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  JAMES 
  GEIKIE, 
  1839—1915. 
  

  

  James 
  Geikie 
  was 
  born 
  in 
  Edinburgh 
  in 
  1839, 
  and 
  educated 
  partly 
  at 
  a 
  

   private 
  school, 
  partly 
  at 
  the 
  High 
  School 
  and 
  the 
  University 
  of 
  his 
  native 
  

   city. 
  After 
  leaving 
  school 
  he 
  served 
  an 
  apprenticeship 
  for 
  several 
  years 
  to 
  

   Mr. 
  Constable, 
  the 
  printer, 
  but 
  the 
  strain 
  and 
  drudgery 
  of 
  the 
  work 
  

   compelled 
  him 
  eventually 
  to 
  terminate 
  the 
  engagement. 
  From 
  his 
  early 
  days 
  

   he 
  showed 
  his 
  liking 
  for 
  nature 
  study 
  during 
  his 
  leisure 
  hours 
  and 
  holiday 
  

   rambles 
  in 
  butterfly 
  hunting, 
  collecting 
  fossils, 
  examining 
  drift 
  sections, 
  and 
  in 
  

   trying 
  to 
  interpret 
  the 
  records 
  of 
  the 
  rocks, 
  so 
  well 
  displayed 
  in 
  the 
  crags 
  

   and 
  ravines 
  in 
  the 
  neighbourhood 
  of 
  Edinburgh. 
  

  

  He 
  mind 
  was 
  clearly 
  bent 
  in 
  following 
  natural 
  science 
  as 
  a 
  career 
  in 
  life, 
  

   and, 
  in 
  1861, 
  he 
  fortunately 
  obtained 
  an 
  appointment 
  on 
  the 
  staff 
  of 
  the 
  

   Geological 
  Survey. 
  His 
  colleagues 
  at 
  that 
  time 
  in 
  Scotland 
  were 
  

   H. 
  H. 
  Howell, 
  Archibald 
  Geikie, 
  John 
  Young, 
  and 
  B. 
  K 
  Peach. 
  During 
  his 
  

   service 
  of 
  twenty- 
  one 
  years 
  he 
  mapped 
  large 
  areas 
  of 
  the 
  Scottish 
  coal-fields, 
  

   portions 
  of 
  the 
  Older 
  Palaeozoic 
  formations 
  of 
  the 
  Southern 
  Uplands 
  and 
  the 
  

   Cheviots, 
  together 
  with 
  tracts 
  of 
  Old 
  Red 
  Sandstone 
  and 
  the 
  metamorphic 
  

   rocks 
  of 
  the 
  Highlands 
  in 
  the 
  counties 
  of 
  Perth 
  and 
  Forfar. 
  His 
  work 
  in 
  the 
  

   field 
  gave 
  him 
  a 
  thorough 
  grasp 
  of 
  the 
  structure 
  of 
  the 
  Scottish 
  coal-fields, 
  

   which 
  naturally 
  led 
  him 
  to 
  take 
  a 
  keen 
  interest 
  in 
  tectonics. 
  

  

  The 
  most 
  striking 
  feature 
  in 
  his 
  scientific 
  career 
  is 
  the 
  influence 
  which 
  he 
  

   exercised 
  on 
  the 
  development 
  of 
  glacial 
  geology. 
  His 
  researches 
  in 
  this 
  

   department 
  stimulated 
  enquiry 
  and 
  aroused 
  keen 
  opposition. 
  He 
  was 
  

   recognised 
  as 
  one 
  of 
  the 
  foremost 
  leaders 
  of 
  a 
  distinct 
  school 
  of 
  glacial 
  

   geology. 
  

  

  "When 
  James 
  Geikie 
  began 
  to 
  map 
  the 
  superficial 
  deposits 
  in 
  1861, 
  the 
  

   early 
  views 
  of 
  Lyell, 
  Darwin, 
  de 
  la 
  Beche, 
  and 
  Murchison, 
  that 
  the 
  

   transported 
  blocks, 
  stony 
  clays, 
  sands 
  and 
  gravels 
  had 
  been 
  the 
  work 
  of 
  

   floating 
  ice, 
  were 
  widely 
  accepted, 
  although 
  Agassiz, 
  as 
  a 
  result 
  of 
  his 
  visit 
  to 
  

   this 
  country 
  in 
  1840, 
  had 
  demonstrated 
  that 
  they 
  were 
  due 
  to 
  the 
  action 
  of 
  

   land 
  ice 
  and 
  glaciers. 
  The 
  land 
  ice 
  theory 
  had 
  been 
  adopted 
  and 
  confirmed 
  

   by 
  Buckland, 
  Robert 
  Chambers, 
  Andrew 
  Ramsay, 
  Archibald 
  Geikie, 
  and 
  

   T. 
  F. 
  Jamieson. 
  

  

  The 
  rival 
  theories 
  led 
  James 
  Geikie 
  to 
  concentrate 
  his 
  attention 
  on 
  

   working 
  out 
  the 
  history 
  of 
  these 
  deposits. 
  It 
  was 
  a 
  matter 
  of 
  great 
  

   gratification 
  to 
  him 
  that 
  he 
  spent 
  the 
  first 
  two 
  years 
  of 
  his 
  official 
  life 
  in 
  

   surveying 
  the 
  boulder 
  clays, 
  sands, 
  gravels 
  and 
  peat 
  in 
  those 
  areas 
  where 
  

   only, 
  the 
  solid 
  geology 
  had 
  been 
  shown 
  on 
  the 
  maps. 
  It 
  gave 
  him 
  excellent 
  

   opportunities 
  of 
  studying 
  the 
  distribution, 
  the 
  characteristic 
  features, 
  and 
  

   the 
  relation 
  of 
  these 
  materials 
  to 
  the 
  solid 
  rocks 
  underneath. 
  As 
  the 
  work 
  

   proceeded, 
  he 
  evolved 
  certain 
  ideas 
  regarding 
  oscillations 
  of 
  climate 
  in 
  

   Pleistocene 
  time, 
  based 
  on 
  the 
  succession 
  of 
  boulder 
  clays, 
  with 
  intercalations 
  

  

  