34 | Great Geologists
popularizing geology, making it a university
discipline, pushing at the boundaries of
the understanding of Earth history and
being open-minded enough to modify
his interpretations when the evidence
demanded it. For those interested in his
life and work the excellent Natural History
Museum of the University of Oxford has a
number of informative displays of some of
his achievements.
REFERENCES
This essay has drawn upon information
from the following sources:
Annan, N. 1999. The Dons. HarperCollins.
357pp.
Cadbury, D. 2000. The Dinosaur Hunters.
Fourth Estate Ltd, 374pp.
William Buckland lecturing at Oxford University.
Geology and Mineralogy considered
with reference to Natural Theology. This
important book paved the way for others to
think about evolution and the stratigraphic
organization of the rock record.
As Buckland was writing his geological
opus, he became aware of the work
of Louis Agassiz on the importance
of glaciation. The two soon became
collaborators carrying out joint field work
in Britain and Switzerland, and Buckland
soon realized that the action of past ice
ages could explain many of the phenomena
that he had previously ascribed to Noah’s
Flood. For example, the mud covering the
bones in Kirkland Cave could be ascribed to
sedimentation by glacial meltwaters.
No biographic summary of William
Buckland would be complete without
mention of some of his noted eccentricities.
He often carried out field work in formal
academic dress; his house was part home
and part free-ranging zoological collection;
and he prided himself on having dined on
most of the animal kingdom. Mole was
declared to be particularly unpleasant.
Pausing before a dark stain on the flagstones
of an Italian cathedral where a martyr’s
blood was said to miraculously renew itself,
he got to his knees, licked it and declared “I
can tell you what it is: it is bat’s urine.” His
wife Mary was a supportive collaborator
in his studies and assisted in drawing field
sketches and experiments at their home.
When trying to unravel the origin of the
trace fossil Cheirotherium, he woke her at
2 a.m. to declare “My dear I believe the
Cheirotherium’s footsteps are undoubtedly
testitudinal”. They quickly mixed paste
and set their pet tortoise to walk in it, the
resultant footsteps matching those of the
fossil. Their son Frank would inherit these
types of eccentricities when he became a
fellow at Oxford, not least by keeping a live
bear in his rooms.
In later life Buckland’s scientific productivity
was limited by his appointment as Dean of
Westminster Abbey and by head injuries
sustained when his carriage overturned
when carrying out field work in France.
But he had accomplished a great deal in
Cook, J. 2007. William Buckland: first to
describe a dinosaur. In: Huxley, R. (ed.)
The Great Naturalists. Thames & Hudson,
241-245.
Donaldson, W. 2002. Brewer’s Rogues,
Villains and Eccentrics. Pheonix, 686pp.
Emling, S. 2009. The Fossil Hunter. St
Martin’s Griffin, New York. 234pp.
Gohau, G. 1990. A History of Geology.
Rutgers University Press. 259pp.
Hallam, A. 1983. Great Geological
Controversies. Oxford University Press,
244pp.
Rudwick, M.J.S. 2005. Bursting the Limits
of Time. The University of Chicago Press,
708pp.
Rudwick, M.J.S. 2014. Earth’s Deep
History. The University of Chicago Press,
360pp.
http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/
buckland.pdf