The Edinburgh Geologist
Issue no 42

Editorial

by Alan Fyfe

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Geologists, and others who study the history of the Earth, if they have heard, read or watched The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, will not fail to grasp the significance of this issue of The Edinburgh Geologist, which is number 42. According to Slartibartfast, the Earth was created  to let the mice know the phrasing of the ultimate question, for which the answer was 42. And if all that makes no sense, then I can only suggest that either you try reading the book or you try this magazine instead.

The photograph on the front cover gives some flavour of what is in store for you. It was taken by Caroline Paterson on last year's week excursion to Eigg and Muck. Caroline has written for us an entertaining account of that excursion, illustrated by some of her own superb photographs. It is followed by the last in this series of What's in a Name?, which tells of the origins of the Gaelic word sgùrr, of which Eigg has the most famous, An Sgùrr. I have decided that this series has run its course and in the next issue, a new series on the geology of the Scottish mountains will begin. I have a few contributions promised for this, but if anyone would like to make an offering, please let the Editor know.

Back on the subject of excursions, David McAdam has just retired after ten years as Excursion Secretary. I visited him in North Berwick and talked to him about his experiences in the post and he regaled me with a number of entertaining anecdotes, of which I have managed to include a few here. I would like to thank him for being so willing a subject of my interrogation and also for the lunch! I have had some positive feedback on these interview articles, and if any readers would like to suggest someone else who they would like to hear from, again, please let the Editor know.

Fellows have been confused about how to access The Scottish Journal of Geology on-line, so I have written a short guide in this issue (of The Edinburgh Geologist). It is a fairly intricate procedure to set it up, so I hope that this will help. Thanks to those who test-drove it for me. On our own web site, I have now finished uploading all the Strange Earth articles written over the years by Bill Baird. To celebrate this, I have asked Bill to write me another couple and the first of those, No 19, is published here. No 20 should appear in the next issue.

Bill's article is on ancient mining in Swaziland and, staying on the same continent, the Geo-vineyards for this issue is of a South African wine by the name of Limestone Hill. There is a similar link with an article by Eric Robinson and this issue's Poet's Corner. Eric has been clearing his loft recently and came across a letter from Archie Lamont, an eccentric Scots patriot, poet and geologist. In memory of Archie, Eric also sent me one of Archie's poems, Palaeosmilia.

The first of the book reviews in this issue closes a loop. It is John Hudson and Ann Allwright's The Geology of Eigg and is reviewed by David Stephenson. The second book is Charles Hepworth Holland's The Irish Landscape ­ a scenery to celebrate, reviewed by Don Cameron. Thanks to David and to Don for reading and writing about these for me. As an update to literature previously reviewed in The Edinburgh Geologist, I am pleased to see that the leaflet on Barns Ness, developed jointly by the Lothian and Borders RIGS group and Girlguiding East Lothian, has been awarded joint first place in the ENI Geological Challenge. The judges (Richard Fortey, John Bell of ENI and Chris Darmon) all felt that it represented an excellent pieice of cooperation between adult geologists of our RIGS group and the children themselves. Well done, girls!
Lastly (almost) is Angela's latest Rocksword Puzzle. The answers are on the inside of the back cover.

This issue is completed with the Proceedings of the Society for the 169th session, 2002-2003. It has come to my attention that compiling the Proceedings for each session in the Spring following the end of that session means that by the time they are published, they are reporting on events up to eighteen months previously. In order to correct this, I am going to attempt to produce the Proceedings for this, the 170th session, in the Autumn. This means that next issue of The Edinburgh Geologist may not be with you until November instead of October, but at least the Proceedings will be a little more up to date.

Anyone wishing to contribute to the next issue is asked to write to me at any time up to the copy date, which is shown below. In the mean time, I hope that you enjoy this one, Earthmen....

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