Since my return from France I have been driven from post to pillar, doing my best to clear off arrears. Now I am in a way “redd up,” and able to look round.... I feel quite rejuvenated with my trip.... I saw much that was very interesting to me as a geologist and much also that was beautiful, so that my memory is now stored with a fresh series of lovely visions--of picturesque and quaint people.... I have looked out one or two places to which some day I hope to take Mary and (if my purse is long enough) the wee lassie--that is when she is bigger! But half my life has been spent in dreams and plans for the future, and _some_ only of these have been realised. The letter goes on to speak of that great May function in Edinburgh, the Commissioner’s garden-party. Mrs Geikie and their eldest son were to go to this--“Stewart will go as ‘Professor Geikie.’ The professor himself can’t be induced to go, and (as this is a holiday for him at college) he is taking Mary Dorothea out to Mortonhall Golf Club-house for afternoon tea. The young lady has been looking forward to this treat ever since I came home.” The identity of the “young lady” will perhaps be apparent without explanation. In 1901 Prof. Geikie was made an Honorary Member of the New York Academy of Sciences, his name having been brought up by his friend Prof. Stevenson. In writing to thank the latter he speaks of his hope of being again able to visit America, saying that as soon as “my lads clear out from the nest, it will be easier for Mrs Geikie and me to go off on a long holiday.” The future careers of his sons were at this time occupying a large share of his thoughts, for the three elder boys were ready to begin life on their own account. He had a few years before taken to bicycling, and was full of the pleasure and health he found in the exercise. During this year also his friend, Mr Elson of Boston, paid the family a visit at Beauly during the summer holiday, a visit of which Mr Elson speaks with both enthusiasm and gratitude in later letters. The next year or two repeat the same tale of work and play, the latter including much bicycling, and a visit to Norway in 1903. In 1903 he writes to his eldest son:--“To-day I am sixty-four, and feel no older than I was twenty years ago. Indeed I am younger than I was four or five years ago.” Of work it need only be said that new editions of two of his books appeared in these years, _Earth Sculpture_ in 1902, and _Outlines of Geology_ (fourth edition) in 1903. Mention of an entirely new book may be reserved for the next chapter. A pleasant little incident of the summer of 1903 was a postcard from the Glacialists’ Excursion of the International Geological Congress, who sent, from Telfs in Tyrol, “Greetings and best wishes to the Nestor of Glacial Geology.” Such greetings were a frequent and always a pleasant experience. CHAPTER IX RETIREMENT FROM THE PROFESSORSHIP AND LAST DAYS 1904-1915