De La Beche, Henry Thomas Sir (1796-1855). Sections and views,
illustrative of geological phaenomena. London: Treuttel & Würtz,
1830. Henry de la Beche compiled his Sections and Views to
"induce geologists to present us with sections more conformable
to nature than is usually done." He was a gifted draftsman, and
he believed that a simple pencil sketch could convey more useful
information than an elaborate engraving. For this plate, he
began with MacCullochs engravings of Staffa, Fingals Cave, and
the Scuir of Egg (see exhibit item 50), and reduced them to what
he considered their essential elements. The resulting lithograph
does have a certain simple clarity and charm. Other plates in
this work show the crater of Vesuvius, the volcanic cones of
Auvergne, and a detailed section of the northern coast of
Ireland, which includes the Giants Causeway. On the section, and
on several other plates of trap (basalt) formations, the trap or
basalt is hand colored a soft green. This continues a tradition
that we saw in C