FIRST YEARS ON THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
1862-1864
James Geikie was connected with the Geological Survey for a period of
twenty years, for he only gave up the work, with great reluctance, on
his appointment to the Murchison Chair of Geology in the University of
Edinburgh in the year 1881. It seems only fitting, therefore, that some
general account of his life while a member of its staff should precede
any detailed description of the occupations of the successive years.
The Survey years were singularly happy ones, were perhaps the most
fruitful in original work, and definitely determined the whole future
course of his life.
From the official standpoint the tale of events is soon told. In 1861
he was appointed Assistant Geologist. Six years later, when for the
first time the Scottish Survey was organised as a branch separate from
the English one, he was made one of the two geologists of the staff.
Two years later, that is in 1869, he was promoted to be District
Surveyor, which made him second in position after the Director, who
was then his brother Archibald. The post of District Surveyor he
held till 1881, when the posts of Director and the Professorship at
Edinburgh became simultaneously vacant by the promotion of his brother.
It was intimated that the two appointments would not again be combined,
and, though as stated with great reluctance, James gave up the Survey
to take the Chair.
Of great interest in its effect upon his future work was a change
in the policy of the Survey which practically synchronised with his
appointment. Previous to this time, the loose superficial deposits in
Scotland had been ignored by the surveyors, who confined themselves
to mapping the solid geology, _i.e._, the actual rocks, which in many
parts of Scotland are mantled by a thick covering of drift or peat.
It was decided, chiefly on economic grounds, especially in connection
with agriculture, that not only should these superficial deposits be in
future mapped along with the solid geology, but that the areas already
surveyed should be re-mapped, with the object of adding the omitted
beds. As already stated, Dr Young and James Geikie joined the Survey in
1861, and Mr Peach at the beginning of 1862. All three soon after their
appointment were entrusted with this work in Fife and the Lothians,
which had already had their solid geology mapped. It was a kind of
mapping which could be done with considerable rapidity, and therefore
involved frequent changes of quarters. Thus, as Prof. Geikie says in
the account already mentioned, which he contributed to the Memoir
attached to Prof. Young’s _Essays and Addresses_, “in a year or so we
[Young and himself] had tramped carefully over the major portion of
Fife and the Lothians.”
For all three novices this introductory period seems to have left
delightful recollections. In the Memoir already quoted, Prof. Geikie
says:--“Those were halcyon days, and I am sure Young enjoyed them to
the full. Often in subsequent years, after he had finally settled in
Glasgow, he would recur to them, recalling with delight old scenes
and old faces which he and I had known together. The life of a
field-geologist is, from many points of view, an enviable one, and
could youth and strength endure, one might well be content to follow it
to the end.”
Though spoken but of one member of the trio, one may suspect that the
statements had a wider application. In the case of James Geikie, but
recently liberated from distasteful drudgery, having changed a life
of close confinement for the open air which he loved, with reasonable
prospects for the future opening out before him, it would have been
strange if the “premature grave” of the letters of a few years’ earlier
date had not disappeared into the background, and life become suddenly
a great good, for youth and strength were both there, as yet untouched
by time.
Though the three new members of the Survey were all engaged on the
same kind of work, it must not be supposed that their work was done
in common. Each had his particular task assigned to him, and though
they often met, sometimes indeed lodged together, as was the case, for
example, with Young and Geikie at Peebles in the early part of 1863,
and Peach and Geikie in the spring of 1864, it was only their leisure
hours which were spent in each other’s company. One may, without
incurring the reproach of cynicism, suspect that this greatly increased
the joys of companionship. If they had worked together, or even in
couples, the inevitable rubs and difficulties of daily work, however
congenial, might have checked exuberant intercourse. But meeting as
they did when the day’s work was over, or only at intervals, with the
tie of common interests, with many experiences to hear and to tell, the
companionship became one of the great joys of life.
The brief account in the Memoir of Young is impregnated through
and through with the recollection of this gladness of comradeship,
and a few more phrases may be quoted to emphasise the point still
further:--“Seated by a cosy peat fire, enveloped in clouds of tobacco
smoke, confabulating, discussing, speculating, laughing over quaint
scenes and droll experiences, life (if we had only known it!) had not
much better to give.” We read also of the wine of life, and can feel
that the writer of the account, who was then a man of sixty-five,
could, despite the forty odd years which lay between, still feel its
flavour upon his palate as he wrote. Some of the jokes and quips and
tales of those old days have become Survey property, transmitted by
word of mouth from generation to generation, forming part of that
invisible strand which binds together the members of an organised body,
so that while the individuals come and go, are separated by the seven
seas, by life and by death, the spirit remains. For each individual
in turn youth goes and strength decays, but something remains; and if
in their dumb northern fashion the individuals in this case generally
passed away without leaving enshrined either in art or in the written
word a direct record of all they felt and did, it may yet not be amiss
to indicate the enthusiasm, the devotion, and the joy that went to the
making and colouring of those maps, and were embodied in those formal
records.
But the immediate purpose here is only to suggest that those early
days were for James Geikie a conscious escape from prison, a conscious
means of self-realisation, and that it was probably the accident that
his first official field-work was given to the drifts which determined
the trend of his future scientific work. He states, it is true, in a
short account of his career which appears in the _Geological Magazine_
for June 1913, that his interest in the superficial formations,
especially boulder-clay and the associated gravels and sands, dated
from his school-days. One may well believe that, like many another
born in a region where the till is abundant, he early succumbed to
the fascination of that untidy but delightful occupation of digging
stones out of the tenacious clay with nature’s weapons, washing them
in the nearest stream, and then following with loving finger-tip those
scratches and striations which bear so romantic a message. Like many
others he doubtless pressed the cherished pebbles against his cheek,
and verified practically, long years before he wrote it down in a
printed book, the statement that they are smoothed and polished. Like
many another also he probably early got into trouble for transferring
in the course of his investigations more of the sticky tenacious
deposit to his garments than was good for them, and was often under
the sad necessity of discarding a proportion of the much-loved and
much-fingered witnesses of an earlier age, because their abundance made
the collection grow with unreasonable rapidity. But there is reason
to believe that his early interest in the rocks was not confined to
glacial phenomena, but was disseminated among a variety of geological
subjects; and it seems probable that the concentration of attention,
throughout long years, on the Ice Age was largely due to the effect of
his first work on the Survey, and to the flood of pleasurable emotion
with which that work was accompanied.
But it must not be supposed that his work, even in the early years,
was confined to the mapping of the superficial deposits. So early
as 1863 he was already doing solid geology, and thereafter went on
with the mapping of solid and superficial deposits at the same time.
But while he did much good work quite apart from glacial questions,
and was interested in many kinds of geological problems, it was the
history of the Ice Cap of Europe which especially appealed to him. His
holidays--brief in early days--were devoted to the study of glacial
phenomena outside his own region. His leisure hours, spent by some of
his colleagues in fishing or other forms of sport, or in visiting,
were largely devoted to keeping himself abreast of the literature of
the subject; and this was also one of the motives which led him to
study languages so assiduously, with the result that he was able to
make first-hand acquaintance with the papers of all the continental
geologists who wrote on his own subject.
If, however, throughout his long life his geological first love
commanded his unswerving devotion, it was not because the charms of
other paths did not appeal to him. Some of the letters speak of an
ardent desire, apparently never gratified, to deal thoroughly with
Carboniferous problems, to which his attention was drawn during his
prolonged and toilsome mapping of the Lanarkshire coalfield; and in an
interesting letter to the writer, which dates from the early part of
1909, he speaks of other questions which had also always attracted him.
Some passages from this letter may be quoted:--
Curious how the revision of old charts of the Mediterranean have
re-awakened my interest in the structure of that basin or series of
basins! At one time I had a notion of writing a detailed memoir on the
subject, but I found it would be necessary to visit many parts of the
Mediterranean coast-lands which I had not seen and to revisit other
parts which I had looked at. I still think there is much interesting
work awaiting investigation there--the Italian geologists seem to me
to have missed the meaning of some of the evidence which their own
maps supply! If I were only twenty years younger I believe I should
start off at once--that bothering glacial work quite drew me away from
the Mediterranean problems. Now there is no hope for me, unless on
the other side of time I may be permitted to resume investigations.
In that case I shall be independent of railways, steamboats, and even
motor cars, while I presume no hotel accommodation will be required.
Perhaps by means of telepathy I may be able to communicate results
to you as Editor of the Magazine. Unfortunately, however, it would
seem from the records of the Psychical Society, that when one becomes
disembodied and is interviewed by his bereaved and sorrowing friends
he is invariably found to have become little better than a drivelling
idiot, having lost any sense he may at one time have possessed.
Instead of enlightening you on the origin of the Mediterranean, I may
be anxious rather to get you to inform my wife where she will find the
discharged account of some nefarious tradesman who is dunning her for
a sum of 2s. 6d. which I had already paid.
The letter shows that he realised what his devotion had cost him; but
when we reflect not only upon what he himself accomplished but on
the extraordinary stimulus which his conclusions, some of which were
at first fiercely criticised, gave to the investigation of glacial
problems by others, here, on the Continent, and in America, we can
hardly believe that he regretted seriously his own whole-heartedness.
The period of his working life, from 1861 onwards till his death,
witnessed an extraordinary change in the views of geologists upon
problems connected with ice, saw an enormous output of material in the
way of papers and articles and books, and the world has to be grateful
to James Geikie for both directly and indirectly opening its eyes to
much that was previously hidden.
His glacial work and its significance are alike discussed by Dr Flett
in the second part of this volume, and need not be treated here,
but a word or two is necessary to explain the intense interest which
glacial problems aroused among all the Survey men during the period we
are considering, and in James Geikie in particular. A quotation from a
letter of thanks written by Charles Darwin, after receiving a copy of
the second edition of _The Great Ice Age_, will throw some light upon
this. The letter is dated 26th October 1876, and Darwin says:--“The
subject [_i.e._, the Ice Age] is one which fascinates me, chiefly owing
to a little incident which I will mention as showing the grand progress
of geology. When I was a boy an acute old gentleman who had attended
to geology and natural history showed me a boulder in Shropshire, and
assured me solemnly that the world would pass away before any one could
explain how this great stone came from Cumberland or Scotland. This
made a deep impression on me, and you may believe how delighted I was
some forty years ago when floating ice action was first broached, to be
followed some years afterwards by glacier action.”
We see from this letter that the thought of the mystery of the great
boulder haunted Darwin for years, but the young geologists of the
Survey were confronted not with one boulder, but, day after day, week
after week, with an accumulation of only half-explained mysteries.
When they started work the view that a large part of the British
Islands had been covered by land ice, and that the boulder-clay was
the record of its passage, had, after a period of neglect, again come
into prominence; but it was very far from being universally accepted
(see the historical discussion in Part II.). Then, and for many years
to come, the view that the boulder-clay, erratics, and so forth had
been dropped by floating icebergs still commanded many followers. The
suggestion that there was not one Glacial Period only but a series of
advances and retreats, with well-marked interglacial periods between,
had yet to be born. Thus the subject was a burning one at the moment,
and in their meetings, whether in the field or, when the field-work
was done for the season, at headquarters, the members of the Survey
had much to discuss and to tell, many fragments of evidence to piece
together. They seem all to have been greatly interested in the subject;
but that James Geikie made it so peculiarly his own was partly due
to the constructive imagination which enabled him to visualise, in
a series of brilliant flashes, not the country as he saw it, but
the former conditions to which it bore testimony. This constructive
imagination was aided also, as has been indicated, by constant toil and
by ceaseless comparison, by means both of personal visits and through
the writings of others, of local conditions with those of other regions
and of other lands.
It is also not without significance to note that his own first work,
and indeed generally most of his Survey work throughout his period of
service, lay in what is described as the peripheral area of the old
glaciation. In any area which is or has been glaciated it is possible
to distinguish between a central area where erosion is at a maximum,
and where the evidence of the existence of former ice-sheets is almost
necessarily masked by the work of later glaciers, and a peripheral area
where ice work takes the form of deposition. In this latter area it is
often possible to unravel the complex evidence to an extent sufficient
to determine the question whether more than one Glacial Period existed
or not. It was to this problem that James Geikie devoted much of his
attention, and this fact must be regarded as largely explained by the
other that his geological field-work was done in Lowland rather than in
Highland areas.
In so far as the details of the Survey work go, we may note that
theoretically the summer was devoted to field-work and the winter to
indoor work, at first either in London or at the Industrial Museum in
Edinburgh, and later, after the establishment of the Survey Office
in Edinburgh, at that office. But this general scheme was modified
considerably by circumstances. Summer and winter, notably, had a
somewhat different sense from that which the calendar gives. For
example, an entry in his official diary for 1863 states, under date
17th February:--“Pack-up in Office for country;” while in the same year
field-work seemed to continue, with short interruptions, till December.
In the following year, 1864, a start was made even earlier, on 1st
February. That somebody was taking too optimistic a view of Scotch
weather is, however, obvious from the entries in the diary, where
“snow,” “snow,” “snow and rain,” “wet day,” “snow, 8 or 9 inches”
follow each other with a steady persistency, which justifies the brief
entry on 14th March: “Begin to grow desperate--lock up my razors.”
At this time Mr Peach and James Geikie were endeavouring to map the
Ochils from Kinross as a centre, and Dr Peach informs the writer that
the two made strenuous but mostly ineffectual efforts to get on with
their outdoor work at a time when rocks and superficial deposits alike
were concealed in a thick mantle of snow. Apparently, however, there
were some alleviations, for one of the tantalisingly short entries in
the diary mentions a “Pisgah view of Ochils,” obtained apparently from
Rumbling Bridge; while Dr Peach states that out of working hours the
two toiled hard at their German.
The mode of study took a direction which had some influence on James
Geikie’s future, and is of interest on this account. The first impetus
to the study of the language came apparently from Dr Young, who
was very friendly with Dr Schmitz, the Rector of the High School,
whose daughter he married at a later date. Young had apparently a
good knowledge of the language, and he, early in their association,
urged upon Mr Peach the necessity of acquiring at least a reading
acquaintance with it, and recommended the learning of German poetry as
a capital means of obtaining a vocabulary. By the spring of 1864 Mr
Peach had already a considerable repertory, and his recitals roused in
James Geikie his old passion for verse-making. The songs were first
put into rough English, with many jokes about their sentimentality,
and then James Geikie turned the rough translations into English
verse. This was the beginning of a pastime which he carried on during
a large part of his life. A selection of the verses was published in
1887 as _Songs and Lyrics by Heinrich Heine and other German Poets_.
In the preface the author says that all the renderings there given
were done “for his own amusement in those ‘brave days of youth,’ when
difficulties and impossibilities are hardly recognised.” Many of the
verses were published practically unaltered after more than twenty
years’ interval, for most of them were made in very early days. They
occur in letters, in note-books, diaries, and in various other places
among his papers of the later sixties, and were evidently a true labour
of love.
As frequent mention has been made of the diaries, it may be well to
state that these for the most part contain little or nothing save
the barest records of mapping done, hours of work, memoranda as to
expenses, and so forth. Those of the first year or two, however, not
unnaturally, since the work was entirely new, are a little fuller. That
for 1862, if it ever existed, does not seem to have been preserved;
but 1863 contains one or two interesting entries, which emphasise
still further the point already made as to the enthusiasm, plans,
and ambitions with which the Survey was entered. On its first leaf
the following lines are written:--“Was not so old last year as I am
this--fact for the curious biographer who is no doubt destined to
reap immortality by the interesting use he will make of the copious
entries in this diary.” But as for many weeks afterwards the “curious
biographer” finds no written word beyond the statement that drawing
pens were bought at an outlay of 1s. 6d., it is to be feared that
no superstructure in regard to an expectation of future fame can be
built upon the entry. The corresponding page on next year’s diary is
more prosaic, for it bears only a series of “Memoranda” which include
an injunction to get a wife when income allows, and to have only
three children, two boys and one girl. Rather oddly there is a letter
extant which announces the birth of his third child, many years later,
and bewails the fact that it is another boy, when a girl would have
“rounded off the family so nicely.” The much-loved daughter did not
appear on the scene till many years afterwards.
From the 1863 diary two short entries may be quoted, for they stand
side by side on the same page, and are in many ways very characteristic
of the man. The first relates to a day spent in indoor work, though
with the careful corollary that this was not due to the weather.
Opposite this formal entry is written:--“Mouth filled with cursings and
my heart with evil thoughts, all owing to the squalling and girning of
an ill-natured, red-headed, unwashed, petted, fractious imp--the son
and heir of our landlord, the shepherd.” Some of the epithets have been
omitted--the provocation was doubtless extreme!
The following day was spent in the open air, and opposite stands
this:--“Meet J. Y. on top of Black Law; walk back to Summerhope by way
of the old churchyard. Exquisite moonlight night. Scene inexpressibly
sad--feel of course very sentimental; and have a whole troop of
depressing thoughts and reminiscences,--some of which cause me to
heave sighs like the bellows of the Village Blacksmith. The ingenious
biographer will never guess what these sighs were for, nor have I any
intention of enlightening him.”
Finally, we may note that the holidays of the years 1863 and 1864 were
both spent in Scotland, the first on the shores of the Solway and on
the coast of Ayrshire; the second on the Moray Firth, then north to
Brora and south-west to Fort William and Oban. Both seem to have been
largely devoted to geological work, but were on a less ambitious scale
than many of those of later years.
The late spring and summer of 1864 saw James Geikie beginning work in
Ayrshire, where he was stationed for some years. With the end of 1864
we may say that his introductory period of life on the Survey closed.