Prof. Geikie did a certain amount of geologising during his stay in the Canaries, and said in his letters home that he was greatly the better for his trip:--“My voice is as strong as ever, and I feel braced up in every way.” Unfortunately the improvement did not last after his return home. He had a disappointing summer, and with winter the insomnia returned. He could do little save his class work, and this was a sore struggle. But the fact of his being cut off from his own special work had the effect of turning his attention again to the German poems, and the book, as stated, finally appeared in the autumn of 1887. A good many of the letters acknowledging receipt have been preserved, for the poems had always been very dear to him. A pathetic letter from Lady Ramsay records the pleasure which the book gave to Sir Andrew Ramsay, now an invalid and sadly changed from what he had been in his prime. She had read some of the verses to him as he sat in his bath-chair at Beaumaris, where the family were now living, and they had brought back some flashes of his old animation. Prof. Geikie’s health continued to give cause for anxiety throughout the winter of 1887-1888, and in summer he and Mrs Geikie went to the Engadine, in the hope that the high altitude and bracing air would do him good. As the weather became colder they went down into Italy, coming home eventually by sea from Naples. Some charming letters to the boys, who were left at home, and to others of the family connection, have been preserved, but deal for the most part only with the usual incidents of travel in the Alps. “The boys” were by this time old enough to be keenly interested in butterflies, and their father gives some humorous descriptions of his attempts to increase their collections. Among the minor incidents of the tour were a meeting with Huxley at the Maloja, and the delivery by Prof. Geikie of a lecture on the Ice Age at Pontresina to an audience of two to three hundred people. The latter part of the visit to the Engadine was marred by the cold, and the altitude did not seem to suit him so well as he had hoped. On the journey through Italy a stop was made on Lake Como, of which Prof. Geikie speaks with the same enthusiasm as of old. On the whole, the tour seems to have been very beneficial, and to have been an important factor in restoring him to health. CHAPTER VIII FINAL EDITION OF “THE GREAT ICE AGE” 1889-1903 At the beginning of 1889 Prof. Geikie was awarded the Murchison medal of the Geological Society of London, “in acknowledgment of his important contributions to the geology of North Britain, and especially of his investigation of glacial phenomena.” A letter of cordial congratulation from his old friend Mr Whitaker on the award speaks of the writer’s own debt to the author, and of his adoption of a number of the latter’s conclusions. In this year also he was made a D.C.L. of Durham University. [Illustration: [_Photo by Elliott & Fry._