FINAL EDITION OF “THE GREAT ICE AGE”
1889-1903
At the beginning of 1889 Prof. Geikie was awarded the Murchison
medal of the Geological Society of London, “in acknowledgment of his
important contributions to the geology of North Britain, and especially
of his investigation of glacial phenomena.” A letter of cordial
congratulation from his old friend Mr Whitaker on the award speaks of
the writer’s own debt to the author, and of his adoption of a number
of the latter’s conclusions. In this year also he was made a D.C.L. of
Durham University.
[Illustration: [_Photo by Elliott & Fry._
PROF. GEIKIE AT THE AGE OF SIXTY.]
At this time Prof. Geikie had added to his university work proper a
course for women, who were as yet excluded from classes within the
building. At the end of the course, in the spring of 1890, he took the
members of the class on a long excursion to Birnam, to give them an
insight into field geology. The party was a gay one, and their doings
were celebrated by the leader in a series of verses, of which the
first runs as follows:--
Of the Geologic Class
Sing the glorious days’ renown
When to Birnam it did pass
From the tumults of the town--
A score of earnest students in their frocks,
Behold the learned band,
Each with hammer in her hand
Prepared to pound to sand
All the rocks.
Prof. Geikie’s muse was also active the same summer at the dinner of
the Edinburgh Royal Society Club, held in honour of Dr Nansen’s return
from Greenland, where he sang a song of his own composition which met
with a great reception. Its _motif_ was the joys of Greenland as a
place remote from civilisation, and a lament over the fact that, except
for that happy land, “the hale round world is tounifeed.”
In this year also he was President of the Geological Section at the
Newcastle-on-Tyne meeting of the British Association, and devoted his
presidential address to the subject of “Glacial Geology.”
In 1891 he returned to America, this time to deliver a course
of lectures at the Lowell Institute in Boston. This gave him an
opportunity to renew many pleasant friendships made during his previous
visit, but his stay was somewhat marred by an attack of influenza.
Among his papers are many notes of invitation and greeting, an
interesting one being from Prof. William James, which contains careful
instructions as to how the host’s house might be found, accompanied by
a sketch-map.
The following year saw the publication of an important paper “On the
Glacial Succession in Europe,” in regard to which the author says,
in a letter to his friend Prof. Stevenson of New York:--“I sincerely
believe that the conclusions will stand, no matter how extravagant they
may now appear to be.” This year also he was President of Section E
(Geography) at the Edinburgh meeting of the British Association, the
subject of his presidential address being the “Geographical Development
of Coast-lines.” Among the foreign guests at this meeting was the
Norwegian botanist, Prof. Blytt, who writes to thank him “most heartily
for all your great kindness to me during my stay in your beautiful
city.”
By this time Prof. Geikie’s university work had considerably increased,
for in 1891 he had been elected Convener of the Science Degrees
Committee, and, after a Faculty of Science had been instituted by
the Royal Universities Commission in 1894, he was elected Dean of
the Faculty, a post which he held till a year before his retirement
from the professorship. This brought him into contact with all the
science students, and gave him much to do in the way of organising and
arranging courses. As a result his feeling of strangeness to university
life seems to have passed away entirely, and he became thoroughly
absorbed in the life of the institution. The work of the Universities
Commission also greatly improved the status of his subject, and his
position as Dean gave him much influence in moulding the policy of
the University in regard to scientific education. A series of verses,
apparently never published, but written in support of an appeal for
more funds for university purposes, adopts a very different note from
the earlier verses which we have quoted, and show that too much stress
should not be laid upon those as representing more than a passing mood.
In 1893, in addition to various papers, a volume of collected essays
and addresses was published as _Fragments of Earth Lore_. But this
must have been merely a piece of byplay, as it were, for during 1892
and 1893 the laborious task of bringing _The Great Ice Age_ up to date
was being carried on. Thus on 29th January 1893 he writes to Prof.
Chamberlin of Chicago, saying:--
I have been busy of late in completing a new edition of my _Great
Ice Age_. So long a time has passed since the publication of the
last edition that I have found it necessary to rewrite the book. The
labour of boiling down the evidence obtained by the geologists of
Scandinavia, Russia, France, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, etc., has been
very great, and has rather taken it out of me, so that for the present
I am compelled to lay my MS. aside and do nothing!
But the interval of rest can only have been brief, for he writes again
on 12th March, saying:--
I am again slowly working at my book, in hope that I may have it
in the printer’s hands by the end of summer.... I have been truly
astonished to find that the voluminous materials which have been
collected during the last seventeen years in Europe, group themselves
without the least difficulty into a coherent and intelligible whole.
Until I had tabulated the results I was hardly prepared to find that
the evidence from all parts of Europe tallied so closely. Each bit of
the puzzle seems to drop into its place with ease.
The hope expressed in this letter was not fulfilled, for nearly a
year later, on 20th January 1894, we find him writing again to Prof.
Chamberlin, saying:--
In the course of week or two I hope to complete my new edition of
_The Great Ice Age_. The revision has given me more trouble than I
expected, chiefly on account of the large number of foreign papers
which I have had to read and digest, for I was anxious to exhaust the
evidence as far as I could....
I am hoping to put the manuscript in the printer’s hands by the end
of March or middle of April. I give myself that additional time, for
I wish to take another look at some of the deposits on the Baltic
coast lands before finally parting with my MS. As soon as I get rid
of my College duties I shall start on my flying visit to Denmark,
etc. Some very remarkable evidence has turned up recently in Tasmania
and Australia. Geologists will have to reconsider their notions as
to glaciation of our Antipodes in the light of the newly discovered
evidence. I much wish that I had a long purse, unlimited time at my
disposal, and a younger earthly tabernacle, for under those happy
conditions I should sail straight away for the South, to see what I
could see.
Prof. Chamberlin was supplying a sketch of the glacial phenomena of
North America, which forms Chapters XLI. and XLII. of the completed
book, and the correspondence between the two went on during the greater
part of this year, for the book was not published till autumn.
On 4th May he writes:--
I have just returned from a few weeks’ holiday in the Baltic coast
lands of North Germany and Denmark, where I had another opportunity of
studying the great moraines of the Baltic Glacier.... I am quite ready
for press--all the maps are engraved--and am most anxious to have the
book set up and corrected for press before the end of July. I shall
probably go abroad then: and it would be impossible to revise proofs
away from my library.
In the summer Prof. Geikie had a visit from his friend Prof. Stevenson
of New York. In an undated letter to the latter, apparently written in
early summer, arranging details about the visit, he says:--
I am sorry to hear about the nervousness. Having had it myself--for
three years--I know what it means. But, courage! _mon ami_, with care
you can stave off the enemy. The beast has been threatening me again
for some months past. But the work which caused him to look in upon
me, with his infernal grin, is now all but finished. In a fortnight I
shall be a free man! Then geology may go hang till winter. I wish I
had a long sail across the briny again, to Fiji or anywhere out of the
busy haunts of man.
The summer holiday was spent at Traquair on the Tweed, and in a letter
to Sir George Douglas written from there on 10th August, Prof. Geikie
says:--
I had thought at one time of going to the Continent, but here it is
more restful and that is what I wish. I have no news of any kind, but
am happy to say that I have at last escaped from the printer’s devil.
My _Penelope’s Web_ is out of my hands at last: and I shall do nothing
for the next month or two save loaf about the hills.
But as always there were delays at the last, and a month later he
writes to thank Prof. Chamberlin for some additional notes, saying:--
The notes were quite in time to be inserted in the proofs. The book
will not be “out” before October. The engravers have kept us back a
little; but it is no joke revising the proofs of 850 pages.... You may
be sure that an early copy of my book will be sent to you as soon as I
can get it out of the publisher’s hands. I am sorry, however, that it
is so big. I did what I could in the way of compression; but there is
so much new to tell.
In the autumn a very pleasant incident occurred, and as it is recorded
in letters sent to Prof. Chamberlin, they may be permitted to tell the
tale:--
_19th Oct 1894._
A short time ago I had a most gratifying letter from the Glacialists’
Excursion-party of the Geological Congress. The party (thirty in
number) embraced some of the best known European glacialists, and was
under the guidance of Penck, Brückner, and Du Pasquier. They went over
the sections showing the glacial succession in the Alpine Lands, and
were convinced that Penck’s interpretation of the facts were correct.
In short, they admit that there have been at least three separate
glacial epochs, and each separated from the other by long-continued
valley-erosion during interglacial times. The letter sent to me was
signed by all the excursionists. The evidence, indeed, is so striking
that one wonders that Alpine geologists should have been so tardy in
recognising it!
_29th Nov. 1894._
I do not think there would be any impropriety in publishing the letter
I received from the glacialists, and you are welcome to use it for
the _Journal_ if you think it worth while. The import of the letter
appeared in some German newspapers at the time; but I never thought
of publishing it here. Yet I see no reason why it should not appear
in your _Journal_[5]--only, I may be accused of personal vanity in
sending it to you. But there is really no vain-glory in the matter,
all that the writers say is simply that I would be pleased to see
that they had studied the evidence adduced by Penck, Brückner, and Du
Pasquier, and were convinced that the Alps had been glaciated three
times. I therefore enclose a copy of the letter, the signatures being
copied exactly as they are given. You will see the list includes some
of the best known glacialists of Europe.
[5] _The Journal of Geology_, of which Prof. Chamberlin is joint
editor.
COPY OF LETTER
RESTAURANT SCHLOSSBERG
AM STARNBERGER SEE,
_Sept. 23, 1894_.
DEAR PROFESSOR GEIKIE,--As members of the Glacialists’ Excursion we
have studied the superposition of three successive glaciations and
their interglacial deposits on both sides of the Alps, and we desire
to address our congratulations to the Author of _The Great Ice Age_
and to express our regret that you were unable to be one of the party
and see for yourself a series of exposures which would have a very
special interest for you.--We are, with sincere regards,
Signed--
ALBRECHT PENCK.
EDUARD BRÜCKNER.
LÉON DU PASQUIER.
ANDRÉ DELEBECQUE.
HUGH ROBERT MILL, London.
Dr ANDR. M. HANSEN, Kristiania.
Dr K. KEILHACK, Berlin.
Dr S. ZIMMERMANN, Berlin.
Professor Dr A. JENTZSCH, Konigsberg.
PROF. Dr G. BERENDT, Berlin.
Dr GREIN, Darmstadt.
LEO WEHRLI, Zürich.
Professor Dr WAHNSCHAFFE, Berlin.
A. W. PAVLOW, Moscow.
Dr WILLI ULE, Halle a/S.
Prof. Dr FRITZ REGEL, Jena.
Prof. A. P. PAVLOV, Moscow.
Dr AUG. AEPPLI, Zürich.
Dr F. MÜHLBERG, Aarau.
E. FLOURNOY, Genève.
J. LORIÉ, Utrecht.
IMMANUEL FRIEDLAENDER, Berlin.
Prof. A. WOEIKOF, St Petersbourg.
Dr HAV. PFEIFER.
DUGALD BELL, Glasgow.
Mrs D. BELL.
Dr ADOLF FORSTER, Wien.
Dr A. SCHENCK, Halle a/S.
BERNARD HOBSON, Manchester.
The third edition of _The Great Ice Age_ duly appeared in the autumn
of 1894, and some extracts from a letter written by Prof. Stevenson
may help to show the impression produced on a fellow-worker by the
contemplation of the toil involved. Prof. Stevenson says, under date
30th May 1895:--
I have been working away over your _Ice Age_. It is a wonder you
were not frozen solid during the work. Collation and comparison of
observations upon the American Carb.[6] are bad enough, but the
conflicts are as nothing compared with those with which you have had
to deal. I can well imagine that [you] felt as you penned the last
chapter as Captain Marryat did once, when he closed the title of his
last chapter with “And the author says ‘Thank God.’”
[6] That is the Carboniferous beds of North America, the work
upon which Prof. Stevenson was himself engaged.
The next few years were passed in the usual round of writing and
teaching. In 1896 a third edition of the _Outlines of Geology_
appeared, and in 1898 a number of lectures and papers were collected
together in book form as _Earth Sculpture, or the Origin of
Land-forms_, which ran through several editions.
In 1897 the Edinburgh Royal Society Club entertained Dr Nansen to
dinner on his return from the _Fram_ expedition, and Prof. Geikie,
who was always the life of such gatherings, sang a song of his own
composition which was greatly appreciated.
Among the letters of these years, which include many to American and
continental friends, is one to Prof. Stevenson from which the following
passages, as representing a considered opinion, may be quoted:--
It is certainly a pity that the men who can work and would fain devote
themselves to original investigation, are often prevented doing so by
the necessities of life. I am not so sure, however, that some of them
would do work if they were placed in an independent position.... I’m
much afraid that man on the whole is a lazy beast, and needs some kind
of whip or bribe to make him live laborious days.
During the course of 1900 Prof. Geikie had a pretty compliment paid to
him from across the Atlantic. On his first journey across he made the
acquaintance of Mr Louis Elson, a professor of music at Boston. The
friendship so begun was kept up in later years, and Mr Elson dedicated
one of his books, _Shakespeare in Music_, to “Prof. James Geikie,
LL.D., D.C.L., of Edinburgh University, with cordial remembrance of
many pleasant conferences on this and kindred topics.” Another American
recognition of his work was the naming by the U.S. Geological Survey
of Mount Geikie, in the Wind River range of the Rocky Mountains in
Wyoming, in his honour. The mountain reaches a height of 12,546 feet.
The information has been kindly supplied by Mr J. G. Bruce of the
Forest Service, Lander, Wyoming.
In the spring of this year Prof. Geikie made a tour with a friend to
the Pyrenees, a tour which made a great impression upon him, and seems
to have been an unqualified success. Some charming letters to his wife
describe incidents of the journey, the letters, like all similar
family correspondence, being full of regrets that no members of his own
household accompanied him. Though the visit was made very early in the
season, in the month of April, and the snow still lay deep in the high
valleys, the weather was almost perfect, and the two friends took many
long excursions. Among these was one to St Bertrand de Cominges, which
attracted Prof. Geikie strongly. In a letter written from Luchon to Mrs
Geikie in regard to it he says:--
Yesterday we had a most interesting excursion to see an old fortified
mediæval cathedral town. You would have enjoyed it. It was quaint and
picturesque beyond measure. Evidently, now, cathedral and town are in
a backwater--the flood of life has long gone past them. The church,
however, contains magnificent wood-carving of the 13th century. It
was the kind of town of which one sometimes dreams--hardly a town,
but a sleepy village perched on a high rock with a wide outlook over
the lowlands, and a grand view of the snow-capped mountains to the
south. I saw one old house--or the top of it, rather--was for sale.
It had quaint dormer windows and corbel gables, and was shut off from
the narrow street by a high gate of weather-worn carved oak, hundreds
of years old. I was tempted to buy it--when you and I tired of the
world we could retreat to the seclusion of that sleepy old village,
and dream the days away. The sun was as usual blazing from a cloudless
sky, and as I leaned over the old battlements of the wall I could see
that the wall from top to base was aflare with wallflowers and other
plants, while mosses, ferns, and lichens were everywhere, every stone
encrusted with moss and every crevice of the masonry stocked with
flowers, etc.
In the same letter he says:--
Walking in the scorching heat is most fatiguing. I had over
twenty miles of such walking the other day, and will not repeat
the experience. All the same I delight in the blaze--the heat and
lightness seem to penetrate your skin and work their way to your very
vitals. How one’s blood courses! and how the old youthful feelings
come back!
Another passage from a later letter, written from Argelès, may be
quoted, less for its description than for the light it casts upon the
character of its author. It may be noted that by this time he was the
father of the much longed-for “wee lassie,” who had been born a few
years before. He says:--
The wee lassies are most delightful to look at. Many of them, as I
have already mentioned, are little beauties. Such sweet, demure,
kissable wee things they are, with their hair neatly done up, and
hanging down in a plait behind. They are all bare-headed and all are
dark. Brown to black hair, with soft liquid brown eyes, rich red lips,
and a rosy flush in their tawny faces.... In years to come I will
often dream of the bonny wee toddlers I stopped on the road to pet and
fondle in these beautiful valleys. R. was as much struck as I with the
children. But as I have my own wee lassie in my thoughts, he probably
did not feel his heart in his mouth and his eyes water as the wee ones
passed us on the road.
To these letters, written during the trip, may be added some extracts
from one written to a member of the family circle after his return
home. On 29th May he writes from Edinburgh:--
Since my return from France I have been driven from post to pillar,
doing my best to clear off arrears. Now I am in a way “redd up,” and
able to look round.... I feel quite rejuvenated with my trip.... I saw
much that was very interesting to me as a geologist and much also that
was beautiful, so that my memory is now stored with a fresh series of
lovely visions--of picturesque and quaint people.... I have looked out
one or two places to which some day I hope to take Mary and (if my
purse is long enough) the wee lassie--that is when she is bigger! But
half my life has been spent in dreams and plans for the future, and
_some_ only of these have been realised.
The letter goes on to speak of that great May function in Edinburgh,
the Commissioner’s garden-party. Mrs Geikie and their eldest son were
to go to this--“Stewart will go as ‘Professor Geikie.’ The professor
himself can’t be induced to go, and (as this is a holiday for him at
college) he is taking Mary Dorothea out to Mortonhall Golf Club-house
for afternoon tea. The young lady has been looking forward to this
treat ever since I came home.”
The identity of the “young lady” will perhaps be apparent without
explanation.
In 1901 Prof. Geikie was made an Honorary Member of the New York
Academy of Sciences, his name having been brought up by his friend
Prof. Stevenson. In writing to thank the latter he speaks of his hope
of being again able to visit America, saying that as soon as “my lads
clear out from the nest, it will be easier for Mrs Geikie and me to go
off on a long holiday.” The future careers of his sons were at this
time occupying a large share of his thoughts, for the three elder boys
were ready to begin life on their own account.
He had a few years before taken to bicycling, and was full of the
pleasure and health he found in the exercise. During this year also
his friend, Mr Elson of Boston, paid the family a visit at Beauly
during the summer holiday, a visit of which Mr Elson speaks with
both enthusiasm and gratitude in later letters.
The next year or two repeat the same tale of work and play, the latter
including much bicycling, and a visit to Norway in 1903. In 1903 he
writes to his eldest son:--“To-day I am sixty-four, and feel no older
than I was twenty years ago. Indeed I am younger than I was four or
five years ago.” Of work it need only be said that new editions of two
of his books appeared in these years, _Earth Sculpture_ in 1902, and
_Outlines of Geology_ (fourth edition) in 1903. Mention of an entirely
new book may be reserved for the next chapter. A pleasant little
incident of the summer of 1903 was a postcard from the Glacialists’
Excursion of the International Geological Congress, who sent, from
Telfs in Tyrol, “Greetings and best wishes to the Nestor of Glacial
Geology.” Such greetings were a frequent and always a pleasant
experience.