Professor Geikie Research Articles

1. Laboratory Note.—Analysis of Titaniferous Iron Sand from North Berwick

In an excursion of Professor Geikie's class to North Berwick (5th February), a layer of titaniferous iron sand was found lying along the shore for a short distance.The rocks at this locality consist chiefly of dull green and red trap-tuffs, traversed by dykes and veins of basalt. Immediately in front of the spot where the iron sand was met with several intrusive masses of dark heavy basalt occur. It was evidently from the decomposition and trituration of this rock that the iron sand came, which has been assorted by the waves along the upper margin of the beach.

On some Silurian fossils from the Pentland Hills

The first discovery of fossils in the Silurian rocks of the Pentland Hills is due to the labours of a former President of this Society, the able and distinguished geologist Charles Maclaren, who previous to 1849 discovered an Orthoceratite near the top of the North Esk. This was all that was known about the fossils in this locality until 1858, when Professor Geikie found Rhynconella compressa. Betwixt that date and 1861, Professor Geikie, the late Mr Salter, and Mr R. Gibbs of the Geological Survey, added a large number of fossils from this district, a description of which was published in the Survey’s Memoirs, sheet 32, of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. At that time only two localities were mentioned in which fossils had been found, viz., the North Esk, and the Silurian patch at Harehill, near Habbie’s Howe. Since then the late Mr George Haswell, Mr D. J. Brown, and myself, have added a considerable number of genera and species to Salter’s list. These have been brought under the notice of the Society from time to time, between the years 1864 and 1869. At this last date Mr Brown and myself added another locality to the two already known, viz., the district of the Lyne Water, where a number of organisms were got by us, only two of which could be determined, viz., Acroculia antiquata, and Pterinea retroflexa. Since that time, however, we have found beds containing a great abundance of Rhynconella Pentlandica, and Cythere umbilicata, clearly showing the relation

Inaugural Address by Professor Geikie, F.R.S. on ‘Earth sculpture and the Huttonian School of Geology’. [Fortieth Anniversary Meeting Thursday 6th November 1873

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. Among the questions which may be treated as matters of strict science, and which yet cannot be wholly divested of the strong human, one might almost say personal, interest which belongs to them, is the birth of mountains and valleys. The familiar outlines of his dwelling-place have fixed the attention of man from the infancy of the race up to the present day. Long before science arose to deal with them they had become inwoven with his history, his habits, and his creed. The great mountains had been to him emblems of majesty and eternity, lifting up their fronts to heaven as they had done from the beginning, and would no doubt do to the end. They rose before him as monuments of the power of that great Being who had heaved them out of chaos. It was enough for him in that early time to feel their mighty influences; he had then no questions or doubts as to how or when they first appeared upon the earth. Happily, in spite of questioning, exacting science, these first natural and instinctive feelings are not yet dead within us. A knowledge even of all the laws of mountain-making cannot, if our minds are healthy and our hearts beat true, deprive us wholly of that first genuine child-like awe and wonder in presence of noble mountains. Crag and cliff sweeping in rugged and colossal massiveness above dark waves of pine far into the keen and clear blue air; the vast mantle

The Secondary Rocks of Scotland

General Introduction The Highlands of Scotland have long been recognized as an unrivalled field of study for the physical geologist; but to the stratigraphical geologist and the palæontologist, who seek for evidence to aid them in reconstructing the geographical features and determining the biological characteristics of successive geological periods, they have, till of late years, been regarded as comparatively barren of interest. An exception to this general statement must be made, however, in favour of the Old Red Sandstone of the district, which has yielded such admirable results to the studies of Murchison, Sedgwick, Malcolmson, Hugh Miller, Agassiz, and others. Charles Peach's discovery in 1854 of Silurian fossils in Sutherland has already borne the most important fruit, and, in the hands of Murchison, Ramsay, Geikie, Harkness, and Jamieson, has afforded the necessary clue for determining the age of the great Primary masses of the Highlands. Similarly the discovery by the Duke of Argyll of Miocene vegetation in beds intercalated with the basalts of Mull has been the starting-point in elucidating the history of the Tertiary period in the Highlands. Professor Geikie has already laid before this Society the first of a series of papers in which he proposes to treat this interesting subject. The Secondary strata of the same area were, at so early a period as 1826, made the object of an admirable general survey by the late Sir Roderick Murchison; but the progress of geological science since that date appears to create a demand, and at the same

Introductory Address by Mr Milne Home of Milnegraden, Vice-President on the Post Pliocene Geology of Scotland. [Thirty-Ninth Anniversary Meeting Thursday 7th November 1872

It is the practice, as you know, in most scientific societies to commence the yearly session with an address from the President; the object being to inform members of the condition of the Society as regards its operations, and also of the present state of the particular science for the advancement of which the Society was established. Our President, Professor Geikie, having agreed to deliver a lecture in Leeds this evening, is prevented from giving an address to us, and in consequence I have been requested to take his place. I need not say that I have undertaken the duty with great reluctance, knowing how unable I am to discharge it in a way worthy of the Society; but as the Council were urgent that I should undertake it, I rely on your kind indulgence for the attempt I am to make, in obedience to the wishes of the Council. The object of our Society is to aid in the advancement of geology, and this we endeavour to do by encouraging our members to prosecute researches, holding meetings to hear the result of these researches, and publishing accounts of them when deemed worthy of a place in our Transactions. Those who died were Mr Hope Vere of Craigie Hall; Mr George C. Haswell; and Mr James Ferguson, coalmaster, Lesmahagow. Mr Haswell was at one time Secretary to the Society, and exerted himself to promote its efficiency. He possessed considerable scientific attainments, and having a facility of fluent speaking, was most

X. The Post-Tertiary Fossiliferous Beds of Scotland. XIII. Kilchattan, Bute. XIV. Tangy, Campbeltown

In this series of papers on the Post-Tertiary Deposits, it has been our desire all along to confine our attention to their fossil remains, and to some facts connected with their inorganic contents, avoiding, as far as possible, the introduction of theoretical matter. This will account for our passing over unnoticed many topics of interest with regard to glacial phenomena. The section now under review has been described by several writers, particularly by Mr. Jamieson in his valuable paper “On the Last Geological Changes in Scotland;”* and by Professor Geikie, in his well-known memoir on the “Phenomena of the Glacial Drift of Scotland,” published in the Transactions of this Society.† The deposit lies at the north-west side of Kilchattan Bay, beyond tide-mark, and dips seaward. Taking the beds in descending order, we find, as represented in the annexed cut:— 1. —Peaty mould: about 1 foot. 2. —Gravel: 3 to 5 feet. 3. —Muddy sand: 4 to 6 feet. 4. —Grey laminated clay: 6 to 7 feet. 5. —Reddish boulder clay: depth unknown. Passing over I. and II., it is in the stratum of muddy sand (III.) that the shells occur, and it is to be observed that they are more abundant therein towards the bottom than near the top. The proportion of sand in this layer is too great for tile-making, and it is therefore laid aside. The prevailing shells of this deposit are Tellina calcarea, Axinus flexuosus, Scrobicularia prismatica, Cyprina Islandica, Mya truncata, and Utriculus obtusus . Most of these reach a size rather above This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

IV.—On some Points in the Geology of the East Lothian Coast

The interesting relation between the Porphyrite of Whitberry Point, at the mouth of the Tyne near Dunbar, and the adjacent sedimentary rocks, was first noticed, we believe, by Professor Geikie, who speaks of it in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of East Lothian, pages 40 and 41, and again in the new edition of Jukes's Geology, pp. 269. The volcanic mass which forms the point, consists of a dark felspathic base with numerous crystals of augite: it is circular in form, and is exposed for two-thirds of its circumference in a vertical precipice facing the sea, about twenty feet in height.

On certain fossils found in the rocks underlying the South Side of Edinburgh

The rocks underlying the southern portion of Edinburgh have received very little attention from geologists. This is probably owing to the want of good open sections as well as to their unfossiliferous character. In a cutting opened for a drain along the High Street a number of years ago, a series of sandstones and reddish and greyish shales was exposed, with an easterly dip, showing an ascending series from the Castle Rock to Arthur’s Seat. Professor Geikie describes them as belonging to the lowest portion of the Lower Carboniferous group; and in his address to the British Association at Edinburgh in 1871, he gives it as his opinion, ‶that the lowest plant-bearing beds in this district occur in Arthur’s Seat,″ and evidently considers all the beds between Arthur’s Seat and the Castle Rock as unfossiliferous. In a cutting lately opened for a drain in the Forrest Road, at the south end of George IV. Bridge, a series of black and brown shales was exposed, which upon examination I found to contain numerous plant markings, such as striated stems like Calamites, along with a smooth frond or leaf not unlike a seaweed. On these fronds were a number of small circular dots, which looked like spores, but upon examination they turned out to be that well-known and characteristic little fossil Spirorbis carbonarius. I found these to be very abundant in the black shale; and some hard flakes, 2 or 3 inches thick, were nearly made up of the shells of this

The Estuary of the Forth and adjoining Districts viewed Geologically

The Estuary of the Forth and adjoining Districts viewed Geologically