Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
confusing for subsequent investigations it was decided that the term Amstelian
should be omitted from the geological succession.
Unfortunately, further studies of the Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits of
eastern England by Wood, Jun. were arrested by his failing health. Nevertheless,
he was able to show by means of an original map published in 1880, 4 years before
his death, the extent of the area covered by Chalky Boulder Clay in East Anglia.
This notable map was also used by Harmer to illustrate his own paper about the
glacial deposits of Norfolk and Suffolk published in 1910.
Sadly, the loss in 1884 of his friend and scientific associate was a blow which
adversely affected Harmer's enthusiasm for geological research and, for a time, he
devoted himself more to municipal duties and local politics. However, although he
had been deeply upset by the loss of his friend, about 10 years later when, at the
age of 60, he might well have felt entitled to enjoy his retirement, Harmer resumed
an intensive study of the Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits of East Anglia and
mainland Europe on discovering that his views had found a sympathetic hearing
among a younger generation of geologists.
3.8 Renewed Geological Research
In 1902 Harmer was requested by the Geologists' Association to prepare a résumé
of his views on the later Tertiary deposits of eastern England; the resulting paper,
based on observations made on a long excursion from 26 July to 4 August that
year, inaugurated a new chapter in the geology of the region.
Also during the early 1900s, Harmer took on the task of addressing a general
oversight in the search for evidence of glaciation in southern England by traversing
the region from the Humber to the Thames and from the East Coast to the Welsh
Border in his new motor car (Fig.
3.38
).
Most of the area over which the glacial ice is supposed to have passed has been examined
personally by myself with more or less care with the aid of a motor car. During several of
the excursions I had the advantage of being accompanied by the late J. Lomas, Dr R.H.
Rastall, Mr G.H. Slater, and Professor P.G.H. Boswell, and on one occasion by Professor
P.F. Kendall.
Harmer recognised that these later investigations were 'rendered possible to an old
man by the fortunate invention of the motor car, which literally gave me a new lease
of geological life for field work'. In the early 1900s, people who had the means and
need replaced their horse-drawn carriages with chauffer-driven motor cars.
Harmer acquired a personal and intimate familiarity with glacial deposits which
was probably not attained by any other geologist of his time. Sadly, the oppor-
tunity to examine the geological sites which had been available both in his earlier
studies and those during the latter part of his life would perhaps never recur due to
their ever increasing loss by man's activities in the following years. Probably to
counteract this effect he organised the already mentioned field excursion to Nor-
folk in 1907 for many of his geological contemporaries.
