The Tooth of Time:: James Smith of Jordanhill

Document generated on 09/30/2021 11:46 p.m. Geoscience Canada Journal of the Geological Association of Canada Journal de l’Association Géologique du Canada The Tooth of Time: James Smith of Jordanhill Paul F. Hoffman Volume 42, Number 1, Spring 2015 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1029225ar See table of contents Publisher(s) The Geological Association of Canada ISSN 0315-0941 (print) 1911-4850 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Hoffman, P. F. (2015). The Tooth of Time:: James Smith of Jordanhill. Geoscience Canada, 42(1), 7–26. All Rights Reserved © The Geological Association of Canada, 2015 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ GEOSCIENCE CANADA Volume 42 2015 7 COLUMN The Tooth of Time: colder climate during the Drift period. purchase and retire to the estate of They were the first proofs that global Jordanhill, overlooking the River Clyde James Smith of Jordanhill climate could get warmer, a phenome- west of the city. Isobel (Euing) Smith non for which no physical theory then (1754–1855), from whom James Smith Paul F. Hoffman existed. Smith was not a major player inherited his amiable disposition and in the ensuing glacial controversy sharp intellect, lived to the great age of 1216 Montrose Ave. because in those years he was sailing in 101 (Fig. 1). To the end, she took a Victoria, BC, Canada, V8T 2K4 the Mediterranean Sea, researching his keen interest in her son’s career, and most celebrated book (Smith 1848), a that of her grandson (his son), the The successfully concluded Common- detailed and erudite reconstruction of mathematician and lawyer Archibald wealth Games in Glasgow brought to the voyage and shipwreck of St. Paul, Smith, FRS (1813–1871), whose scien- mind the remarkable Scottish yachts- as described in the New Testament tific work was in magnetism, geomag- man, antiquarian, architect, patron of (Acts 27–28). Smith’s meticulous schol- netism, and the effect on the compass learned societies, university president, arship—he read Greek and Latin as of the iron of a ship. conchologist, geologist, and Biblical well as most Romance and Teutonic Educated at Glasgow Grammar scholar, James Smith (1782–1867) of Jordanhill. Born into a successful Glas- languages—and his intimate knowledge School and the University of Glasgow, gow merchant family, he discovered of the ships and navigation techniques James Smith (Fig. 2) became a sleeping sailing and won many races as a youth, of the Ancients, combined to authenti- partner in his father’s firm in 1809 at owned his own cutter, and sailed it fre- cate both the voyage itself and Luke, the age of 27. In the course of time, quently into Arctic waters over a span its narrator, as an actual participant Leitch & Smith became James and of 60 years. He was regarded as the (Bruce 1959, p. 90). Archibald Smith & Co., not Archibald father of the sport of yachting on the James Smith was born in Glas- the father but James’ younger brother Clyde, and a sage of the history of gow in 1782, the first-born (of five) of of the same name, whose business yachting, yacht construction and navi- Archibald Smith (1749–1821) and Iso- acumen gave James the freedom to gation at sea. Whenever he sailed in bel Euing (1754–1855), both of whom indulge his own interests. A prodigious coastal waters, he dredged for sea- had rural roots in western Sterlingshire, reader and book collector, James was shells, which he learned to identify north of Glasgow (MacLehose 1886; married in 1809 to Mary Wilson (Fig. under expert tutelage. He was 54 years Macnair and Mort 1908). His father’s 3), the daughter of a book-seller and old when he delivered his first geologi- family had lived in the small parish of granddaughter of Professor Alexander cal paper (Smith 1836), which linked Strathblane for generations, but Wilson (1714–1786), a distinguished recent changes in relative sea level in Archibald Smith, being a fourth son, astronomer in the University of Glas- Scandinavia and the British Islands migrated with his next older brothers gow. They raised a large family, with with the enigmatic boreal Diluvium, or to the Colony of Virginia in 1768 as a seven daughters surviving infancy in Drift, setting the stage for the contro- 19-year-old. He did well in the tobac- addition to first-born Archibald, who versy over the glacial theory that erupt- co-driven economy, but when Virginia in 1836 became the first Scotsman to ed in Switzerland the following year. declared its independence from the be Senior Wrangler at Cambridge Uni- He recognized the Arctic aspect of British Crown in 1775, he returned to versity. The list of also-rans for this molluscan fauna indigenous to the drift Scotland as the junior partner in the coveted prize, given annually to the top of Scotland, and the appearance in Glasgow-based trading company undergraduate in mathematics, reads beds of the same age in Sicily of fauna Leitch & Smith, where he was instru- like a Who’s Who in physics. The fami- found today only in the waters of mental in creating a major industry of ly moved to Jordanhill upon the senior northern Europe (Smith 1839a). These trade with the West Indies. By 1800, Archibald’s death in 1821. were the first empirical proofs of a his commercial success enabled him to Geoscience Canada, v. 42, http://dx.doi.org/10.12789/geocanj.2015.42.068 © 2015 GAC/AGC® 8 Figure 1. James Smith’s mother, Iso- Figure 2. James Smith (1782–1867), Figure 3. Mary Wilson (1789–1847), bel (Euing) Smith (1754–1855), age 56, age 27, around the time of his mar- age 20, around the time of her mar- a woman of “mental charms untaught riage to Mary Wilson in 1809. Oil riage to James Smith in 1809. Oil to shine” who would closely follow the painting by Edinburgh portrait artist painting (duplicate) by Henry Raeburn scholarly activities of her son and Henry Raeburn (1756–1823). Universi- (1756–1823). grandson (his son) until the age of ty of Strathclyde collection. 101. Oil painting by Glasgow artist 1882; see also Wegmann 1969). Such John Graham-Gilbert (1794–1866), the University of Glasgow with an phenomena were bound to attract the who, like James Smith, forsook his interest of a sailor, at a time when “the father’s West Indies trading business emphasis on “useful learning”, Smith designed the Andersonian Museum history of the Earth, next to that of the for art. National Galleries of Scotland heavens, affords the most sublime subject of collection. (Fig. 5), once the public face of what is now the University of Strathclyde. He study that can be derived from physical sci- Smith’s first voyage in his own also renovated the mansion at Jordan- ence” (Buckland 1836, paraphrasing vessel (Fig. 4), to West Greenland in hill and erected a mast on the grounds astronomer William Herschel 1830). As 1806, cemented a life-long love affair that gave a sense of scale to the rolling enigmatic as the sea level changes were with the sea. His presence in Green- hills of the valley of the Clyde. His the various landforms and surficial land waters became so well known that wide interests and gentle manner made deposits that are characteristic, if not Cape James, Cape Mary and Jordanhill him an ideal companion at sea, and he unique, to northern Europe and North Island in the Fjord Zone of East in turn learned much from the young America. Much was written about the Greenland were named in his honour. naturalists who often accompanied him origin of underfit streams, deep lakes, Yachting as an organized sport dates on his voyages, notably John Scouler silled fjords, and polished bedrock sur- back to the 1700’s in Ireland and Great (1804–1871), who explored the Colum- faces that had been directionally striat- Britain, but organized racing on the bia River system in the same years as ed and streamlined by a flowing medi- Clyde began with the founding of the the Lewis and Clark expedition um that had evidently swept across the Royal Northern Yacht Club in 1824. (1804–06), and Edward Forbes landscape unimpeded by the rises and The idea for the club, to unite yachts- (1809–1868, pronounced four-bees) falls of local topography (Chorley et al. men in the North of Ireland and the who would confirm and extend Smith’s 1964; Davies 1968; Cunningham 1977). West of Scotland, was conceived in the paleoclimatic interpretation of the Many believed that this medium was cabin of Smith’s boat while at anchor Drift fauna (Forbes 1846). also responsible for the transportation in Belfast (Anonymous 1924). While In Smith’s day, it was common of erratic blocks, some of which were his yachts were never large, his “singular knowledge that the land is slowly rising enormous and demonstrably far-trav- talent for planning and arrangement always out of the sea in many places along the elled, frequently standing remote from made his little ship the most comfortable and coastlines of Scandinavia and the existing drainages (Buch 1817, 1819; roomy of her size afloat” (MacLehose British Isles, while in other places the Razumovsky 1819, 1829; Buckland 1886).

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