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A geological mine |
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Brocken Spectre Publishing |
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KING OF SILURIA |
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THE STORY OF ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL |
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From joining The Geological Society in 1825, Roderick Impey Murchison became its President only seven years later! He went about his investigation of older rocks in Wales and Eastern Europe with boundless energy and was the first to differentiate and name the Silurian, Devonian and Permian periods of geological time. |
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He was commissioned by Czar Alexander II to report on the mineral wealth of Russia and undertook in one summer a hazardous journey, by various forms of transport, of over 14,000 miles, from St. Petersburg via the Urals to the coalfields in the south. The Czar rewarded him with a Russian knighthood. He later received a baronetcy from Queen Victoria. To these honours were added a further seventeen major awards from governments and scientific societies across Europe. |
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Murchison was the author of more than 350 publications for a wide range of British and foreign journals; his greatest work was the 768-page The Silurian System. He was President of the Royal Geographical Society for many years and was a champion of world exploration, including David Livingstone’s travels in Africa and Sir John Franklin’s search for a North-West Passage. |
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During the 1849 meeting of the British Association in Birmingham, Murchison led an excursion to the Dudley Caverns, inviting members of the public to join the delegates. Nearly 15,000 people took advantage of his invitation to a lecture on the submarine formation of the rock. He wore for the occasion a high-crowned green Tyrolean hat and a shepherd’s plaid scarf. He took his guests to the top of the Wren’s Nest, where he was enthroned by the Bishop of Oxford, to everyone’s amusement, as ‘King of Siluria’. |
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After extensive research, John L. Morton has presented Murchison’s remarkable life-story in detail on 276 pages, and included forty illustrations, sixteen in colour. |
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UK £12.99 USA $22.99 |
