ANDREW

See also:

• GEDDES, ALEXANDER (1737-1802)
• GEDDES, ANDREW (1783-1844)
• GEDDES, JAMES LORRAINE (1827-1887)
• GEDDES, SIR WILLIAM DUGUID (1828-1900)

GEDDES

See also:

• BAIN, ALEXANDER (1818-1903)
• ANDREW GEDDES BAIN (1797-1864)

BAIN (1797-1864)  , British geologist, was a native of Scotland . In 1820 he emigrated to Cape Colony, and carried on for some years the business of a saddler at Graaf Reinet . During the Kaffir War in 1833–34 he took command of a provisional battalion raised for the defence of the frontier . Later he was engaged to construct a military road through the Ecca Pass, and displayed engineering- talents which led to his being permanently employed as surveyor of military roads under the corps of Royal Engineers . This occupation created an interest in geology, which was fostered in 1837 by the loan of Lyell's Elements . He discovered the remains of many reptilia, including the Dicynodon, which was obtained from the Karroo Beds near Fort Beaufort and described by Owen . Devoting all his spare energies to geological studies, Bain prepared in 1852 the first comprehensive geological map of South Africa, a work of great merit, which was published by the Geological Society of London in 1856 . He died at Cape Town in 1864 . Obituary by Dr R . N . Rubidge, in Geol . Mag .

January 1865, p . 47; also Trans . Geol . Soc . S . Africa, vol. ii. part v., June 1896 (with portrait) .