12 
THE TERTIARY VOLCANOES 
BOOK VIII 
burgh for education sometimes caught the geological enthusiasm, then so 
marked in that city, and made numerous journeys through the country m 
search of further knowledge of Scottish rocks and minerals. In other 
instances, geologists of established reputation, attracted by the interest 
which the published accounts of the geology of Scotland had excited, were 
led to visit the country and to record their impressions of its rock-structure. 
Of the first class of observers the two most noted were Ami Boue and L. A. 
Necker ; of the second, special acknowledgment is due to Faujas St. Fond 
and to Von Oyenhausen and Von Dechen. 
The labours of Boue 1 have already been referred to in connection with 
the literature of the Scottish Old Bed Sandstone (vol. i. p. 269). In his 
treatment of the Tertiary Volcanic series of Scotland he appears to have 
relied mainly on the then recently published volumes of Macculloch. 
L. A. Necker, as the grandson of the illustrious De Saussure, had strong 
claims on the friendly assistance of the School of Geology at Edinburgh when 
he went thither in 1806, at the age of twenty, to prosecute his studies. 
He was equally well received by the Plutonists and Neptunists, and devoted 
some time to the exploration of the geology not only of the Lowlands, but 
of the Highlands and the Inner Hebrides. Most of his observations appear 
to have been made in the year 1807, but it was not until fourteen years 
afterwards that he published the account of them. 2 3 4 The geological part of 
this work must be admitted to be somewhat disappointing. The author’s 
caution not to commit himself to either side of the geological controversy 
then waging makes his descriptions and explanations rather colourless. He 
adds little to what was previously known. Even as regards the origin of 
the basalts of the Western Islands, he could not make up his mind whether 
or not to regard them as volcanic, but contented himself by referring them 
to tc the trappean formation. Yet these islands had so fascinated him that 
eventually he returned to them as his adopted home, passed the last twenty 
years of his life among them, and died and was buried there. Besides his 
Voyage, he published in French an account of the dykes of the Island of 
Arran. 8 
A mon » the foreign geologists who have been drawn to the Scottish 
mountains'^ and islands by the interest of their Tertiary volcanic rocks, I have 
already spoken of Faujas St. Fond. Much more important, however, were 
the observations made some thirty years later by two German men of^ 
science, Von Oyenhausen and Von Dechen. Their careful descriptions of 
the geology of Skye, Eigg and Arran added new materials to the knowledge 
already acquired by native geologists.* To some of the more interesting 
parts of their work reference will be made in later pages. 
The numerous trap-dykes of Northumberland, Durham and Northern 
1 Essai gtologique sur VEcossc. Paris, 1820. 
2 Voyage cn ticosse et am lies Hebrides. See also biographical notice of L. A. Necker, by 
Principal J. D. Forbes, Proc. Hoy. Hoc. Edin. v. (1862), p. 53. 
3 Trans. Hoy. Soc. Edin. vol. xiv. (1840), p. 66/. 
4 Karsten’s Archiv (1829), vol. i. p. 56. 
