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GEIKIE, SIR ARCHIBALD (1835- )

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 553 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GEIKIE, See also:SIR See also:ARCHIBALD (1835- ) , Scottish geologist, was See also:born at See also:Edinburgh on the 28th of See also:December 1835. He was educated at the high school and university of Edinburgh, and in 1855 was appointed an assistant on the See also:Geological Survey. Wielding the See also:pen with no less facility than the 'See also:hammer, .he inaugurated his See also:long See also:list of See also:works with The See also:Story of a See also:Boulder; or, Gleanings from the See also:Note-See also:Book of a Geologist (1858).. His ability at once attracted the See also:notice of his See also:chief, Sir See also:Roderick See also:Murchison, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, and whose biographer he subsequently became. With Murchison some of his earliest See also:work was done on the complicated regions of the Highland See also:schists; and the small geological See also:map of See also:Scotland published in 1862, was their See also:joint work: a larger map was issued by Geikie in 1892. In 1863 he published an important See also:essay " On the Phenomena of the Glacial See also:Drift of Scotland," Trans. Geol. See also:Soc. See also:Glasgow, in which the effects of See also:ice See also:action in that See also:country were for the first See also:time clearly and connectedly delineated. In 1865 appeared Geikie's Scenery of Scotland (3rd edition, 1901), which was, he claimed, " the first See also:attempt to elucidate in some detail the See also:history of the See also:topography of a country." In the same See also:year he was elected F.R. S. At this time the Edinburgh school of geologists—prominent among them Sir See also:Andrew See also:Ramsay, with his See also:Physical See also:Geology and See also:Geography of See also:Great Britain—were maintaining the supreme importance of denudation in the configuration of See also:land-surfaces, and particularly the erosion of valleys by the action of See also:running See also:water.

Geikie's book, based on extensive See also:

personal knowledge of the country, was an able contribution to the doctrines of the Edinburgh school, of which he himself soon began to See also:rank as one of the leaders. In 1867, when a See also:separate See also:branch of the Geological Survey was established for Scotland, he was appointed director. On the See also:foundation of the Murchison professorship of geology and See also:mineralogy at the university of Edinburgh in 1871, he became the first occupant of the See also:chair. These two appointments he continued to hold till 1881, when he succeeded Sir Andrew Ramsay in the joint offices of director-See also:general of the Geological Survey of the See also:United See also:Kingdom and director of the museum of See also:practical geology, See also:London, from which he retired in See also:February 19o1. A feature of his See also:tenure of See also:office was the impetus given to microscopic petrography, a branch of geology to which he had devoted See also:special study, by a splendid collection of sections _ of See also:British rocks. Later he wrote two important and interesting Survey See also:Memoirs, The Geology of Central and Western See also:Fife, and Kinross (1900), and The Geology of Eastern Fife (1902). From the outset of his career, when he started to investigate the geology of See also:Skye and other of the Western Isles, he took a keen See also:interest in volcanic geology, and in 1871 he brought before the Geological Society of London an outline of the See also:Tertiary volcanic history of See also:Britain. Many difficult problems, however, remained to be solved. Here he was greatly aided by his extensive travels, not only throughout See also:Europe, but in western See also:America. While the canyons of the See also:Colorado confirmed his long-See also:standing views on erosion, the eruptive regions of See also:Wyoming, See also:Montana and See also:Utah supplied him with valuable data in explanation of volcanic phenomena. The results of his further researches were given in an elaborate and charmingly written essay on " The History of Volcanic Action during the Tertiary See also:Period in the British Isles," Trans. See also:Roy, Soc.

Edin., (1888). His mature views on volcanic geology were given to the See also:

world in his presidential addresses to the Geological Society in 1891 and 1892. and afterwards embodied in his great work on The See also:Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain (1897). Other results of his travels are collected in his Geological Sketches at See also:Home and Abroad (1882). His experience as a See also:field geologist resulted in an admirable See also:text-book, Outlines of Field Geology (5th edition, 'goo). After editing and practically re-See also:writing See also:Jukes's Student's See also:Manual: of Geology in 1872, he published in 1882.a Text-Book and in 1886 `a Class-Book of geology, which have taken rank as See also:standard works of their See also:kind. A See also:fourth edition of his Text-Book, in two vols., was He was educated at the university of See also:Upsala, where in 1803 he carried off the See also:Swedish See also:Academy's great See also:prize for his Areminne Over Sten Shure den aldre. He graduated in 18o6, and in 18xo returned from a year's See also:residence in See also:England to become docent in his university. Soon afterwards he accepted a See also:post in the public See also:record office at See also:Stockholm, where, with some See also:friends, he founded the " See also:Gothic Society," to whose See also:organ Iduna he contributed a number of See also:prose essays and the songs Manhem, Vikingen, Den siste See also:kampen, Den siste skalden, Odalbonden, Kolargossen, which he set to See also:music. About the same time he issued a See also:volume of See also:hymns, of which several are inserted in the Swedish Psalter. See also:Geijer's lyric muse was soon after silenced by his See also:call to be assistant to Erik See also:Michael Fant, See also:professor of history at Upsala, whom he succeeded in 1817. In 1824 he was elected a member of the Swedish Academy. A single volume of a great projected. work, Svea Rikes Hafdcr, itself a masterly See also:critical examination of the See also:sources of See also:Sweden's legendary history, appeared in 1825.

Geijer's researches in its preparation had severely strained his See also:

health, and he went the same year on a tour through See also:Denmark and See also:part of See also:Germany, his impressions from which are recorded in his Minnen. In 1832-1836 he published three volumes of his Svenska folkets historia (Eng. trans. by J. H. See also:Turner, 1845), a clear view of the See also:political and social development of Sweden down to 1654. The acute critical insight, just thought, and finished See also:historical See also:art of these incomplete works of Geijer entitle him to the first See also:place among Swedish historians. His chief other historical and political writings are his Teckning af Sveriges hillstdnd 1718—1772 (Stockholm, 1838), and Feodalism och republikanism, ett bidrag till Samhallsf orfaltningens historia (1844), which led to a controversy with the historian Anders See also:Fryxell regarding the part played in history by the Swedish See also:aristocracy. Geijer also edited, with the aid of J. H. See also:Schroder, a continuation of Fant's Scriptores rerum svecicarum medii aevi (1818-1828), and, by himself, See also:Thomas Thorild's.Samlade skrifter 0819-1825), and Konung Gustaf III.'s efterlemnade See also:Popper (4 vols., 1843-1846). Geijer's See also:academic lectures, of which the last three, published in 1845 under the See also:title Om See also:var Lids inre samhdllsforMllanden, i synnerhet med afseende pd Faderneslandet, involved him in another controversy with Fryxell, but exercised a great See also:influence over his students, who especially testified to their See also:attachment after the failure of a See also:prosecution against him for See also:heresy. A number of his extempore lectures, recovered from notes, were published in 1856. He also wrote a See also:life of See also:Charles XIV.

(Stockholm, 1844). Failing health forced Geijer to resign his chair in 1846, after which he removed to Stockholm for the purpose of completing his Svenska folkets historia, and died there on the 23rd of See also:

April 1847. His Samlade skrifter (13 vols., 1849-1855; new ed., 1873-1877) include a large number of philosophical and political essays contributed to reviews, particularly to Litteraturbladet (1838-1839), a periodical edited by. himself, which attracted great See also:attention in its See also:day by its pronounced liberal views on public questions, a striking contrast to those he had defended in 1828-183o, when, as again in 1840—1841, he represented Upsala University in the Swedish See also:diet. His poems were collected and published as Skaldestycken (Upsala, 1835 and 1878). Geijer's See also:style is strong and manly. His See also:genius bursts out in sudden flashes that See also:light up the dark corners of history. A few strokes, and a See also:personality stands before us See also:instinct with life. His See also:language is at once the See also:scholar's and the poet's; with his profoundest thought there beats in unison the warmest, the noblest, the most patriotic See also:heart. Geijer came to the writing of history fresh from researches in the whole field of Scandinavian antiquity, researches whose first-fruits are garnered in numerous articles in Iduna, and his masterly See also:treatise Om den gamla nordiskg folkvisan, prefixed to the collection of Svenska folkvisor which he . edited with A. A. See also:Afzelius (3 vols.,1814-1816). The development of freedom is the See also:idea that' gives' unity to all his historical writings.

For Geijer's See also:

biography, see his own Minnen (1834), which contains copious extracts from his letters and diaries; B. E. Malmstrom, Minnestal ofver E. G. Geijer, addressed to the Upsala students (See also:June 6, 1848), and printed among his Tal och esthetiska afhandlingar (1868), 'and Grunddragen af Svenska vitterhetens hafder (1866-1868); issued in 1903. His writings are marked in a high degree by See also:charm of style and See also:power of vivid description. His See also:literary ability has given him See also:peculiar qualifications as a writer of scientific biography, and the Memoir of See also:Edward See also:Forbes (with G. See also:Wilson), and those of his old chiefs, SirR.I. Murchison (2 VOlS., 1875) and Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay (1895), are See also:models of what such works should be. His Founders of Geology consists of the inaugural course of Lectures (founded by Mrs G. H. See also:Williams) at Johns See also:Hopkins University, See also:Baltimore, delivered in 1897.

In 1897 he issued an admirable Geological Map of England and See also:

Wales, with Descriptive Notes. In 1898 he delivered the See also:Romanes Lectures, and his address was published under the title of Types of Scenery and their Influence on Literature. The study of geography owes its improved position in Great Britain largely to his efforts. Among his works on this subject is The Teaching of Geography (1887). His Scottish Reminiscences (1904) and Landscape in History and other Essays (1905) are charmingly written and full of instruction. He was See also:foreign secretary of the Royal Society from ago to 1894, joint secretary from 1903 to 1908, See also:president in 1909, president of the Geological Society in 1891 and 1892, and president of the British Association, 1892. He received the See also:honour of See also:knighthood in 1891.

End of Article: GEIKIE, SIR ARCHIBALD (1835- )

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