Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay

Published in 1895, this biography covers the active and sometimes controversial career of a leading Victorian field geologist.

Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay (1814–91) was particularly interested in the effects of glaciation on the landscape. His work for the Geological Survey resulted in significant progress in the field of geomorphology, notably in the understanding of lake basins. This biography by his colleague Archibald Geikie was published in 1895.Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay (1814–91) was a British geologist with a particular interest in the effects of glaciation on the landscape. He travelled in Europe and America, and was a keen climber. His first work, Geology of the Island of Arran (1840), also published in this series, attracted the attention of Roderick Murchison, who found him employment with the Geological Survey, and Ramsay later succeeded Murchison as its director. He carried out important fieldwork in Wales, taught at University College London and the Royal School of Mines, and published a successful textbook. Another major contribution was his work on the origin of lakes: his controversial 1862 proposal that glaciers could hollow out lake basins even in the absence of earth movements was eventually accepted. Ramsay's younger colleague at the Geological Survey, Sir Archibald Geikie (1835–1924), who also wrote a biography of Murchison, published this memoir in 1895.