Transcriber’s Note
Variant spelling is retained.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the paragraph to which they
relate.
In this text version of “James Geikie” italic typeface is
represented by _underscores_ and small caps typeface by UPPER CASE.
Changes that have been made are listed at the end of the book.
JAMES GEIKIE
THE MAN AND THE GEOLOGIST
[Illustration: [_Photo by John Horsburgh._
PROF. JAMES GEIKIE, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S.]
JAMES GEIKIE
THE MAN AND
THE GEOLOGIST
BY
MARION I. NEWBIGIN, D.Sc. (LOND.)
_Editor of the Scottish Geographical Magazine_
AND
J. S. FLETT, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.
_Of the Geological Survey of Scotland_
EDINBURGH
OLIVER AND BOYD
LONDON: GURNEY & JACKSON, 33 PATERNOSTER ROW
1917
PREFACE
This biography of Prof. James Geikie is based upon his own letters,
papers, and diaries, and upon information supplied by many of those who
were closely associated with him, both during his earlier days on the
Geological Survey and the later in Edinburgh. Much of the material was
sorted and arranged by Mrs Geikie before it was placed in my hands, and
to her I am indebted for many notes, memoranda, and verbal statements
which supplemented the documents supplied. Mrs Geikie had herself
composed, for the use of the family, a brief account of her husband’s
early days, and on this manuscript the first chapter is largely based;
without its aid the composition of that chapter would have been very
difficult.
For later years I am under great obligations to Prof. Geikie’s many
friends and correspondents, at home and abroad. Correspondents across
the seas, especially, deserve warm thanks for their willingness
to trust valuable original documents to the post, at a time when
the phrase “perils of the sea” had taken on a new meaning. It is
satisfactory to be able to state that in no case was such material lost
as a result of hostile action. Prof. Stevenson of New York and Prof.
Chamberlin of Chicago must be specially mentioned as having supplied
much material. It should perhaps be added that the circumstances under
which the book was written made it impossible to obtain letters or
information from many continental geologists, who, in happier times,
would doubtless have been glad to render assistance.
A large amount of material was also kindly supplied by geologists and
others in this country. Among those who have taken a keen interest
in the progress of the work, and have rendered notable assistance,
mention may be made of the following friends and correspondents of
Prof. Geikie:--Dr John Horne, who supplied many letters and much
detailed information--to his kindly and unfailing help this memoir
of his old friend owes much; Dr Peach, whose accounts of early days
on the Survey were most helpful; Mr Lionel Hinxman, Mr H. M. Cadell,
and many others, to whom application was made in regard to matters
of detail. Among the last mention may be made of Dr W. B. Blaikie of
Messrs T. & A. Constable, Mr T. S. Muir of the Royal High School, and
Mr John Grossart. To all who have rendered assistance I desire to offer
most cordial thanks, and trust that they and others will feel that
the biographical sketch, in however imperfect a fashion, does present
a lifelike picture of one who rarely failed to inspire affection and
admiration in those who came to close quarters with him.
MARION I. NEWBIGIN.
EDINBURGH, _October 1917_.
CONTENTS
PART I.--LIFE AND LETTERS
BY MARION I. NEWBIGIN
CHAP. PAGE
I. BOYHOOD AND YOUTH, 1839-61 3
II. FIRST YEARS ON THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 1862-64 19
III. “THE GREAT ICE AGE”: (1) YEARS OF PREPARATION,
1865-71 34
IV. “THE GREAT ICE AGE”: (2) PUBLICATION, 1872-74 52
V. MARRIAGE AND LIFE AT PERTH, 1875-77 62
VI. LAST YEARS ON THE SURVEY, 1878-82 82
VII. EDINBURGH AND THE PROFESSORSHIP, 1882-88 100
VIII. FINAL EDITION OF “THE GREAT ICE AGE,” 1889-1903 116
IX. RETIREMENT FROM THE PROFESSORSHIP AND LAST
DAYS, 1904-15 130
PART II.--GEOLOGICAL WORK
BY J. S. FLETT
X. THE GLACIAL PROBLEM BEFORE JAMES GEIKIE 149
XI. “THE GREAT ICE AGE” AND “PREHISTORIC EUROPE” 164
XII. EDUCATIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE WORK 180
XIII. INTERGLACIAL CONTROVERSIES 194
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 213
INDEX 221
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PROF. GEIKIE IN HIS LATER YEARS. (Photograph by Mr
John Horsburgh) _Frontispiece_
A STUDY OF PROF. GEIKIE IN 1884. (From Mr William
Hole’s Etching in _Quasi Cursores_, published
for the Edinburgh University Tercentenary
Celebrations) _to face p. 104_
PROF. GEIKIE IN 1888. (From a Photograph taken in
Philadelphia) _to face p. 108_
PROF. GEIKIE AT THE AGE OF SIXTY. (From a Photograph
by Messrs Elliott & Fry) _to face p. 116_
PART I
LIFE AND LETTERS
CHAPTER I
BOYHOOD AND YOUTH
1839-1861
James Geikie was born on 23rd August 1839, in a house in Edinburgh
which was later pulled down to make room for the University Union. He
was the third son and the third child in a family of eight, consisting
of five sons and three daughters, and was baptised as James Murdoch
Geikie. He abolished--to use his own word--the Murdoch in boyhood.
His father was in business in Edinburgh, but by taste and inclination
was a musician, and in later years, after retiring from business,
devoted himself entirely to music, and was the author of a number of
compositions, sacred and secular. A little anecdote, recalled by his
son in later years, suggests that it had always been his ambition to
be a professional musician, and that he had been thwarted in youth.
The story relates that one day he said to James somewhat sadly:--“If
ever you have a son who wants to make music his profession, do not
oppose his wish.” In the fulness of time, it is interesting to note,
one of James Geikie’s sons did express this desire, and his father
scrupulously observed the injunction of the long-dead grandfather. The
point is not without importance, from more than one aspect, and is at
least a partial refutation of the pessimists who, like Samuel Butler,
maintain that each generation repeats the mistakes of the last in
dealing with youth.
Another artistic strain in the family was represented in the person of
Walter Geikie, an uncle, who was a well-known painter of Scotch scenes
and left also some good etchings. Of him James Geikie, in an undated
fragment of what was apparently intended to be a history of the family,
says:--“Of my Uncle Walter I will say nothing: the Life prefixed to
his etchings having already forestalled anything I could tell. He was
a capital mimic and possessed of boundless good nature. Had he been
longer spared he might well have become famous in his profession, but
Death, to whom the genius and the numbskull are one and the same,
carried him off in the year 1837--two years before I was born.” James,
it may be noted here, had himself considerable skill as a draughtsman,
as both his published works and his geological note-books show clearly,
which adds interest to this note upon his artist uncle. Another uncle,
who was a minister and went out to the United States when James was
young, was the father of Cunningham Geikie the divine, author of a
widely-read _Life of Christ_.
The latter lived with the Geikie family in Edinburgh for some time in
his student days. The MS. from which the above quotation is made,
which is annotated in pencil by its author, is, as stated, a mere
fragment and undated. Internal evidence, however, suggests that it may
have been written about 1856, the writing and composition recalling
some extant letters of this period, and it shows, as further quotations
will indicate, that its author, with all his obvious immaturity, was
even then feeling after a style.
James Geikie’s mother was a Miss Thom, a daughter of a merchant
captain, who was born in Inverness but established himself at Dunbar.
Here he married the daughter of a local shipbuilder, whose family was
connected by marriage--to quote again the MS. already mentioned--with
“that Roderick MacKenzie who suffered his head to be taken from him
that he might save that of Prince Charles Stewart”; a fact of which
the boy James confesses himself very proud. In his later days Captain
Thom often visited his married daughter, and the important part which
he played in developing the imagination of the children is suggested
in the following sentences (from MS.):--“My Grandfather Thom when I
first knew him had not ceased to plough the sea for his living. He was
of a middle stature, well-made, and muscular. I can still see his fine
head nearly bald--what hair he had was of a beautiful silver white--his
Roman nose. I can still at this late period follow him in his walks.
I see him sitting with his old cronies--relics of fights by land and
sea--on that seat between the two old trees--long since pulled down to
make way for those improvements, so-called, which have altered entirely
what in my young days went by the name of ‘The Meadows.’ His stories
of adventures with the robbers of the sea are rife in my memory. His
voyages to places whose very names smack of fairy-land--his hairbreadth
escapes--his deeds of daring--the recollection of all these rises
vividly before me at the mere mention of his name. I looked upon him
as another Sinbad--a second Robinson Crusoe; and my acquaintance with
his queer old friends served to heighten the romantic colours in which
I viewed him! Alas! all these school-boy dreamings are past; but they
will sometimes flit before me as I lie gazing up into the deep blue
of a summer sky, recalling the old days which have gone away into dim
forgetfulness: and they will sometimes come again as I sit alone musing
by the winter fireside. Verily there is a something--call it what you
will--about the past which renders it infinitely more endearing to us
than all the brightest dreams of the future.”
The only comment which it is necessary to make upon the above is
to repeat that it was apparently written when the boy was about
seventeen, and thus, as we shall see, at a period when he was engaged
in uncongenial work, and when his future was uncertain: these facts
help to explain what the James Geikie of a later day would have
contemptuously denounced as the “high-falutin” style.
In addition to the visits of Captain Thom to Edinburgh, family
intercourse was kept up by return visits of the children to Dunbar,
where the ships appealed strongly to the imagination of James. He was
fond of saying in later years that he used to watch them dipping below
the horizon and longed to follow them to see what lay beyond; and the
_Wanderlust_, so early developed, lasted till the end of life. In a
letter to one of his sons, written to Egypt in 1901, he says:--“Old man
tho’ I am, I’m just as keen to knock about the world as ever I was. It
is like renewing my youth even to think about it!”
In connection with the seafarer’s blood which he inherited from
his mother’s side, it is also of interest to note that James was an
excellent traveller both by sea and land; the sea had no terrors for
him, and his voyages were a source of continuous pleasure, both at the
time and in recollection.
As to his immediate intellectual heritage, it seems probable that James
took the majority of his qualities from his father’s side. But his
mother, of whom he was very fond, was a woman of great ability and much
ambition for her clever sons, whom she spurred on in their careers. Her
extraordinary skill as a needlewoman, and her capacity for hard work,
are enshrined in the family traditions, and it is probable that James
took from her his remarkable perseverance and his manual dexterity.
The father was full of _bonhomie_, probably as deeply impregnated as
his son with the _joie de vivre_, and like him more desirous of a full
life than given to the narrow concentration which achieves a particular
purpose at the expense of so much.
From his father James seems to have inherited his imagination and
the touch of constructive genius which enabled him to do such
noteworthy work; but one can well believe that the instinct which led
the son to interleave his scientific observations in his geological
note-books with verses, prevented the father from devoting himself as
whole-heartedly to the pursuit of worldly prosperity as his wife may
have thought desirable in view of the large and growing family.
It is at least certain that money was not very abundant in the early
days, though the house contained many books, and there seems to have
been much music and liveliness, the father, like the son, being a
capital story-teller. He must also have been a traveller in his day,
for James in a letter to his brother William speaks of him as going off
to the Continent in 1858, a much rarer adventure for a man of moderate
means then than now. The occasion was a musical festival at Bonn, and
was apparently taken advantage of to the full, the tour being extended
to Paris and elsewhere.
Details in regard to the early life of James Geikie are scanty. These
were days long before the time when conscientious parents recorded in
neatly kept note-books all details as to the growth and development
of their offspring; while with babies following each other at regular
intervals throughout a long period of years, the mother had probably
little time to put on record any signs of precocity in the elder
boys, if such existed. Two little stories, however, emphasise the
statements made above as to the effect on the children’s imagination
of Captain Thom’s yarns. When very small James, in company with his
brother William, who was two years older, set off to walk down to
Joppa, some three and a half miles from Edinburgh, to see the world,
and incidentally to visit an aunt who lived in the district. The two
arrived very tired, only, after a meal and a rest, to be ignominiously
taken home again by their aunt. In those days communications between
the shore and the city were difficult, and the party had to trudge back
on foot, the small James, whose ambition on this occasion had somewhat
outrun his strength, having to be carried most of the way.
But this inglorious finale did not quench the ardour of the youthful
pair, who were probably slow to grasp the attitude of grown-up people
towards displays of initiative on the part of the young. Next time
they planned to make a voyage on their own account, and to place the
water between them and over-zealous family affection. They were so
far successful as to reach Leith and find their way on board a ship.
But alas! even here they were met by a display of the adult passion
for interference, and were taken home by a sailor who, regardless of
the soul within, maintained that their diminutive stature debarred
them from seeking life and adventure on the high seas. As one of the
grandfather’s most popular stories related how he had sunk a pirate
boat in the Bay of Naples, by means of a small gun loaded with scrap
iron, and how in consequence he had been fêted by the Neapolitans, and
had had his portrait painted, one can imagine that the brothers were
very bitter at this second check to their own ambitions. James had to
wait many years before he faced Italian pirates and brigands, and then
it was the milder variety which requires to be treated with another
metal rather than iron, and cannot be disposed of by Captain Thom’s
summary methods.
Another story of childhood is interesting because it shows how
completely the boy was the father of the man. At some unknown
but early date he had a serious illness. So desperate seemed his
condition that the doctor, speaking in the presence of the apparently
unconscious boy, permitted himself to tell the mother that recovery
was practically impossible, and was not to be desired, as the child
would be feeble-minded. After the doctor had left, the poor mother came
back into the room crying, but little Jamie found strength to whisper
feebly: “I’ll no dee yet, mother.”
Long years afterwards, in a bad illness some four or five years before
his death, somewhat similar incidents happened. One day after he had
seen the doctor exchange a grave glance with the nurse, he managed,
after the doctor had left the room, to say: “Tell him I have a return
ticket.” On another occasion one sick-room attendant volunteered to
another the statement that she did not think the professor would last
till the morning, and was considerably startled to hear the apparently
dying man, who was lying with his eyes closed, say distinctly, if
feebly, “The professor will last till the morning, and he’ll last
till he sees you out of the house.” Needless to say he did more than
this, for he lived to tell the tale with his old glee and vivacity.
Perhaps the medical science of a later date will be able to find an
explanation of this power of resistance, and of its association with
the nervous temperament rather than with strong physique. Meantime it
is interesting to have another confirmation of the frequent experience
that in a death-struggle, whether with internal or external foes, the
“muscular Christian” can often give a less good account of himself than
the nervous one. The boy, who if he lived was to be feeble-minded, not
only lived but added notably to the world’s stock of knowledge.
Only one early letter has been preserved, and it gives no clue as to
its date, beyond the fact that it is printed in childish capitals,
which are, however, wonderfully straight, and shows an uncharacteristic
uncertainty as to spelling. It reads:--
DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER,--We are very much disappointed, at youre
not leaving London on Saturday. We hopet to have the pleasure of
seeing you pull down the pears for us but since you have not come,
we will have to bigin ourselves and take them down. We are all in
good health we wer all up at the castle with Thom to day and saw Mons
Meg. Write us soon and let us know when yoo ar really to leave.--Your
affectionate son,
JAMES M. GEIKIE.
James Geikie’s early education was obtained at a private school,
where he seems to have been unhappy. The master was brutal in his
methods, and ill-suited to have charge of a delicate, nervous boy.
The climax came when one day he approached James from behind, and
seized his ear roughly between his finger and thumb, giving it a
painful wrench. The boy, maddened with pain and fright, sprang up,
and seizing the nearest object, which happened to be an inkpot, flung
it at his assailant. He then made for the door, his exit closing one
educational chapter. Afterwards, in 1850, when he was eleven years of
age, he went to Edinburgh High School, then under the rectorship of Dr
Schmitz. Here James Geikie seems to have distinguished himself chiefly
in classics. The classical master was Dr Boyd, who evidently perceived
his abilities, for he told him that he expected to hear of him in later
years either as a poet or as a literary man.
Under Dr Boyd James Geikie gained a prize for a translation from
Virgil into English verse, and his knack of verse-making seems to have
been carefully fostered. A number of his verse translations have been
preserved, some written out in his brother William’s extraordinarily
neat hand, others printed by James himself at a later date.
On the whole, however, it would seem as though the education of the
boys was carried out more outside school than in it. In those days
Scottish schools were unaffected by English traditions in the matter of
sport. There were no organised games, and the boys obtained exercise
in whatever way pleased them best. The Geikie children kept many pets
in their garden, and James’s considerable manual dexterity was often
called upon in connection with the welfare of these. A family tradition
led the children to give those of their pets who died before their
time an elaborate funeral, and James’s skill in coffin-making is still
lauded by the remaining members of his family.
Of more importance for his future career were the long excursions by
which the boys as they grew satisfied their _Wanderlust_. Edinburgh
is, of course, even to-day singularly favoured by Nature in the number
and variety of the possible excursions within easy reach of the town,
and in those days conditions were still better. In later years, when
he took his geological students over Arthur’s Seat, James Geikie used
often to lament what he regarded as the spoiling of that park by the
construction of roads, which for him took away the feeling of wildness,
and part of the impressiveness of the wonderful volcanic scenery. He
did not live to see a further stage in which the citizens were shut off
by the exigencies of war from the enjoyment of the most attractive part
of the park.
A little anecdote that he often also told on his excursions is not
without interest. As a boy he was lying on the hill one day reading a
book when he was accosted by a party consisting of a tall gentleman, a
little lady, and a group of children. The gentleman asked the way to
the top of the hill, and James not only volunteered to guide them, but
ultimately carried the smallest girl pickaback up part of the climb.
The party had a pleasant stroll, and parted the best of friends. As
the boy came down the slopes towards Holyrood, however, he found a
considerable crowd waiting, and learnt that his help had been asked by
the Prince Consort, that the lady was Queen Victoria, and the little
girl he had carried the Princess Alice.
One motive for the long holiday rambles seems to have been
butterfly-collecting, if one may judge from the enthusiasm with
which in later years, when himself the father of growing boys, he
entered into the pursuit for their sakes. Some of his letters written
to his sons during his travels on the Continent and in America are
thoroughly boy-like in their enthusiasm for the beautiful creatures,
and in their descriptions of the efforts necessary to obtain perfect
specimens. But like many an Edinburgh boy before and since, he was
keenly interested in fossils and in the rocks and minerals represented
in the neighbourhood of his native town. Fossil-hunting expeditions to
the famous limestone quarries of Burdiehouse and Gilmerton, and to the
coprolitic shales down on the shore at Wardie, were often undertaken in
company with two future colleagues on the Geological Survey--his eldest
brother Archibald, later Director of the Geological Survey, and now Sir
Archibald Geikie, and the boy who afterwards became Prof. John Young of
Glasgow. James was considerably younger than either, and, as he himself
indicates in a Memoir prefixed to Dr Young’s _Essays and Addresses_
(1904), was only allowed to accompany his seniors occasionally and as
a special favour. Indeed, throughout all this early period it seems
clear that “Jamie” was only a little boy, not of great account in a
family whose hopes were concentrated on the eldest son. The latter
seems to have settled his own career early, for it is recorded that
one day while walking up the South Bridge with his little brother, he
said:--“Do you see that big building with the iron gates? I am going in
there, and one day I shall be a professor there.” The little brother’s
feelings at the time are not recorded, but it seems probable that no
one in the family contemplated that the great iron gates would open for
him also as a professor.
With two older brothers, and two more following after, it is not to
be wondered at that James Geikie’s school-days soon ended. In 1853 he
left the High School, and at the beginning of 1854 was apprenticed to
Mr Thomas Constable, the printer. His life here does not seem to have
been happy. The confinement and long hours did not suit his health,
the occupation did not appeal to his tastes, and among his chief
consolations seem to have been occasional geologising holidays and
books. These he read on his way to and from his work, for the family
by this time lived on the other side of what, despite the past tense
of the MS. quoted on p. 6, is still called The Meadows, and this open
space had to be crossed daily.
In October 1855, however, his brother Archibald joined the Geological
Survey, and this, which opened a possible avenue of escape for James,
then only sixteen, marked an important turning-point in his career.
Of the period as printer it is only necessary to add that, much as he
disliked it at the time, he was fond of saying in later years that it
was a useful experience, for it gave him a knowledge of the routine
of printing work which stood him in good stead in his own constant
proof-reading.
He stayed at Constable’s till the summer of 1858, and some letters to
his brother William have been preserved which give interesting glimpses
of his character in this period of drudgery and development. William
had gone out to relatives of the family in the United States, and the
letters were written to him there. His death, it may be noted, took
place as the result of an accident, shortly after the date of the last
of the letters. Some extracts from them may be quoted:--
HOPE PARK, _31st Dec. 1856_.
I have met with very little in my daily routine, since I went to
Constable’s, that could entertain you, and will therefore skip over
my past years and come to the _pint_, as Cousin Archie used to say.
When you left you’ll remember I was still _daidlin’ mong drudgery_.
I had to do so for a good while after that, till so it chanced I
was _promoted_ to a _frame_. I got on pretty well, considering
the long hours, and badly ventilated room, which were playing the
very mischief with my health, so I hung on (if you’ll excuse the
expression) until summer had come with its usual slackness in trade,
and then I got rest. But summer, alas! like everything beneath the
sun, is perishable, and so the crows’ nests began to peer through the
thinly clad trees once more, and autumn coming sighing and weeping,
but bringing with her, as her recompense and consolation, the richly
laden field and the clear cloudless moon.... Well I went back to the
office, and winter, and spring, and summer and autumn passed away, and
“the new year’s coming up” (of which I wish you and all the _natives_
very many happy returns), and here I am at home away from the office
again. The late hours (9 to 10) have knocked me _up_ (or, as you are
a bit of a Yankee, “_down_” if you like) and I have got leave for a
week or two, which I intend spending with Archie. He, the Professor,
delivered a lecture at Penicuik the other day on the “_Geology of the
District_.”
_Aug. 1858._
I am home at present on the sick list, and it is not likely I’ll be
back to office before the end of autumn. We have glorious weather here
at present,--and if I go to the country I have not the slightest doubt
but I’ll enjoy myself. B----’s master has failed; but the General is
not as yet out of his employment altho’ he expects soon to be so.
I wish I were out of mine; I verily believe it will land me in a
premature grave. It never has agreed with me.
Mother is anxious to go off to the country with me. We are just
looking about for a place. Perhaps Melrose or Lanark, but lodgings in
both places are dear. I go at any rate with Archie next month to Fife;
to be located probably at Aberdour; where I will be able to prosecute
my geological studies, for I hope, if I am spared, to be able to join
the Survey.--My dear Willie I will now close. I never forget you nor
ever shall. You become all the dearer the further and longer you are
away. God grant that we meet again on earth, if not we are always sure
of meeting in a far better place.--I am your affect. brother,
JAMIE.
The gloomy prognostication that his work at the printer’s office would
land him in a premature grave was not fulfilled, but the statement
helps to explain why he left the work in the same year as that in which
the letter was written, having apparently never returned to the office
after writing it. In order to leave he broke his apprenticeship, and
this was strongly opposed by his employer, who told him that a man who
changed his profession would never succeed, a prophecy--in any case
somewhat extreme--which was not fulfilled in this case.
But after leaving the printing-works there was still another interval
of waiting before the boy settled down to his life-work, and found his
vocation. He did not finally enter the Survey till October 1861, a few
months after his lifelong friend Dr Young. The period of waiting was
spent partly at the University, where he attended among other classes
Prof. Allman’s natural history course, a subject with which geology was
then united. He was also in a lawyer’s office for a time, while waiting
for a vacancy on the Geological Survey.
To enter this he had to pass what was called a “Qualifying
Examination,” which then included what the profane called Civil Service
“tots.” These were long sums in compound addition, which had to be done
within a limited time and with great accuracy. Though the operation
became more or less mechanical to those who practised it assiduously,
it presented considerable difficulties to those who were not accustomed
to such work, especially when, like James Geikie, the victim had not
what are called “business” instincts. The difficulties were, however,
overcome, and in October 1861, as already stated, he entered the
Geological Survey, forming a member of the small Scottish staff, which
consisted of Messrs H. H. Howell, Archibald Geikie, Dr Young, and
himself, with the addition, a few months later, of Mr (now Dr) B. N.
Peach. Of this band only Sir Archibald Geikie and Dr Peach now survive.
With this appointment to the Survey the period of uncertainty and
waiting ended, and James Geikie, at the age of twenty-two, entered on
his life-work, and henceforth found his way clear before him.