A letter to Mr Horne, written from Perth on 18th November, not long after his return home, makes some mention of the tour, and of the other events of a crowded summer. I heard all about your Shetland work. It did my heart good, and right glad I am that it has been done by a Survey man.... You would hear about Skertchly’s find. I was down there again ten days ago at Ramsay’s request, to see the evidence again.... In my new edition, which is out (and selling well!), I go much more fully into the English Drifts. I got to-day a long letter from Darwin, along with a copy of his new edition of _Geological Observations_. His letter is very complimentary, and of course that is gratifying to me, for I look upon Darwin as a real genius. I enjoyed my Gibraltar trip very much. Ramsay was very jolly and in excellent spirits all the time. We did have some fun, I can tell you. Also we crossed over to Africa and had a run amongst the Moors. The result of our Survey was so far satisfactory as it enables us to say very positively what is best to be done in the matter of the water-supply. There are two letters from Darwin about this date. One has been already quoted (p. 27). In the other, which is taken up largely with a geological discussion, he says:--“Allow me to tell you with what extreme pleasure and admiration I have just finished reading your _Great Ice Age_. It seems to me admirably done and most clear. Interesting as many chapters are in the history of the world, I do not think that any one comes nearly to the glacial period or periods. Though I have steadily read much on the subject, your book makes the whole appear almost new to me.” In this month of November also another sign of appreciation of his work reached James Geikie in the offer by the University of St Andrews of its LL.D. degree, which was conferred the following year. About the same time he was approached informally to know whether he would care to have a knighthood. This was at this date a much rarer honour than it became later, and the young couple decided that their income was not large enough to support it. Very many years later, after his retirement, James Geikie’s friends again urged his claims to the title, but the matter was dropped at the outbreak of the war, and death came not long after. Other letters of the same autumn refer to the “Ice Age,” and to the report upon the Gibraltar work. In addition to the _Memoir_ upon the question of the water-supply, a general article on the geology of the region was contributed to the _Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society_. Rather curiously, even at Gibraltar Geikie found evidence of use to him in connection with his glacial work. In the early spring of 1877 his eldest son was born, and the summer saw him wandering about the Hebrides, of which he sends so racy a description to his wife that large extracts from the letters may be given:-- OBBE, HARRIS, _7th July 1877_.