| Description | Geikie has looked over Wilson's volume of proofs and sampled the explanatory matter, and finds it to be well done and just what was required, but will read it more thoroughly when proofs come from the printer. He has dealt freely with the introduction and hopes that Wilson will accept his changes which are aimed at making it as clear and concise as possible. He will preface it with a few explanatory lines about how the volume was undertaken by the Royal Society and Wilson's role, which will allow Geikie to praise him.
He highlights an issue with the language, namely that Antarctic is an adjective rather than a noun, and so should have a name after it to denote what antarctic is referred to, so that "scenery of the Antarctic" should read "Scenery of the Antarctic regions" or "Antarctic Scenery". He also notes that the occasional use of the slang contraction"photo" should be replaced with the full word - 'photograph'.
Geikie suggests Arabic numerals are used for the separate figures on the plates, with the plates themselves lettered with roman numerals. He states that the title for the book must be carefully considered. He returns the manuscript and proof plates to his Cheltenham address.
Geikie agrees with Wilson that the panoramas should either come at the end of the plates or be distributed throughout the book, but believes the latter would work best. They will have to ensure that the reproductions of Wilson's pencil drawings are indicated as part of the volume, as they are placed quite separately in the portfolio. He also asks what Wilson would do with any descriptive letterpress which he would want to place with them. |