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The Archaean controversy in Britain: Part I—The Rocks of St David's

D.R. Oldroyd School of Science and Technology Studies, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, 2033, Australia
Pages 407-452 | Received 30 Nov 1990, Published online: 22 Aug 2006

  • Oldroyd , D.R. 1990 . The Highlands Controversy: Constructing Geological Knowledge through Fieldwork in Nineteenth-Century Britain Chicago and London
  • At present, the term ‘Archaean’ (Archaios = pertaining to the beginning) is used to designate the middle aeon of the Proterozoic. But in the nineteenth century it was used (as a term for both system and period) as an approximate synonym for the Precambrian. The term was coined by Dana J.D. Green Mountain geology: On the quartzite American Journal of Science and Arts 1872 3 179 186 in 1872 series 3 250–6 (p. 253). A considerable number of alternative divisions of the Precambrian have been proposed in recent years. For details, see W. B. Harland et al., The Geological Time Scale 1989 (Cambridge, 1990), p. 15 and passim. For a valuable survey of earlier usages, see M. G. Wilmarth, The Geological Time Classification of the United States Geological Survey Compared with Other Classifications Accompanied by the Original Definitions of Era, Period and Epoch Terms (United States Geological Survey, Bulletin 769) (Washington, 1925).
  • On this, see particularly Secord J.A. Controversy in Victorian Geology: The Cambrian-Silurian Dispute Princeton 1986
  • The history of investigations in the Charnwood Forest area has been examined in the following publications: Watts W.W. The Geology of the Ancient Rocks of Charnwood Forest Leicestershire Leicester 1947 124 134 T. D. Ford, ‘The history of the study of the Precambrian rocks of Charnwood Forest, England’, in History of Concepts in Precambrian Geology, edited by W. O. Kupsch and W. A. S. Sarjeant (Toronto, 1979), pp. 65–80.
  • See, however Challinor J. The “Precambrian” in Cambria Geological Magazine 1976 113 449 456 J. Challinor, ‘History of the study of the “Pre-Cambrian” in Wales’, in Kupsch and Sarjeant, op. cit. (footnote 5), pp. 32–49; B. Hamilton, ‘British geologists’ changing perceptions of Precambrian time in the nineteenth century’, Earth Sciences History, 8 (1989), 141–9. For bibliographical information, see D. A. Bassett, Bibliography and Index of Geology and Allied Sciences for Wales and the Welsh Borders 1536–1896 (Cardiff, 1963); and D. A. Bassett, Bibliography and Index of Geology and Allied Sciences for Wales and the Welsh Borders 1897–1958 (Cardiff, 1963).
  • George , T.N. 1970 . British Regional Geology: South Wales , 3rd edn London
  • Bassett , M.G. , ed. 1982 . Geological Excursions in Dyfed, South-West Wales Cardiff
  • Earp , J.R. 1973 . Geological Special Sheet … St David's. Scale 1: 25000 Southampton (I understand that a revised edition of this map is to be issued in 1991.)
  • Oldroyd , D.R. 1971 . The Vulcanist-Neptunist dispute reconsidered . Journal of Geological Education , 19 : 124 – 129 .
  • Rudwick , M.J.S. 1962 . Hutton and Werner compared: George Greenough's geological tour in Scotland . British Journal for the History of Science , 1 : 117 – 135 .
  • Kidd , J. 1814 . Notes on the mineralogy of the neighbourhood of St David's, Pembrokeshire . Transactions of the Geological Society of London , 2 : 79 – 93 . series 1
  • Kidd . 1814 . Notes on the mineralogy of the neighbourhood of St David's, Pembrokeshire . Transactions of the Geological Society of London , 2 : 79 – 79 . series 1
  • De la Beche , H.T. Geological notes on area. Pembrokeshire [Summer of 1822, F. J. North] National Museum of Wales 84.20G.D351. (These notes have been transcribed in typescript by Paul McCartney, and the typescript is held in the archive with the original manuscript.)
  • De la Beche H.T. On the geology of Southern Pembrokeshire Transactions of the Geological Society of London 1823 2 1 20 series 2 De la Beche reported (p. 1) that Conybeare had revisited the district in 1816, and had ‘succeeded in ascertaining the general structure of the district’. But hampered by bad weather and lack of an adequate topographical map on which to enter his observations, Conybeare did not complete his work or publish his results.
  • De la Beche , H.T. 1823 . On the geology of Southern Pembrokeshire . Transactions of the Geological Society of London , 2 : 2 – 2 . series 2
  • Murchison , R.I. Field notebook ‘1835, Vol. 21, [started] September 17th’, LDGSL 839 N76 Vol. 21 , 119 – 119 .
  • Murchison , R.I. Field notebook ‘1835, Vol. 21, [started] September 17th’, LDGSL 839 N76 Vol. 21 , 121 – 121 .
  • Murchison , R.I. Field notebook ‘1835, Vol. 21, [started] September 17th’, LDGSL 839 N76 Vol. 21 , 116 – 116 .
  • Murchison , R.I. 1833–1838 . On the geological structure of Pembrokeshire, more particularly on the extension of the Silurian System of rocks into the coast cliffs of that county . Proceedings of the Geological Society of London , 2 : 226 – 230 .
  • Murchison , R.I. 1839 . The Silurian System, Founded on Geological Researches in the Counties of Salop, Hereford, Radnor, Montgomery, Caermarthen, Brecon, Pembroke, Monmouth, Gloucester, Worcester, and Stafford; with Descriptions of the Coal-Fields and Overlying Formations … In Two Parts London (Murchison's ‘imperial’ character has frequently been remarked on. It is worth noting how he gave a long list of counties which severally formed, as it were, provinces of his Silurian kingdom.)
  • Murchison , R.I. 1839 . The Silurian System, Founded on Geological Researches in the Counties of Salop, Hereford, Radnor, Montgomery, Caermarthen, Brecon, Pembroke, Monmouth, Gloucester, Worcester, and Stafford; with Descriptions of the Coal-Fields and Overlying Formations … In Two Parts 398 – 402 . London
  • Murchison , R.I. 1858 . “ The quartz rocks, crystalline limestones, and micaceous schists of the north-west Highlands of Scotland proved to be of Silurian age, through the recent discoveries of Mr C. Peach ” . In British Association Report 1857 82 – 83 . London
  • For De la Beche's establishment of the Survey work in South Wales, see North F.J. Further chapters in the history of geology in South Wales; Sir H. T. De la Beche and the Geological Survey Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society 1934 67 31 103
  • Ramsay , A.C. 1841 . The Geology of the Island of Arran, from Original Survey Glasgow and London
  • Ramsay's pocket diaries for the period of his Pembroke work are held in the archives of Imperial College London
  • Ramsay to De la Beche, 25 July, 1841 (National Museum of Wales, 84.20G.D1706). Ramsay's biographer, Archibald Geikie, also mentions a ‘Report on the work entrusted to A. C. Ramsay in North Pembrokeshire, and part of Cardiganshire and Carmarthen', which was not published but which was held in the Survey archives. See Geikie A. Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay London and New York 1895 51 51 Unfortunately, this document does not appear to have survived, though sections of it were quoted by Geikie in one of his papers: ‘On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's’, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London [hereinafter QJGS], 39 (1883), 261–326 (pp. 263–4).
  • The colours represented different rocks as follows: ‘syenite’—green; ‘hypersthene rock’—green with red spots; granite—pink; ‘Lower Silurian and Cambrian’—pale grey; Carboniferous—brown. An undated sheet, giving the colour scheme to be employed in the Survey's maps, is held in the Survey's present map collection. According to an undated two-page typed document prepared by the Map Library of the Institute of Geological Sciences (‘Standardisation of colours and symbols on geological maps before 1900’), indices of colours were issued in 1834, 1839, 1844, 1856, 1865, 1867, 1871, and 1874, being developments of De la Beche's initial Colours to be Employed in Colouring Geologically Sheets 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 & 27 of the Ordnance Map of Great Britain (1832), which scheme was approved by the Board of Ordnance and the Council of the Geological Society. On the early colourings of British geological maps, see further: Cook K.S. Design sources of the first Ordnance geological survey map: Sir Henry T. De la Beche and the Geological Society of London paper presented to the 12th International Conference on the History of Cartography' paper presented to the 12th International Conference on the History of Cartography' Paris paper presented to the 12th International Conference on the History of Cartography' Paris 1987 (mimeo.)
  • Geikie . 1895 . Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay 231 – 231 . London and New York
  • Geikie . 1895 . Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay 232 – 232 . London and New York
  • Geikie . 1895 . Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay 52 – 52 . London and New York Geikie also stated that Ramsay felt able to adopt a new view of the St David's rocks in the light of his North Wales work. (See A. Geikie, The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, 2 vols [London, 1897], I, 145.)
  • Geikie . 1895 . Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay 52 – 53 . London and New York
  • On Hicks, see Anon Dr Henry Hicks, F.R.S., F.G.S. Geological Magazine 1899 6 574 575 decade 4 W. Whitaker, ‘Dr Henry Hicks, F.R.S.’, QJGS, 56 (1900), lviii–lix; and H. B. Woodward, ‘Dr Henry Hicks, F.R.S.’, Nature, 61 (1899–1900), 109–10. Hicks came from a well-connected family that had moved from Yorkshire to Wales in the seventeenth century, as may be seen from his family tree published in H. N. Jones, History of St David's: With Treasures of Heredity Christianity (n.p., n.d.), p. 40. The family had ecclesiastical connections at St David's, but his father, Dr Thomas Hicks, was the local doctor. Hicks followed his father's profession, being trained at Guy's and St Andrews University. In the 1860s, he was practising medicine at St David's, but in 1871 he moved to Hendon, presumably to be closer to the intellectual centre of gravity in Britain. He must have been a man of considerable wealth, to judge by a picture of his Hendon mansion, published by Jones (p. 36). Hicks, it seems, was first interested in geology by a relative on his maternal side, and subsequently by his connection with Salter.
  • On Salter, see Huxley T.H. John William Salter, A.L.S., F.G.S. QJGS 1870 36 xxxvi xxxix and J. A. Secord, ‘John W. Salter: the rise and fall of a Victorian palaeontological career’, in From Linnaeus to Darwin: Commentaries on the History of Geology and Biology, edited by A. Wheeler and J. H. Price (London, 1985), pp. 61–75. Salter had been apprentice to the celebrated conchologist, J. de C. Sowerby, and he married his daughter. Salter was introduced to Sedgwick at Cambridge and assisted in classifying the fossils in the Woodwardian Museum. He received some informal training in geological fieldwork in Wales from Sedgwick, but also became a protégé of Murchison. He gained a position as assistant palaeontologist to the Survey, and was promoted to palaeontologist in 1854. But thereafter his career did not flourish, apparently owing to some king of mental affliction; and in the end he was virtually forced to resign at the insistence of Huxley, who was dissatisfied with his work. At his best, Salter was an expert palaeontologist, especially with Palaeozoic fossils, and he knew a good deal of geology which he could pass on to Hicks. Very likely, he also transmitted a dislike for the Londoners who held the reins of power in the geological community.
  • Salter , J.W. 1863 . On the discovery of Paradoxides in Britain . QJGS , 19 : 274 – 247 . (The fossil was named after Salter's friend, David Homfray of Portmadoc, not in honour of St David's.) Hicks also wrote on the fossils of Porth y Rhaw: ‘On the Lower Lingula Flags of St David's, Pembrokeshire’, Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society, session 5 (1863–64), 12–21.
  • Salter , J.W. 1865 . “ On some new forms of Olenoid trilobites from the lowest fossiliferous rocks of Wales ” . In British Association Report, 1864 67 – 67 . London
  • Salter , J.W. 1865 . “ On the old Pre-Cambrian (Laurentian) island of St David's, Pembrokeshire ” . In British Association Report, 1864 67 – 68 . London See also ‘A Pre-Cambrian island at St David's, Pembrokeshire’, Geological Magazine, decade 1, 1 (1864), 289–90.
  • Holl , H.B. 1865 . On the geological structure of the Malvern Hills and adjacent districts . QJGS , 21 : 72 – 102 . Holl's paper was read in June 1864, not long before the presentation of Salter's theory. It should be noticed that another amateur geologist, the Reverend W. S. Symonds, whom we shall encounter in Part II of the present study, claimed that it was he who first had the idea of a Precambrian ‘island’ at St David's. See W. S. Symonds, ‘On the geology of Church Stretton and Ludlow’, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1 (1878), 395–429 (p. 395). Possibly Symonds did no more than convey Holl's idea to Salter.
  • Later, however, Hicks maintained that he and Salter developed the idea of a Precambrian island at St David's together. See Hicks H. On the Pre-Cambrian (Dimetian and Pebidian) rocks of St David's QJGS 1877 33 229 241 (p. 229). (The paper was read on November 22, 1876.)
  • Salter , J.W. 1865 . To the editor of the Geological Magazine . The Geological Magazine , 1 : 430 – 431 . decade 1
  • The research was aided by grants from the British Association. See Hicks H. Salter J.W. Second report on the “Menevian Group” and the other formations at St David's, Pembrokeshire British Association Report, 1866 London 1867 182 186 The term Menevian was introduced as one of the subdivisions of the Cambrian. Menevia was the Latinized form of Menyw, the former name of St David's. The current classification of the Cambrian of the St David's area is: 1. Caerfai Series (with the conglomerate previously referred to at its base); 2. Solva Series; 3. Menevian Series; 4. Lingula Flags.
  • Hicks , H. 1872–73 . On the classification of the Cambrian and Silurian rocks . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 3 : 99 – 105 .
  • Hicks , H. 1873 . On the Tremadoc rocks in the neighbourhood of South Wales and their fossil content . QJGS , 29 : 39 – 52 .
  • George . 1970 . British Regional Geology: South Wales , 3rd edn 16 – 16 . London The rocks Hicks claimed for the Tremadoc Series are today usually located in the Arenig Series at the bottom of the Ordovician. The correct placement of Tremadoc rocks remains a contentious issue amongst geologists. They contain graptolites, and thus might be placed more tidily in the Ordovician rather than the Cambrian, which otherwise lacks graptolites.
  • Hicks . On the classification of the Cambrian and Silurian rocks . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 3 102 – 102 . The suggestion of stratification in the ‘Laurentian’ (later to be named ‘Dimetian’) should be noted.
  • Hicks . 1873 . On the Tremadoc rocks in the neighbourhood of South Wales and their fossil content . QJGS , 29 : 39 – 52 . Figure 1, 40.
  • Hicks , H. 1875 . On the succession of the ancient rocks in the vicinity of St David's, Pembrokeshire, with special reference to those of the Arenig and Llandeilo groups, and their fossil contents . QJGS , 31 : 167 – 195 . and plates.
  • Hicks , H. 1875 . On the succession of the ancient rocks in the vicinity of St David's, Pembrokeshire, with special reference to those of the Arenig and Llandeilo groups, and their fossil contents . QJGS , 31 : 167 – 167 .
  • Hicks , H. 1875 . On the succession of the ancient rocks in the vicinity of St David's, Pembrokeshire, with special reference to those of the Arenig and Llandeilo groups, and their fossil contents . QJGS , 31 : 167 – 167 . Plate VIII, Figure 2.
  • Hicks , H. 1875 . On the succession of the ancient rocks in the vicinity of St David's, Pembrokeshire, with special reference to those of the Arenig and Llandeilo groups, and their fossil contents . QJGS , 31 : 193 – 193 . (discussion). This, of course, was simply the Survey doctrine, embodied in the 1857 edition of Map 40.
  • Hicks , H. 1875 . The physical conditions under which the Cambrian rocks were probably deposited over the European area . QJGS , 31 : 552 – 558 .
  • Hicks , H. 1875 . The physical conditions under which the Cambrian rocks were probably deposited over the European area . QJGS , 31 : 557 – 557 .
  • Hicks , H. 1875 . The physical conditions under which the Cambrian rocks were probably deposited over the European area . QJGS , 31 : 557 – 557 .
  • Hicks . 1872–73 . On the classification of the Cambrian and Silurian rocks . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 3 : 99 – 105 .
  • Hicks . 1872–73 . On the classification of the Cambrian and Silurian rocks . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 3 : 230 – 230 .
  • Hicks . 1872–73 . On the classification of the Cambrian and Silurian rocks . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 3 : 230 – 230 .
  • Hicks . 1877 . On the Pre-Cambrian (Dimetian and Pebidian) rocks of St David's . QJGS , 33 : 235 – 235 .
  • Hicks . 1877 . On the Pre-Cambrian (Dimetian and Pebidian) rocks of St David's . QJGS , 33 : 238 – 239 .
  • Hicks , H. 1878 . Additional notes on the Dimetian and Pebidian rocks of Pembrokeshire . QJGS , 34 : 153 – 163 .
  • Hicks , H. 1878 . On some Pre-Cambrian (Dimetian and Pebidian) rocks in Caernarvonshire . QJGS , 34 : 147 – 152 .
  • Hicks , H. 1879 . “ On some new areas of Pre-Cambrian rocks in North Wales ” . In British Association Report, 1878 536 – 537 . London
  • Hicks , H. 1879 . On a new group of Pre-Cambrian rocks (the Arvonian) in Pembrokeshire . QJGS , 35 : 285 – 291 . and ‘On the classification of the British Pre-Cambrian rocks’, British Association Report, 1880 (London, 1881), pp. 351–2.
  • Hicks H. The classification of the Eozoic and Lower Cambrian Palaeozoic rocks of the British Isles Popular Science Review 1881 5 289 308 new series (Hicks used the term Eozoic here in deference to the geologists of the Canadian Geological Survey, who supposed that they had found an organism, Eozoon, in the Laurentian rocks of Canada.)
  • National Library of Wales MS 4440 C. This document bears the following information on its front cover: ‘From the Library of Henry Hicks, M.D., F.R.S. (1837–1899). President of the Geological Society 1896–8. Presented by his Daughters, Mrs Knethell Green, Glanymor, St David's and Mrs Richardson, Cilauwen, Letterston, Pembrokeshire, 12 May, 1911’.
  • Hicks , H. 1883 . On some recent researches among Pre-Cambrian rocks in the British Isles . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 7 : 59 – 87 . and 281–97.
  • Oldroyd . 1990 . The Highlands Controversy: Constructing Geological Knowledge through Fieldwork in Nineteenth-Century Britain Chicago and London
  • Hicks , H. 1883–84 . The succession in the Archaean rocks of America, compared with that in the Pre-Cambrian rocks of Europe . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 8 : 255 – 277 . Hicks, it may be noted, was at that time President of the Geologists' Association, the organization that was the particular vehicle for the presentation of the views of amateur geologists and the ‘amateur party’ in the Archaean dispute.
  • On Hunt's work, see his Chemical and Geological Essays Boston and London 1875 and W. H. Brock, ‘Chemical geology or geochemistry?’, in L. J. Jordanova and R. S. Porter, editors, Images of the Earth: Essays in the History of the Environmental Sciences (Chalfont St Giles, 1979), 147–70.
  • Hicks . National Library of Wales 18 – 18 . and (footnote 87), 262–67.
  • Hicks . 1883–84 . The succession in the Archaean rocks of America, compared with that in the Pre-Cambrian rocks of Europe . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 8 : 262 – 267 .
  • Hunt T.S. The history of some Pre-Cambrian rocks in America and Europe American Journal of Science 1880 19 268 283 series 3 (p. 270), emphasis added). It may be noted that this paper also provides some evidence for the influence of Swedish knowledge on the ideas of Hicks and Hunt. For Hunt mentioned (p. 277) that Hicks had been at work at St David's in 1878 with T. McKenny Hughes and E. B. Tawney of Cambridge, Hunt, and Dr Otto Torell of Sweden. Torell, we may suppose, pointed out some similarities between the petrosilexes/hälleflintas of St David's and rocks to be found in his own country. Hunt had noted American/Swedish analogies for such rocks in 1876.
  • Oldroyd . 1990 . The Highlands Controversy: Constructing Geological Knowledge through Fieldwork in Nineteenth-Century Britain Chicago and London
  • Ramsay , A.C. 1881 . “ On the recurrence of certain phenomena in geological time ” . In British Association Report, 1880 2 – 22 . London (p. 22, emphasis in original).
  • Geikie , A. 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 261 – 326 .
  • With his friend and colleague, John Horne, Peach played a major role in elucidating the geological structure of the Northwest Highlands. See Oldroyd The Highlands Controversy: Constructing Geological Knowledge through Fieldwork in Nineteenth-Century Britain Chicago and London 1990
  • It is well known that in his Founders of Geology 1897 Geikie poured the utmost scorn on Werner's Neptunism. I suggest that Geikie's text was partly motivated by the heat generated in his own time by the Archaean controversy.
  • Geikie . 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 271 – 271 .
  • See George British Regional Geology: South Wales , 3rd edn London 1970 12 13 Here it is referred to as an alaskite-granophyre.
  • Geikie . 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 277 – 277 . Figure 5
  • Geikie . 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 278 – 278 . Figure 6
  • Geikie On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's QJGS 1883 39 287 287 Figure 7 (The sandstone is here regarded as the younger rock, the sequence having been inverted by the rocks being tilted beyond the vertical.)
  • Geikie . 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 280 – 280 .
  • Geikie . 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 318 – 318 .
  • Geikie . 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 318 – 319 .
  • In what follows, I give a summary of the officially reported account. There is, in fact, also an eyewitness account, made by a member of the Sedgwick Club, the undergraduate geology society at the University of Cambridge, held in the archives of this club. This shows that the actual proceedings were infinitely more vehement than they appear to have been from the sanitized published version. I am grateful to Paul Pearson for drawing my attention to this ‘uncensored’ record of events. He is planning to publish the uncensored text, which will be of considerable value in revealing the differences that sometimes occurred between the official versions of events, as published in the QJGS, and the actual debates that took place. See Pearson P.N. Nicholas C.J. Defining the base of the Cambrian: the Hicks-Geikie confrontation at the Geological Society of London Earth Sciences History 1883 April forthcoming
  • Geikie . 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 329 – 329 . (discussion)
  • Geikie . 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 332 – 332 . (discussion)
  • Geikie . 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 329 – 329 . (discussion)
  • Geikie . 1883 . On the supposed Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's . QJGS , 39 : 329 – 329 . (discussion)
  • Blake , J.F. 1884 . On the volcanic group of St David's . QJGS , 40 : 294 – 310 .
  • Blake, who figures in our story much more extensively in Part III, had an unhappy time at Nottingham. Following an earlier career at St Peter's School, York, he eventually became Foundation Professor of Natural Science at Nottingham University College. There he was expected to teach geology, biology, botany, geography, and physiology, and also serve as curator of the university's fledgeling museum—all without an assistant! Following complaints about the state of the museum, a separate curator was appointed, but Blake's salary was reduced accordingly, though he still had to perform more work than the other professors. His protests were unavailing, and in 1888 he was virtually given the sack, under pretexts of financial difficulties in the institution as a whole. (Apparently he fell out with the curator soon after the new appointee's arrival.) In 1895, Blake went to India to arrange the contents of the Baroda Museum. See Wood A.C. A History of University College Nottingham 1881–1948 Oxford 1953 35 37 (The relevance of these personal details will become clearer in Parts II and III.)
  • Blake met Lapworth in the Highlands in 1883. See Oldroyd The Highlands Controversy: Constructing Geological Knowledge through Fieldwork in Nineteenth-Century Britain Chicago and London 1990 243 243
  • Blake . 1884 . On the volcanic group of St David's . QJGS , 40 : 300 – 300 . Figure 5
  • Hicks , H. 1884 . On the Pre-Cambrian rocks of Pembrokeshire, with special reference to the St David's district … With an Appendix by Thomas Davies, Esq., F.G.S., of the British Museum . QJGS , 40 : 507 – 560 .
  • Hicks H. On the Pre-Cambrian rocks of Pembrokeshire, with special reference to the St David's district … With an Appendix by Thomas Davies, Esq., F.G.S., of the British Museum QJGS 1884 40 525 525 Figure 2 (Hicks probably scored a useful point here by noticing that Geikie had mistakenly said that the arch was at Cairfai Bay, half a mile away! The point was not really very important, but it did not show Geikie's work in a good light to the Geological Society.)
  • Hicks H. On the Pre-Cambrian rocks of Pembrokeshire, with special reference to the St David's district … With an Appendix by Thomas Davies, Esq., F.G.S., of the British Museum QJGS 1884 40 532 532 Figure 5 (Labels have been added.)
  • Hicks , H. 1884 . On the Pre-Cambrian rocks of Pembrokeshire, with special reference to the St David's district … With an Appendix by Thomas Davies, Esq., F.G.S., of the British Museum . QJGS , 40 : 537 – 537 . Figure 10
  • Hughes , T. McKenny . 1883 . On the brecciated bed in the Dimetian at St David's . The Geological Magazine , 10 : 306 – 309 . decade 2
  • Hughes , T. McKenny . 1883 . On the brecciated bed in the Dimetian at St David's . The Geological Magazine , 10 : 308 – 308 . decade 2
  • Hicks . 1884 . On the Pre-Cambrian rocks of Pembrokeshire, with special reference to the St David's district … With an Appendix by Thomas Davies, Esq., F.G.S., of the British Museum . QJGS , 40 Plate XXIV. This map shows that Hicks had made a careful survey of Ramsey Island, which, generally speaking, is well supplied with geological exposures—much better than the mainland, except for the cliff sections. However, the structure of Ramsey Island appeared to be radically different from the mainland, so the hopes placed on the offshore island as a means of elucidating the mainland structure were not fulfilled. So as not to complicate matters unnecessarily, I have chosen not to discuss the geology of Ramsey Island in this paper, and I may mention that I have not been there.
  • Hicks . 1884 . On the Pre-Cambrian rocks of Pembrokeshire, with special reference to the St David's district … With an Appendix by Thomas Davies, Esq., F.G.S., of the British Museum . QJGS , 40 : 558 – 558 . (discussion)
  • Hicks , H. 1883 . Professor Geikie's paper on the St David's rocks . Geological Magazine , 10 : 330 – 331 . decade 2
  • Davies , J.R.[A.] . 1884 . Hynaf Cymru [Oldest Wales]: A popular sketch of some of Dr Hicks's work among early Welsh rocks . University College of Wales Magazine , 6 : 230 – 234 .
  • Geikie , A. 1884 . The crystalline schists of the Scottish Highlands . Nature , 31 : 29 – 31 .
  • Reade T.M. The Dimetian of St David's Geological Magazine 1887 4 558 560 decade 3 ‘Some notes on the geology of St David's, Pembrokeshire’, Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society, 5 (part 4) (1887–88), 358–69. Reade was an architect and draughtsman by profession, and was for a time principal draughtsman for the L.N.W.R. Later he practised architecture in Liverpool, designing many of the city's schools and civil engineering projects. He took up geology in a serious way about 1870, and published particularly on theories of mountain building and faulting. He was, in his day, one of Britain's leading ‘amateur’ geologists outside the universities. See Anon., ‘Thomas Mellard Reade’, Geological Magazine, decade 5, 6 (1909), 333–336.
  • Hicks H. The Dimetian of St David's Geological Magazine 1888 5 47 48 decade 3 (p. 48).
  • Morgan studied at the Royal School of Mines, attending Ramsay's lectures and winning both the Murchison and the De la Beche medals. After some overseas travel, further study under Huxley, and teaching in South Africa, he was appointed Professor of Geology and Zoology at Bristol in 1887, where he later gave most of his attention to psychology. To my knowledge, his investigations at St David's constituted his major contribution to geological fieldwork. See Parsons J.H. Conwy Lloyd Morgan 1852–1936 Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society of London 1936–38 2 25 27 S. H. R[eynolds], ‘Conwy Lloyd Morgan’, QJGS, 93 (1937), ci–ciii.
  • Morgan , C. Lloyd . 1890 . The Pebidian volcanic series of St David's . QJGS , 46 : 241 – 269 .
  • Morgan . 1890 . The Pebidian volcanic series of St David's . QJGS , 46 : 245 – 245 . Figure 2
  • Geikie , A. 1891 . Anniversary Address of the President . QJGS , 47 : 48 – 162 .
  • Geikie , A. 1893 . On the Pre-Cambrian rocks of the British Isles . The Journal of Geology , 1 : 1 – 14 .
  • Geikie , A. 1895 . Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay Vol. I , 52 – 52 . London and New York Chapter 8
  • Hicks , H. 1895 . On the Pre-Cambrian and Cambrian rocks of South Wales . Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society , 27 : 90 – 95 . ‘On some recent evidence bearing on the geological and biological history of early Cambrian and Pre-Cambrian times [Anniversary Address of the President]’, QJGS, 53 (1897), lxv–xcii. This was Hicks's last statement on the matter, for he died that year. We should note, however, that he had by then risen to the presidency of the Geological Society—a clear indication that his ideas were by no means unacceptable to the members of that body.
  • Green , J.F.N. 1908 . The geological structure of the St David's area (Pembrokeshire) . QJGS , 64 : 363 – 383 .
  • Earp . 1973 . Geological Special Sheet … St David's. Scale 1: 25000 Southampton
  • On Green, see B[ull] A.J. John Frederick Norman Green Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 1950 61 112 113
  • Green . 1908 . The geological structure of the St David's area (Pembrokeshire) . QJGS , 64 : 363 – 383 . Plate XLIV.
  • Green . 1908 . The geological structure of the St David's area (Pembrokeshire) . QJGS , 64 : 374 – 374 .
  • This inference is not supported in the modern map of Earp Geological Special Sheet … St David's. Scale 1: 25000 Southampton 1973 which shows Green's western extension of the Dimetian, near Treginnis, as Pebidian, and in direct communication with Green's sill.
  • Green , J.F.N. and Jones , O.T. 1911 . Excursion to the St David's district, South Wales . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 22 : 215 – 234 .
  • Green , J.F.N. and Jones , O.T. 1911 . Excursion to the St David's district, South Wales . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 22 : 217 – 217 .
  • See also Green J.F.N. The geology of the district around St David's, Pembrokeshire Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 1911 22 121 137 It may be noted that in this publication Green provided a photograph of St Non's Arch, and stated that there were two faults, both of them thrust faults. Nevertheless, he thought he could see the conglomerate resting on the tuff.
  • George . 1970 . British Regional Geology: South Wales , 3rd edn London
  • Cox , A.H. , Green , J.F.N. , Jones , O.T. and Pringle , J. 1930 . The geology of the St David's district, Pembrokeshire . Proceedings of the Geologists' Association , 41 : 241 – 273 . (p. 247). (The section of the paper relevant to the point at issue here was explicitly written by Green. The copy of the paper held at the Welsh office of the Geological Survey bears an annotation ‘JFNG retracts’; from which I conclude that the point was regarded as significant by the Welsh geologists.)
  • Cox , A.H. Standard Donated Pembrokeshire Sheet XX N.E.
  • Cox , A.H. The geology of the country around St David's unpublished typescript memoir, held at the Welsh office of the BGS, Aberystwyth (received 1954/6).
  • Cox , A.H. The geology of the country around St David's 44 – 44 . (emphasis added)
  • Green . 1908 . The geological structure of the St David's area (Pembrokeshire) . QJGS , 64 : 382 – 382 . (discussion)
  • Cf. Ager D.V. The British Mesozoic Committee Nature 1964 203 1059 1059 and D. V. Ager, The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record (2nd edn, London, 1983), Chapter 7 (‘Marxist stratigraphy and the golden spike’).

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