From Andrew Ramsay 30 Sept 18551
Edinburgh 30 Sept 1855
My dear Tyndall
Your note2 reached me at Haddington3 where I was extra busy by day & night.
I have never been on the spot you describe,4 but I know something of the rocks on the banks of Lochlomond.5 If not perfect Gneiss the rock you saw belongs to the Gneissic family,6 viz Mica Quartz & felspar interlaminated in such twisted forms as those.
But there are many varieties of Gneiss and sometimes some one mineral is absent, scarce, imperfectly developed, or replaced by another.
The country you were in belongs to the great Gneiss & Mica schist district of Scotland. Gneiss & Mica schist often pass into each other. Unless I saw a specimen I could not positively name your rock.
By the middle or end of this week I expect to be in Wiltshire and Hampshire, one or both. If you are still there and want a ramble write to | 28 Jermyn St.7
I send this by Albemarle St8 lest you should have left Queenwood
Ever sincy | Andrew Ramsay
I spent two evgs with Samuel Brown at Haddington9 – certainly the most wonderful converser I ever met. His description of Forbes10 was unrivalled & unrivalable.
RI MS JT/1/R/3
Andrew Ramsay: Andrew Crombie Ramsay (1814–91) was a Scottish geologist who served as director of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom and held the chair of geology at the Royal School of Mines in London. They had first met at a Red Lions dinner in January 1853 (RI MS JT/2/13b/596).
Your note: note missing.
Haddington: The historic Royal Burgh of Haddington is 20 miles east of Edinburgh.
the spot you describe: A location – probably near Loch Lomond – visited during Tyndall’s recent visit to Scotland.
Lochlomond: see letter 1137, n. 9.
Gneissic family: Gneiss is a metamorphic rock (i.e., rock produced by chemical and physical forces operating at depth, such as pressure, heat, or volatile content) composed, like granite, of quartz, feldspar or orthoclase, and mica, but distinguished from it by its foliated or laminated structure (OED).
28 Jermyn St: As director of the Geological Survey Ramsay was located at the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street.
Albemarle St: the RI.
Samuel Brown at Haddington: The maverick Scottish chemist Samuel Brown (1817–56) was born at Haddington, 20 miles east of Edinburgh. ‘His [Brown’s] conversational powers, in particular, were more than remarkable’ (Anon., Review of ‘Experiments on Chemical Isomerism [etc.]’, North British Review, 26 (1856–7), pp. 376–406, on p. 400).
His description of Forbes: Brown’s reflections on the death of Edward Forbes were published in ibid., pp. 380–2.
Please cite as “Tyndall1143,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on