to the University of Aberdeen in 1853, Mcol 

 transferred the sphere of his geological investigations to the meta- 



