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THE  LIBRARY 
OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


The  RALPH  D.  REED  LIBRARY 


BWAKTMEOT  OF  GEOLOGY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIF. 


ROBEBT    DICK 


ROBERT    DICK 

BAKER,  OF  THURSO 

GEOLOGIST  AND  BOTANIST 

BY  SAMUEL  SMILES,  LL.D. 

AUTHOR  OF  "LIFE  OF  A  SCOTCH  NATURALIST"   '•  SELF-HELP  "   "THRIFT" 
' '  CHARACTER  ' '    ETC. 

WITH  A  PORTRAIT  AND  NUMEROUS  ILLUSTRATIONS 


'In  Nature's  infinite  book  of  secrecy 
A  little  I  can  read." 

SlIAKESPEARE. 

'The  heights  by  great  men  reached  and  kept 
Were  not  attained  by  sudden  flight; 

But  they,  wh  le  their  companions  slept, 
Were  toiling  upwards  in  the  night." 

LONGFELLOW. 


NEW    YORK 
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ROBERT  DICK.    Robert  Dick,  Baker  of  Thurso ;  Geologist  and  Botanist. 

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Geology 
Library 


PREFACE. 


THE  preparation  of  this  book  has  occupied  me  at 
intervals  during  several  years.  It  would  have  been 
published  before  the  Life  of  a  Scotch  Naturalist,  but 
for  want  of  the  requisite  materials. 

I  have  to  thank  my  reviewers,  one  and  all,  for  their 
favourable  notices  of  that  work.  It  has,  however,  been 
objected  that  I  should  have  culled  my  last  example  of 
Self-Help  from  a  career  not  already  concluded,  and 
exposed  the  Scotch  Naturalist,  after  his  long  unmerited 
neglect,  to  the  harder  trial  of  intrusive  patronage,  to 
which  my  premature  biography  was  likely  to  expose 
him. 

Whatever  truth  there  may  be  in  this  objection,  it 
certainly  does  not  apply  in  the  present  case.  Robert 
Dick  died  twelve  years  ago,  without  any  recognition  of 
his  services  to  the  cause  of  science,  and  without  any  of 
that  Royal  Help  which,  as  in  the  case  of  Edward,  is 
likely  to  render  the  later  years  of  his  life  more  free 
from  care  and  anxiety. 

The  first  account  that  I  heard  of  Robert  Dick  was 
from  the  lips  of  the  late  Sir  Roderick  Murchison.  He 

860880 


PREFACE. 


delivered  a  speech  at  Leeds  on  the  occasion  of  the 
meeting  of  the  British  Association,  which  was  held 
there  in  September  1858. 

"  In  pursuing  my  researches  in  the  Highlands," 
said  the  Baronet,  "  and  going  beyond  Sutherland  into 
Caithness,  it  was  my  gratification  a  second  time  to  meet 
with  a  remarkable  man  in  the  town  of  Thurso,  named 
Robert  Dick,  a  baker  by  trade.  I  am  proud  to  call 
him  my  distinguished  friend.  When  I  went  to  see  him, 
he  spread  out  before  me  a  map  of  Caithness  and  pointed 
out  its  imperfections.  Mr.  Dick  had  travelled  over  the 
whole  county  in  his  leisure  hours,  and  was  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  its  features.  He  delineated  to  me,  by 
means  of  some  flour  which  he  spread  out  on  his  baking 
board,  not  only  its  geographical  features,  but  certain 
geological  phenomena  which  he  desired  to  impress  upon 
my  attention.  Here  is  a  man  who  is  earning  his  daily 
bread  by  his  hard  work ;  who  is  obliged  to  read  and 
study  by  night ;  and  yet  who  is  able  to  instruct  the 
Director-General  of  the  Geographical  Society. 

"  But  this  is  not  half  of  what  I  have  to  tell  you  of 
Robert  Dick.  When  I  became  better  acquainted  with 
this  distinguished  man,  and  was  admitted  into  his 
sanctum — which  few  were  permitted  to  enter — I  found 
there  busts  of  Byron,  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and  other 
great  poets.  I  also  found  there  books,  carefully  and 
beautifully  bound,  which  this  man  had  been  able  to 


PREFACE.  vii 


purchase  out  of  the  savings  of  his  single  bakery.  I  also 
found  that  Robert  Dick  was  a  profound  botanist.  I 
found,  to  my  humiliation,  that  this  baker  knew  infinitely 
more  of  botanical  science — ay,  ten  times  more — than  I 
did ;  and  that  there  were  only  some  twenty  or  thirty 
British  plants  that  he  had  not  collected.  Some  he  had 
obtained  as  presents,  some  he  had  purchased,  but  the 
greater  portion  had  been  accumulated  by  his  own 
industry  in  his  native  county  of  Caithness.  These 
specimens 'were  all  arranged  in  most  beautiful  order, 
with  their  respective  names  and  habitats ;  and  he  is  so 
excellent  a  botanist  that  he  might  well  have  been  a 
professed  ornament  of  Section  D  [Zoology  and  Botany]. 
I  have  mentioned  these  facts,"  concluded  the  Baronet, 
"  in  order  that  the  audience  may  deduce  a  practical 
application." 

This  notice  of  Robert  Dick,  by  a  man  of  so  much 
eminence  as  Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  interested  me 
greatly.  His  perseverance  in  the  cause  of  Science, 
while  pursuing  the  occupations  of  his  daily  labour — his 
humility,  his  modesty,  and  his  love  of  nature — were 
things  well  worthy  of  being  commemorated.  But  I  was 
at  that  time  unable  to  follow  up  my  inquiries.  I  could 
merely  mention  him  in  Self-Help,  which  was  published 
in  the  following  year,  as  an  instance  of  cheerful,  horest 
working,  and  of  energetic  effort  to  make  the  most  of 
small  means  and  ordinary  opportunities. 


PREFACE. 


Many  years  passed.  Robert  Dick  died  in  1866, 
Was  it  possible  that  he  had  left  any  memoranda  on 
which  a  memoir  of  his  life  and  labours  could  be  written  ? 
On  inquiry  I  found  that  many  of  his  letters  were  still 
in  existence.  I  believe  that  I  have  been  successful  in 
obtaining  the  greater  part  of  them,  or,  at  all  events, 
those  which  are  the  most  interesting.  In  fact,  by  means 
of  these  letters  the  story  of  Dick's  life  has  in  a  great 
measure  been  told  by  himself. 

One  of  his  principal  correspondents  was  the  late 
Hugh  Miller,  author  of  My  Schools  and  Schoolmasters, 
The  Old  Red  Sandstone,  and  other  geological  works. 
His  son,  Mr.  Hugh  Miller,  of  the  Geological  Survey,  has 
kindly  sent  me  Dick's  letters  to  his  father;  though 
Hugh  Miller's  letters  to  Dick  have  not  yet  reached  me. 
They  are  supposed  to  be  in  Australia. 

Mr.  Charles  W.  Peach,  A.L.S.,  one  of  Dick's  best 
friends,  has  sent  me  all  Dick's  letters  to  him,  together 
with  much  other  valuable  information  as  to  his  life  and 
character.  But  perhaps  the  best  of  Dick's  letters — 
those  containing  his  references  to  his  private  life  — 
were  those  written  to  his  sister,  principally  for  her 
amusement ;  and  these  have  been  kindly  placed  in 
my  hands  by  Dick's  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Falconer  of 
Haddington. 

I  am  also  indebted  to  Dr.  Meiklejohn,  to  Dr. 
Bobcrt  Brown,  F.L.S.,  for  many  letters;  and  to  the 


PREFACE. 


Rev.  William  Miller,  A.M.,  Thurso,  for  the  letters  sent 
by  Dick  to  his  uncle,  the  late  Mr.  John  Miller,  F.G.S. 

Among  those  who  have  also  favoured  me  with 
\  aluable  information  as  to  Dick's  life,  I  have  to  mention 
Mr.  Brims,  Procurator- Fiscal,  Thurso;  Mr.  G.  M. 
Sutherland  and  Mr.  Fielding,  Wick  ;  Professor  Shearer, 
Airedale  College,  Bradford ;  and  Dr.  George  Shearer, 
Liverpool. 

With  respect  to  the  Illustrations,  they  have,  for  the 
most  part,  been  the  result  of  several  journeys  which  I 
have  made  round  the  coast  of  Caithness,  and  also  into 
the  inland  districts  frequented  by  Robert  Dick,  while 
making  his  numerous  journeys  in  search  of  fossils, 
boulder  clay,  ferns,  plants,  and  grasses. 

The  illustrations  have  been  much  improved  by  being 
drawn  on  the  wood  by  such  accomplished  artists  as 
Leitch,  Skelton,  and  Boot,  and  engraved  by  Cooper, 
Whymper,  and  Paterson. 

Mr.  Sheriff  Russell  of  Wick  and  Mr.  Charles  Peach 
of  Edinburgh  have  also  given  me  their  assistance  in  the 
preparation  of  the  illustrations. 

The  engraving  of  Mr.  Peach  has  been  executed  by 
Charles  Roberts,  after  a  photograph  by  Mr.  Dallas, 
Edinburgh. 

LONDON,  NOVEMBER  1878. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  L 

T0LLIBODY. 

The  village  of  Tullibody — Windings  of  the  Forth  and  Devon — Scenery 
of  the  Devon— The  Ochils— Castle  Campbell— Rift  in  the  Ochill 
—  Menstrie— Bencleuch— The  Picts  — The  "  Standing-Stane"— 
Cambuskenneth  —  The  French  at  Tullibody  —  The  Abercromby 
family  .......  Pages  1-7 

CHAPTER    II. 

ROBERT  DICK'S  BOYHOOD. 

Robert  Dick's  birthplace — His  mother — The  children  sent  to  school — 
Teacher  of  the  Barony  School — Robert  Dick  an  apt  scholar — His 
talent  for  languages — Resides  at  Dam's  Burn — Schoolmaster  at 
Menstrie  —  Climbs  the  Ochils — Life  at  home — His  stepmother 
— Family  difficulties — What  Dick  learnt  as  a  boy — He  leaves 
home  .......  Pages  8-16 

CHAPTER  III. 

ROBERT  DICK  APPRENTICED. 

Apprenticed  to  a  baker — Life  of  a  baker's  boy — His  early  and  late 
hours — Delivering  the  bread — His  observations  of  Nature — First 
acquaintance  with  Botany — Remembrance  of  the  plants  of  the 
Devon — His  sister  Agnes — His  day  of  rest — A  great  reader— Mr. 
Dick  removes  to  Thurso— Robert  Dick  leaves  Tullibody — A  journey- 
man baker  at  Leith,  Glasgow,  and  Greenock — Removes  to  Thurso— 
Begins  business  in  Thurso — Thurso  Bay — His  delight  in  the  sea— 
The  sea-bird's  cry  .....  Pages  17-2* 

CHAPTER  IV. 

DESCRIPTION  OF  CAITHNESS. 

rhe  name  "Caithness" — Nesses  along  the  coast — Caithness  Scaudl> 
navian — Wicks  in  Caithness — Saetrs,  Dahls,  Thorsa — The  people  - 


xii  CONTENTS. 


Firths  or  fiords — The  Picts  drowned — Currents  in  the  Pentland 
Firth— Stroma— Pentland  Skerries— The  furious  winds  in  Caith- 
ness— No  trees  or  hedges — Barrogill  Castle — The  coast  scenery — 
Wick  Bay— Duncansby  Head— The  Stacks— John  o'  Groats— The 
old  castles— Al-wick,  Keiss,  Girnigo— The  Gyoes— The  inland 
country — The  Caithness  mountains — The  great  mountain,  Morven 
— Agriculture — The  old  Caithness  plough — Thurso— Roads — Crab- 
bans— Ord  of  Caithness— Sir  John  Sinclair— Thurso  Castle— Road 
over  Bencheilt — Sir  John  Sinclair's  improvements  .  Pages  26-39 

CHAPTER  V. 

DICK  BEGINS  BUSINESS. 

Wilson  Lane,  Thurso  —  First  flour  bought  —  Studies  conchology — 
Botany— His  father  leaves  for  Haddington— Dunnet  Head,  Hoi- 
born  Head,  and  the  Clett— The  Gyoes— The  inland  country- 
Entomology— Beetles,  Bees,  Butterflies,  and  Moths— The  boya 
follow  Dick — Makes  friends  of  the  boys — Rare  insects  brought  to 
him — Astronomy,  Geology,  Phrenology — Dick  invited  to  marry — 
Annie  Mackay  —  Mechanical  method  for  making  biscuits— His 
biscuits  .  ...  Pages  40-49 

CHAPTER   VI. 

BOTANICAL    WANDERINGS. 

* 

His  entomological  collection — Tested  everything  by  observation — His 
books — Books  imbedded  in  his  flour — His  microscope — Hogarth's 
works— A  great  reader— Botanical  excursions— Spring  in  the  North 
—Watching  the  growth  of  the  flowers— The  ferns— Caithness  flora 
— Study  of  Botany — Midsummer  time — Solitude — The  moors — The 
soaking  rain — Walking  for  a  fern — Standing  on  a  hill-top — Letters 
to  his  sister — Walking  over  a  moor — Journey  to  Morven  top — 
Dift  taken  for  a  salmon-poacher  .  .  .  Pages  50-69 

CHAPTER   VII. 

DISCOVERS    THE    "HOLY    GRASS." 

Business  and  science — Want  of  friends — His  dress — His  love  of  nature 
— A  deputation  from  the  boys — Dick  a  general  referee — His  know- 
ledge of  plants — The  Hierochloe  borealis—  Retains  the  discovery 
for  twenty  years— Dick's  paper  on  the  subject— The  Royal  Botani- 
cal Society,  Edinburgh— The  Moonwort— The  Stork's-bill— Pursuit 
of  ferns— Dunnet  Sands— The  Dorery  Hills— Loch  Shurery— Dick's 
fernery  at  the  Reay  Hills  ....  Pages  70-80 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

DUNNET    HEAD. 

The  coast  scenery  near  Thurso — Holborn  Head — The  rockbound  coast 
— The  Gyoes — Fury  of  the  waves — Scrabster  Roads — New  rocks  laid 
bare — Dunnet  Head  a  favourite  haunt — Height  of  the  cliffs — 
Extent  of  the  peninsula — Dwarwick  Head — Yachting  trip  round 
Dnnnet  Head— The  gyoe  near  Dwarwick— The  sea-birds— The 
lighthouse — Slips  of  the  rocks — Dick's  journey  to  Dunnet  Head — 
Dunnet  sands — Over  the  heather — Down  the  cliffs — Search  for 
ferns — Overtaken  by  the  sea — Dick  found  by  a  pleasure  party — 
Geology  of  Dunnet  Head — Devoid  of  organisms — The  sandstone 
cliffs — Sandstone  from  shore  to  shore — Rocks  at  Brough — Dunnet 
Loch— A  superstition  of  Caithness  .  .  .  Pages  81-97 

CHAPTER   IX. 

GEOLOGY DISCOVERT  OP  A  HOLOPTYCHIUS. 

Studies  Geology— Mantell  and  Buckland— Hugh  Miller's  Old  Red 
Sandstone— Addresses  Hugh  Miller— The  Holoptychius— Describes 
the  beginning  of  his  studies — Hugh  Miller's  account  of  Dick — 
Gentlemen-geologists — The  scalding  theory — Dick  sends  his  fossils 
to  Hugh  Miller— Hugh  Miller's  acknowledgments  .  Pages  98-109 

CHAPTER   X. 

GEOLOGY    OF    THE    THURSO    COAST. 
I 

Invitations  to  Hugh  Miller — Description  of  the  coast — Thurso  East — 
Fossiliferous  beds — "That  man  is  mad" — View  from  the  coast — 
Pudding  Gyoe — Murkle  Bay — View  of  Dunnet  cliffs — Geologising 
at  Scrabster — The  sea — The  Coccosteus — An  old  burying-ground — 
Bishop's  Palace— Scrabster  Roads— Holborn  Head— The  Deil's  Brig 
— The  Clett — Slater's  monument — Brims — Searching  for  fossils  on 
Holborn  Head Pages  110-128 

CHAPTER   XL 

HUGH  MILLER  VISITS  DICK. 

Dick's  observations  in  geology — Opposed  to  theorising — Dip  of  tha 
strata — How  came  the  fossil  fish  ? — The  flagstones  of  Caithness- 
Geological  formation  of  Caithness — Elevation  and  depression  of  th« 


xiv  CONTENTS. 


land— Differences  of  climate— The  glaciers— The  boulder  clay- 
Beds  of  coal— Dick  sends  his  fossil  remains  to  Hugh  Miller— A 
bundle  of  findings— Dick  publicly  mentioned— Weydale— An  auld 
bachelor— Dipteras  and  Diplopterus— The  quarrymen  and  the  fossils 

Banniskirk — "Fresh  herring" — Walking  sentry — Reconnoitres 

for  Hugh  Miller— Hugh  Miller  visits  Robert  Dick— Their  walks 
along  the  shore— Dunnet  sands  and  Dunnet  Head— Holborn  Head 
—Description  of  Hugh  Miller— The  expatriated  Highlanders  — 
"  Donald's  Flittin "  .  .  Pages  129-150 

CHAPTER  XII. 

DEATH  OF  DICK'S  FATHER THE  BOULDER  CLAY. 

Thomas  Dick  at  Haddington — Removes  to  Tullibody — His  illness  and 
death —Letter  to  his  sister— Competition  at  Thurso— His  absence 
from  "the  Kirk" — The  reason  why — Dick's  solitary  service — His 
collection  of  fossils — Researches  into  the  boulder  clay — His  journeys 
by  daylight  and  moonlight — Boulder  clay  along  the  Thurso  river 
—Finds  marine  shells  and  flints— Thurdistoft— Belts  of  clay— 
Harpsdale— Sends  Hugh  Miller  the  marine  shells  Pages  151-166 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

DICK'S  SEARCHINGS  AMONGST  THE  BOULDER  CLAY. 

A  journey  to  Freswick — Starts  at  midnight — Castle  of  Freswick — 
Wanderings  up  the  burn — Finds  marine  shells — Hugh  Miller's 
conclusions — The  eastern  side  of  Dunnet  Head — Dick's  walk  under 
the  break-neck  rocks— Cliffs  at  Brough — Goes  into  a  boulder  clay 
ravine — Proceeds  down  a  ledge — Wonder  upon  wonder — Dick's 
reflections — Journey  to  Harpsdale — Another  visit  to  Freswick — 
Boulder  stones— Village  of  Castletown— Wild  bulls  of  Dunnet— 
Moss  of  Mey— The  Skerry  Lights— Stroma  Isle— The  Wart  Hill- 
Wades  along  Freswick  Burn — Searches  amongst  the  boulder  clay — 
All  the  country  once  occupied  by  the  sea — Dick's  conclusions 

7-191 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

ICEBERG  PERIOD. 

Action  of  icebergs— Journey  to  Dunbeath— Crosses  Caithness  from 
north  to  south— Granitic  debris— Dunbeath  Water— Finds  marine 
shells— Granite  and  conglomerate— The  boulders— The  moors— 
I/>ch  More— The  auld  carle— The  want  of  sneeshin— Deceived  by 


CONTENTS. 


the  anld  carle — Formation  of  Caithness— Journey  to  Acharynio — 
Picturesque  appi-antnce  of  the  river — Dirlot  Castle — Dallmore  and 
Cattack — Strathbeg — Journey  to  Sinclair  Bay — Noss  Head — Various 
other  journeys — Visit  to  Shurery — View  from  the  Ben — Walk  up 
Strath  Halladale— Journey  along  the  Pentland  Firth— The  Haven 
of  Mey— The  Caddis  worm  .  .  .  Pages  192-213 

CHAPTER   XV. 

END  OF  CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  HUGH  MILLER. 

Dick's  assistance  to  Hugh  Miller — Professor  Agassiz's  testimony — 
Professor  Sedgwick — Specimen  of  the  Diplopterus — Professor  Owen 
— Hugh  Miller's  acknowledgments — Ruling  by  authorities — Geo- 
logical maps — Dick's  travelling  map — Government  should  make 
the  maps — One  first  creation — Winter  in  Caithness — Groovings  of 
ice — Rolling  home  an  Asterolepis — How  Dick  polished  his  fossils — 
Working  among  the  rocks,  at  Barrogill,  Mull  of  Mey,  Scarskerry — 
The  base  at  Gill's  Bay— Scotland  Haven— Ramble  to  Bencheilt— 
The  Dniid's  Temple— Stemster  Loch— Bed  over  bed— Hugh  Miller's 
works — Popes  of  all  sorts — Hugh  Miller's  death — Dick's  story  of 
"Tb«  Fairies" — Dick's  lamentations  over  Hugh's  death 

Pages  214-237 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

CHARLES    W.   PEACH,    A.L.S. 

Another  worker  among  the  rocks  in  Cornwall — Charles  Peach — How 
working  men  may  advance  knowledge — Peach  and  Dick — Peach 
born  at  Wansford — His  schooling — Assists  in  his  father's  inn — Is 
appointed  riding  officer  in  the  Coastguard  service — Studies  Natural 
History — His  frequent  removals  in  Norfolk — The  Rev.  J.  Layton — 
Superintendent  at  Cley — Removed  to  Lyme  Regis,  Beer,  Paignton, 
aiid  Gorranhaven — Studies  Zoology — The  Geology  of  the  Cornish 
coast— Reads  a  paper  at  the  British  Association — Constant,  attender 
at  the  meetings — The  meeting  at  York — Dr.  R.  Chambers'  descrip- 
tion— Discovery  of  the  Holothuria  nigra — Charles  Peach  promoted 
to  Landing  Waiter  at  Fowey — His  discovery  of  organic  fossils — 
Testimony  of  the  Royal  Cornish  Geological  Society — Removes  to 
Peterhead — Continues  his  studies  in  Zoology  and  Botany — Removes 
to  Wick  — His  first  visit  to  Robert  Dick  — His  second  visit  to 
Dick  — Their  walks  —  Battles  in  Dick's  bakehouse  —  Peach  dis- 
covers fossils  in  the  limestone  of  Durness — Effects  a  revolution  in 
Geology  ......  Pages  238-258 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

EGBERT   DICK   AND    CHARLES   PEACH. 

Peach  finds  a  new  fossil— Dick's  reply— The  monk  of  Cambray  reading 
backwards— Views  of  Geology— Ill-will  to  geologists— Mr.  Peach's 
paper  at  Liverpool  —  Fossil  wood  —  Dick's  botanical  collection — 
Mr.  W.  L.  Notcutt— Dick's  correspondents— His  Sunday  walks— 
Dr.  Macleod— "  Ta  tail  pe  brak  "—Encounter  with  a  Highlander- 
Sir  Roderick  Murchison— Calls  on  Robert  Dick— Letter  from  Sir 
Roderick— Second  visit  to  Dick— Moulds  a  map  of  Caithness  in 
flour— Sir  Roderick's  letter— Voyage  of  Murchison  and  Peach  to  the 
Shetland  Islands— Sir  Roderick's  speech  at  Leeds— "  Hammers  an' 
chisels  an'  a'  "—Amygdaloid— Dick's  rhymes— Another  letter  from 
Sir  Roderick— Another  rhyme  .  .  .  Pages  259-281 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

LION-HUNTERS  —  FERNS  AND  MOSSES. 

raihurso  people  and  Dick — Opinions  about  his  rhymes — Lion-hunters — 
Annie  Mackay — The  Duke  of  Argyll — Sir  George  Sinclair — Thomas 
Carlyle  and  Baroness  Burdett  Coutts — Lady  Sinclair — "Welcome 
Charlie"  — Medical  students— Dr.  Shearer— Dr.  Meiklejohn— Dr. 
Brown — The  Juncus  squarrosiis — Study  of  mosses — Club  mosses — 
Finds  the  Osmil/nda  regalis — Ferns  on  Dunnet  Head — Cornish 
heaths — Studies  from  Nature — Fossil  wood — Illness — Hart's-tongue 
fern — Section  of  Caithness  strata — Plants  the  Royal  Fern  over 
Caithness  —  Darwin's  Journal  — The  littleness  of  things  — Dr. 
Shearer's  question — Correspondence  with  Dr.  Meiklejohn — Influence 
of  climate  on  roses  .....  Pages  282-311 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

ROBERT  DICK  IN  ADVERSITY. 

Dick's  attention  to  business — Is  oppressed  by  competition — Loses  his 
money — Loses  his  health — Thinks  of  removing  from  Thurso — More 
bakers — Bakers  and  whisky  dealers — John  Barleycorn — No  coddling 
and  nursing — Improvement  of  Thurso — Annie  Mackay's  conversa- 
tion, Dick's  housekeeper — Dick's  honesty — His  cheerfulness- 
Keeps  moving — Pores  over  dried  mosses — Jacob's  son — Eyesight 
becomes  defective — His  struggles  to  live — SirWyville  Thomson — His 
description  of  Dick — Dick  resumes  his  researches  among  the  fossils 
— His  great  labour — Finds  an  extraordinary  fossil  .  Pages  312-328 


CONTENTS.  xvii 


CHAPTER    XX. 

DICK  COMPELLED  TO  SELL  HIS  FOSSILS. 

The  ' '  Prince  Consort "  shipwrecked — Dick's  flour  lost — Unable  ta 
pay  the  loss — Appeals  to  his  sister — Obtains  £20  from  her — Pre- 
pares to  sell  his  fossils — Mr.  John  Miller,  F.G.S. — Correspondence 
with  him— Writes  to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison— Sells  his  fossils  to 
Mr.  Miller — Pays  his  bill  for  the  lost  flour — His  business  again 
falls  off — Nature  comes  to  his  relief — His  lonely  walks — His 
favourite  resorts — The  Daisy — The  Bulrush  and  Lapland  Reed — 
Troubled  with  rheumatism  —  Native  roses — Professor  Babington 
—Professor Owen— Mr.  Notcutt— Mr.  Pringle,  Farmer 's Gazette— "0 
waft  me  o'er  the  deep  blue  sea" — Dick  a  sleepless  man — St.  Peter's 
burying-ground — A  believer  in  the  unseen  world  .  Pages  329-347 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

RECOMMENCES  A  COLLECTION  OP  FOSSILS. 

Again  searches  for  fossil  fish — His  wondrous  astonishment — The  dead 
fish— Platform  of  death— View  of  Caithness  and  Orkney— Death  a 
necessity  —  Interview  with  a  quarryman  —  Hugh  Miller's  views 
referred  to — The  Old  Red  conglomerate — Searchiugs  among  the 
rocks — A  large  fossil  found — Searches  for  an  entire  fossil  fish — Hia 
constant  diggings — Mr.  Salter's  lecture — Digs  in  hard  frost — Order 
of  succession — Bed  of  rolled  pebbles  on  Morven  top — Stony  clays 
on  Thurso  river — Metamorphic  action — Liquid  silica — Flint  casts — 
The  chalk  formation— Dick's  letters  .  .  Pages  348-37'J 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

DICK'S  FRIENDS FOSSILISING  AND  MOSS-HUNTING. 

How  the  Thurso  people  regarded  Dick — His  antediluvian  garments — 
His  appearance — His  inner  thinkings — The  little  we  really  know — 
Dignity  and  purity  of  Dick's  character — Dr.  Shearer's  statement  as 
to  his  thoroughness — Peach  and  Dick — Careful  and  abstemious — 
"  No  pampering  " — Correspondence  with  his  sister — Ferns  in  De- 
cember, Peri — Dick  nearly  shot — Death  of  his  sister — A  new  friend 
— His  meeting  with  Dick — His  frequent  interviews — Dick's  museum 
described — His  herbarium — Walls  of  his  bakehouse — His  interest 


CONTENTS. 


in  Egypt — Natural  History  Society  of  Thurso — A  museum — More 
correspondents — Mr.  Jamieson,  Ellou — Lines  to  Charles  Peach — 
Award  to  Peach  for  his  discoveries  in  geology — Peach  finds  new 
fossils— A  sea-suake— Pterichthys  Dicki—  Peach's  duties— Retires 
from  the  service — Continues  the  study  of  geology  and  zoology — Dick's 
letter  on  receiving  his  photograph  .  .  .  Pages  371-394 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

DICK'S  LAST  YEAR HIS  DEATH. 

Dick  afflicted  by  rheumatism — Competition  in  business — His  trade  sus- 
pended— His  biscuits — Scarcely  earns  the  wages  of  a  day-labourer 
/ — A  good  new  year — Collecting  mosses  and  ferns — Reform— The 
rain — Working  at  fossils  again — The  old  days  gone  for  ever — A 
boulder  stone  from  Helmsdale — Bishop  Colenso's  book — The  Thurso 
merchants — Mr.  Carlyle's  o\"ation — Railway  projects — Dick  pictures 
himself— Dick's  last  walk— His  description— His  illness— Mr. 
Miller's  helpfulness — Continues  to  work — His  last  letters — Mrs. 
Harold— Robert  Dick's  death— A  public  funeral— Followers  to  his 
grave — Winding  up  of  his  affairs — Sale  of  his  library — The  proposed 
pension— Too  late Pages  395-416 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

CHARACTERISTICS. 

Dick  self-sacrificing  life— TJnhappiness  in  his  bringing  up— His  delight 
in  nature — His  love  of  facts — The  mystery  of  geology — Its  wonders 
— His  researches  among  the  rocks  and  boulder  clay — His  unselfish- 
ness— His  givings  to  Hugh  Miller — Hugh  Miller's  acknowledgments 
— His  extraordinary  journeys — Necessity  for  work — His  intellectual 
labour — His  modesty — His  enthusiasm — His  closeness  of  observa- 
tion— His  idea  of  geology — His  collections  of  fossils — His  herbarium 
— His  character — His  childlikeness — Sir  George  Sinclair's  testimony 
— Profeseor  Shearer — Charles  Peach — His  poverty — Annie  Mackay 
— Dick  a  reverent  and  devout  man — Moral  of  Dick's  life 

Pages  417-432 


ILLUSTBATIONS. 


POETRAIT  OF  ROBERT  DICK.       Etched  by  Paul  Rajon.       Frontispiex. 

Engraved  by 
PORTRAIT  01  CHARLES  W.  PEACH,  A.L.S.   C.  JRoberts.  Tofcuxpage  238 

BENCLEDOH — OCHIL  HILLS ,     „         1 

RIFT  IN  THE  OCHILS,  NEAR  MENSTRiE     ....       page      3 

ROBERT  DICK'S  BIRTHPLACE,  TULLIBODY 8 

DAM'S  BURN,  FOOT  OF  THE  OCHILS „       11 

DUNMYAT,  FROM  CAMBUSKENNETH  ,        .  •         ,,17 

THDRSO  BAY     .  „       26 

MAP  OF  CAITHNESS To  face  page  26 

GIRNIGO  CASTLE,  EAST  COAST  OF  CAITHNESS  .        .        .         page  32 

ORD  OF  CAITHNESS ,,36 

DUNCANSBY  HEAD,  NEAR  JOHN  o'  GROAT'S      ...  ,,39 

THE  CLETT,  HOLBORN  HEAD To  face  page  44 

OLD  THURSO  CASTLE,  FROM  THE  SHORE   ....         page  54 

MORVEN  MOUNTAIN To  face  page  66 

THE  DORERY  HILLS         .  ....         page  79 

DWARWICK  HEAD „    84 

DUNNET  HEAD,  FROM  THE  EAST       ....      To  face  page  86 
DISTANT  VIEW  OF  DONNET  HEAD,  FROM  BARROGILL  CASTLE    page  97 

MAP  OF  COAST  NEAR  THURSO ,,110 

HOY  HEAD  AND  MAN  OF  HOY „  115 

BISHOP'S  PALACE  AND  SCRABSTER  ROADS        ...  „  121 

THE  DEIL'S  BRIO,  HOLBORN  HEAD          .        .        .    To  face  page  111 

DUNNET  SANDS .        page  143 

ROCKS  AT  HOLBORN  HEAD— SLATER'S  MONUMENT       To  face  page  146 

THURSO  RIVER,  FROM  THE  BRIDGE page  160 

STACKS  OF  DUNCANSBY     .        .        .        .        .        .        .          ,,166 

FRESWICK  CASTLE  AND  HEADLAND  ...          „    169 


xx  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRA  TIONS. 

DUNNET  CLIFFS,  EASTERN  SIDE page  172 

ROCKS  AT  BROUGH To  face  page  17 4 

CASTLEHILL  HOUSE,  CASTLETOWN page  180 

THE  SKERBY  LIGHTS,  PENTLAND  FIRTH  :  FROM  CANISBAY 

To  face  page,  182 

BOULDER  CLAY  AT  FRESWICK page  184 

FRESWICK  BRIDGE „    186 

DUNBEATH  :  EAST  COAST  OF  CAITHNESS         .       .       .  ,,193 

RUINS  OF  DlRLOT  pASTLE  .  ....  „     202 

SINCLAIR  BAY  AND  Noss  HEAD ,,205 

STRATH  HALLADALE To  face  page  208 

MOUTH  OF  STRATH  HALLADALE  RIVER  ....  page  210 
DUNNET  HEAD  :  WEST  FRONT — NEAR  THE  LIGHTHOUSE 

To  face  page  232 

WANSFORD,  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE page  24C 

CHARLES  PEACH'S  HOUSE  AT  FOWEY       ....  „   249 

ROBERT  DICK'S  HOUSE,  WILSON'S  LANE,  THURSO   .        .  „   271 

THURSO  HARBOUR  :  THE  OLD  CHURCH     .        .        .       .  ,,   -74 

OLD  THURSO  CASTLE ,,286 

DUNNET  HEAD  :  WEST  FRONT  ....  To  face  page  296 
DICK'S  SEAT  AT  DORERY  :  VIEW  INTO  SUTHERLANDSHIRE  page  303 
THURSO  PARISH  CHURCH,  FROM  THE  WICK  ROAD  .  .  ,,317 

RUINS  OF  ST.  PETER'S,  THURSO ,,347 

DISTANT  VIEW  OF  MORVEN  AND  MAIDEN  PAP        .       .  „   350 

MOUTH  OF  THURSO  RIVER ,,384 

MILLATFORSS To  face  page  388 

MONUMENT  TO  ROBERT  DICK  IN  THUESO  CEVETEB.Y  „  „  416 
NKW  THURSO  CASTLE  .......  page  432 


BENCLEUGH  :    OCHIL   HILLS. 


ROBERT   DICK. 

CHAPTEE  I. 

TULLIBODY. 

THE  village  of  Tullibody  stands  upon  a  rising  ground 
situated  between  the  windings  of  the  Forth  and  the 
Devon,  in  Clackmannanshire,  Scotland.  The  Devon 
takes  its  rise  among  the  burns  and  rivulets  which 
flow  down  from  the  Ochil  Hills. 

At  the  upper  part  of  the  river,  some  of  the  most 
romantic  scenery  in  Scotland  is  to  be  found.  At  the 
Caldron  Linn  the  Devon  forms  a  series  of  cascades, 
which  rush  down  through  precipitous  rocks  into  almost 
unseen  depths.  Boiling  about  in  the  Caldrons,  it  passes 
with  a  violent  noise  under  the  Eumblin'  Brig,  which 
spans  the  rocks  about  a  hundred  and  twenty  feet  above 
the  bed  of  the  river. 

Another  affluent  of  the  Devon  comes  down  from  the 
Ochils  at  Castle  Campbell — Castle  of  Gloom,  as  it  used 
to  be  called — a  ruined  building  occupying  a  wild  and 
romantic  situation  on  the  summit  of  a  high  and  almost 
insulated  rock.  The  mount  on  which  it  is  situated  is 
nearly  encompassed  on  all  sides  by  tliick  bosky  woods ; 
and  the  mountain  rivulets  which  tumble  down  through 


THE  DEVON. 


the  chasms  on  either  side,  become  united  at  the  base. 
The  whole  of  the  scenes  about  the  upper  Devon  are  of 
the  most  romantic  kind,  and  are  strikingly  different 
from  all  other  Scottish  scenery. 

As  the  river  winds  out  from  its  rocky  bed  below  the 
Caldron  Linn,  it  enters  the  beautiful  open  valley  which 
runs  along  the  foot  of  the  Ochils,  taking  on  its  way  the 
rivulets  which  flow  down  from  the  mountains.  It  runs 
westward  near  Dollar,  Tillicoultry,  Alva,  and  Menstrie ; 
then,  winding  sharp  round  towards  the  south  near  Tulli- 
body,  it  joins  the  Forth  at  Cambus,  a  little  below  the 
ruins  of  Cambuskenneth  Abbey. 

Among  his  many  beautiful  verses  descriptive  of  the 
rivers  of  Scotland,  Burns  has  not  forgotten  the  Devon : — 

"  How  pleasant  the  banks  of  the  clear  winding  Devon, 
With  green  spreading  bushes  and  flowers  blooming  fair  !" 

The  verses  werer  composed  as  a  poetic  compliment  to 
Miss  Charlotte  Hamilton,  a  charming  lady,  then  residing 
at  Harvieston,  near  Dollar.* 

The  lofty  range  of  the  Ochils  is  a  prominent  feature 
in  the  scenery  of  the  Devon.  The  hills  are  soft,  green, 
and  pastoral.  Their  sunward  slopes  are  here  and  there 
varied  with  magnificent  wooded  glades,  intermingled  with 
copse  and  whins,  which  in  their  golden  summer  yellow 
are  supremely  beautiful.  The  burns  and  streamlets  come 
down  in  cascades  through  the  deep  rifts  of  the  hills,  and 
are  turned  to  use  in  many  mills  along  the  valley. 

*  Near  Dollar  is  "Tait's  Tomb,"  the  family  burial-place  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  whose  father  built  Haivieston,  and  became 
the  possessor  of  Castle  Campbell. 


THE  OCHILS. 


The  most  south- 
erly of  the  Ochil  Hills  is 
Dunmyat,  which  is  famous 
for  the  extensive  view  obtained 
from  its  summit.  A  little  to 
the  east  of  it  rises  Beucleuch, 
the  highest  hill  in  the  range, 
2352  feet  high.  It  shoots  up 
into  a  tall  rocky  point,  called 
Craigleith,  famous  in  ancient 
times  for  the  production  of  fal- 
cons. In  a  hollow  behind  the 
point,  where  the  sun's  rays  never 
extend,  the  snow  lies  far  into  the 
summer.  The  people  of  the 
neighbourhood  give  it  the 
name  of  Lady  Alva's  Web. 

The  little  town  of  Alva 
lies  close  to  the 


A  EIFT  IN  THE  OCHILS,  NEAR  MRNSTRIE. 


TULLIBODY. 


foot  of  Bencleuch.  The  glens  and  wooded  copsea 
behind  it  are  full  of  beauty.  The  old  ballad  never- 
theless assumes  the  supremacy  of  Menstrie,  near  the 
foot  of  Dunmyat : — 

"  Oh,  Alva's  woods  are  bonnie, 
Tillicoultry's  hills  are  fair, 

But  when  I  think  o'  the  bonnie  braes  o'  Menstrie, 
It  makes  my  heart  aye  sair."  * 

The  village  of  Tullibody  looks  down  upon  the 
"bonnie  braes  o'  Menstrie."  A  valley  lies  between, 
along  which  runs  the  clear  winding  Devon.  A  bridge 
spans  the  river  near  Tullibody,  from  which  a  fine  view 
is  obtained  of  the  winding  Devon,  the  hill  of  Bencleuch. 
and  the  village  and  woods  of  Alva  at  its  base.  In  thie 
neighbourhood  the  famous  adventure  of  James  the  Fifth 
and  the  Gudeman  of  Ballangeich  occurred.  On  the 
Gudeman's  visit  to  Stirling,  the  King  designated  him  as 
"  King  of  the  Muirs."  The  cottage  in  which  King  James 
took  shelter  lay  on  an  eminence  near  Tullibody,  about  a 
mile  south  of  the  Ochils. 

Tullibody  seems  in  some  way  to  have  been  connected 
with  that  mythical  people  the  Picts.-f  Who  were  the 
Picts  or  Pechs  ?  Many  have  tried  to  unravel  the  story, 
but  the  result  has  been  mere  guesswork.  Som }  say  that 

*  Menstrie  House  was  formerly  the  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Stirling.  It 
was  destroyed  by  the  Parliamentarian  army  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  I.  ;  in  return  for  which  the  clans  under  Montrose  devoted 
Castle  Campbell  to  flames  and  ruin  in  1645. 

t  The  name  of  Tullibody  is  said  to  be  derived  from  the  Celtic 
language — Tulach,  a  little  green  eminence,  and  Boidich,a,vovf,  a  solemn 
promise.  Hence  Tulachboidich,  the  knoll  of  the  oath. 


THE  STANDING  STANE. 


they  occupied  the  Orkneys,  Caithness,  and  Sutherland ; 
others  that  they  inhabited  Mid-Scotland,  between  the 
West  Highlands  and  the  Lowlands  north  of  the  Forth. 
We  hear  of  them  at  Brechin,  at  Galloway,  and  along  the 
Picts'  Wall.  Some  say  they  were  Celts,  others  Scandi- 
navians. The  riddle  is  as  yet  quite  unsolved. 

The  story  goes  that  the  Picts  were  totally  defeated 
by  King  Kenneth  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Tullibody,  or 
Dunbodenum,*  in  the  year  843,  after  five  successive 
battles.  It  is  said  that  the  final  overthrow  of  the 
Picts  took  place  near  the  village  of  Logic,  close  under 
Dunmyat;  and  others  that  it  took  place  at  Cambus- 
kenneth  Abbey,  which  "  was  built  by  David  the  Second 
on  the  very  spot  where  his  royal  ancestor  gave  the  final 
blow  to  the  Pictish  dominion." 

In  commemoration  of  the  event  it  is  said  that  a 
"  Standing  Stane "  was  first  erected  at  Tullibody, — a 
usual  method  of  distinguishing  the  site  of  a  battle  in 
ancient  times.  The  "Standing  Stane"  was,  however, 
demolished  about  fifty  years  ago,  the  broken  fragments 
being  found  useful  in  mending  the  roads. 

The  Abbot  of  Cambuskenneth  took  Tullibody  under 
his  charge,  whether  in  connection  with  the  victory  of 
Kenneth  Macalpine  over  the  Picts,  or  because  the  place 
was  in  his  immediate  vicinity,  does  not  appear.  At  all 
events,  a  primitive  place  of  worship  was  erected  at 
Tullibody,  which  long  continued  to  be  an  appendage  to 
the  wealthy  Abbey  of  Cambuskenneth. 

*  From  Dun  Buddran,  the  fort  of  Buddran,  a  celebrated  Celtic 
thief. 

2 


TULLIBODY  BRIDGE. 


At  the  period  of  the  Eeformation  in  Scotland,  when 
the  French  troops  under  Mary  of  Guise  were  flying 
westward  through  Fife  and  Clackmannan  on  the  arrival 
of  the  English  fleet  in  the  Forth,  William  Kirkaldy  of 
Grange,  to  impede  their  progress,  destroyed  the  eastern 
arch  of  Tullibody  bridge. 

The  French,  under  General  D'Oysel,  never  at  a  loss  in 
an  emergency,  unroofed  the  church  at  Tullibody  for  the 
purpose  of  repairing  the  bridge.  To  use  the  words  of 
John  Knox  : — "  Ye  French,  expert  enough  in  sic  feats, 
tuke  downe  ye  roofe  of  a  paroch  kirk,  and  made  ane 
brig  over  ye  water  called  Devon,  and  sae  they  escapet 
and  gaed  to  Stirling,  and  thereafter  to  Leath."* 

For  a  long  time  nothing  was  done  to  repair  the 
church,  after  the  French  had  unroofed  it.  The  ancient 
walls  fell  to  decay,  and  became  covered  with  wild  weeds. 
The  body  of  the  church  was  used  as  a  burial-place.  The 
place  might  have  gone  to  utter  ruin  but  for  the  Aber- 
cromby  family,  who  own  the  estate  of  Tullibody.  They 

*  John  Knox  adds — "As  ye  Frenohe  spullyed  ye  cuntry  in  their 
returning,  ane  captane  or  soldiour,  we  cannot  tell,  but  he  had  a  reid 
clocke  and  a  gilt  murrion,  entered  upon  a  pure  woman,  that  dwelt  in 
ye  Quhytsyid,  and  began  to  spoille.  Ye  pure  woman  offer-it  unto  him 
sic  breid  as  sche  had  redy  prepairit,  but  he,  in  no  ways  tharewith 
content,  wold  have  ye  meil  and  a  littill  salt  beef,  quhilk  ye  pure 
woman  had  to  sustein  hir  own  lyif,  and  ye  lyves  of  hir  pure  childrein  ; 
nowther  could  teirs  nor  pitifull  words  mitigate  ye  merciles  man,  bot 
he  wold  have  quhatsoevir  he  micht  cary.  The  pure  woman  perceaving 
him  so  bent,  and  that  he  stoupit  down  in  hir  tub  for  the  taking  furth  of 
sick  stuff  as  was  within  it,  first  coupit  up  his  heilles,  so  that  his  heid 
went  down,  and  thairafter  be  hirsetf,  or  if  ony  uther  companie  came  to 
helpf,  hir,  but  there  he  enc/it  his  unhape  fyif." 


THE  ABERCROMBIES. 


roofed  over  the  church,  and  seated  it  as  a  place  of 
worship.  They  erected  some  fine  monuments  and  memo- 
rials in  and  about  it  to  the  memory  of  the  distinguished 
men  of  the  family.  Among  them  is  a  cenotaph  to 
the  distinguished  Sir  Ealph  Ahercromby,  the  hero  of 
Aboukir. 

Having  thus  described  the  scenery  of  the  Ochils  and 
the  Devon,  amongst  which  Robert  Dick  spent  many  of 
his  early  days,  we  proceed  to  relate  the  story  of  his  hie. 


ROBERT   DICK'S    BIRTHPLACE. 


CHAPTER    II. 
ROBERT  DICK'S  BOYHOOD. 

ROBERT  DICK  was  "born  at  Tullibody  in  January  1811.* 
He  "was  one  of  four  children — Agnes,  Robert,  Jane, 
and  James. 

Thomas  Dick,  his  father,  was  an  officer  of  excise. 
He  was  an  attentive,  diligent,  and  able  man.  He 
eventually  rose  to  one  of  the  highest  positions  in  his 
calling.  At  the  time  when  Robert  Dick  was  born, 

*  Miss  Dick,  his  half-sister,  says  he  was  born  in  1810,  though  1811 
is  on  his  tombstone. 


CH\P.  ii.       BARONY  SCHOOL,  TULLIBODY.  9 

it  was  his  business  to  attend  daily  at  the  Cambua 
Brewery,  close  at  hand. 

Margaret  Gilchrist  was  Robert  Dick's  mother.  Very 
little  is  known  of  her,  excepting  that  she  was  a  very 
delicate  woman,  and  died  shortly  after  having  given 
birth  to  her  fourth  child.  Thomas  Dick  was  thus  left 
without  a  wife,  and  his  children  without  a  mother. 

The  house  in  which  the  Dick  family  lived,  and  in 
which  Robert  was  born,  is  situated  in  the  principal 
street  of  the  village.  It  is  a  two-storied,  red-tiled, 
"  self-contained"  house.  Looking  down  the  street  from 
the  Tron  Tree,  you  see  the  Ochil  hills  forming  the 
back-ground  of  the  village ;  the  Devon  winding  in  the 
valley  below. 

The  children,  as  they  grew  up,  were  sent  to  school. 
Tullibody  was  fortunate  in  its  Barony  School,  founded 
and  partly  endowed  by  the  Abercromby  family.  Thus 
all  the  children  in  the  village  were  able  to  obtain  a  fair 
education  at  a  moderate,  price ;  for  in  Scotland  it  is 
considered  a  disgrace  if  a  parent,  of  even  the  meanest 
condition,  does  not  send  his  children  to  school. 

Mr.  Macintyre  was  the  teacher  of  the  Barony  School 
He  was  a  man  of  considerable  attainments.  Above  all 
things,  he  was  an  enthusiastic  schoolmaster.  He  main- 
tained discipline,  inculcated  instruction,  and  elevated 
the  position  of  his  school  by  steady  competition.  He 
endeavoured  to  avoid  corporal  punishment,  and  only 
appealed  to  it  as  the  last  resource. 

Robert  Dick  was  one  of  his  aptest  scholars.  He 
learned  everything  rapidly.  When  he  had  mastered 


10  DICK'S  DOMINIE.  CHAP.  n. 

reading,  he  read  everything  he  could  lay  hands  on. 
He  was  fond  of  fun  and  sport,  and,  like  all  strong 
and  active  boys,  he  sometimes  got  into  scrapes.  When 
he  infringed  the  rules  of  the  school,  the  master  gave 
him  a  number  of  verses  to  commit  to  heart.  But  he 
learnt  them  so  quickly  and  recited  them  with  such  ease, 
that  the  task  was  found  of  no  use  as  a  punishment, 
and  then,  on  any  further  indiscretion  being  committed, 
the  master  resorted  to  the  last  extremity — the  Taws  !* 

In  a  letter  to  Hugh  Miller,  Dick  afterwards  said,  "  My 
auld  dominie  used  to  say  that  I  had  a  good  memory. 
Every  morning,  in  his  introductory  exercise,  before  the 
business  of  the  day  began,  he  used  to  pray  that  teacher 
and  scholars  might  all  be  taught,  and  that  discipline 
might  be  followed  with  obedience." 

Eobert  had  a  great  talent  for  languages.  He  learnt 
Latin  so  quickly  that  his  master  recommended  Mr.  Dick 
to  send  him  to  "college,  with  the  object  of  educating  him 
for  one  of  the  learned  professions.  Such  was  his  inten- 
tion, when  an  event  occurred  which  prevented  its  being 
carried  into  effect. 

This  was  Mr.  Dick's  second  marriage.  It  occurred 
in  1821,  when  Eobert  was  ten  years  old.  Mr.  Dick 
married  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Knox,  the  brewer  at  Cambus, 
whose  premises  he  inspected.  As  the  excise  regulations 
did  not  permit  of  his  surveying  the  premises  of  a  relative, 
he  was  removed  to  Dam's  Burn,  a  hamlet  at  the  foot  of 
the  Ochils,  where  he  inspected  the  whisky  distillery  of 

*  The  Taws,  a  thick  leather  strap  about  three  feet  long,  cut  into  tails 
at  the  end. 


J>AM'S  BUR  A?. 


Mr    Dall.     The  distillery  is 
now  called  Glen  Ochil. 

Dam's  Burn  is  so  called  because 
of  a  noisy  burn,  which  leaps  from 
rock  to  rock  down  the  hills,  to  join 
the  Devon,  which  runs  through  the 
valley  below.  On  its  way,  the  burn 
used  to  be  dammed  up,  so  as  to 
drive  a  mill  while  on  its  way  (~' 
to  the  river.  Mr.  Dick  occu-  / 
pied  the  best  house  in  the  place, 
— the  slated  house,  with  its  gable  end  towards  the  street, 
as  shown  in  the  annexed  engraving.  The  slopes  of  the 
Ochil  hills,— the  Abbey  Craig,  on  which  the  Wallace 
Monument  now  stands, — and  the  Campsie  Fells,  beyond 
Stirling,  are  seen  in  the  distance. 

While  at  Dam's  Burn,  Eobert  Dick  went  to  the  parish 
school  at  Menstrie,  a  village  about  half  a  mile  westward. 


DAM'S  B0KN. 


12  DICK  ON  THE  OCHfLS.  CHAP.  it. 

The  teacher's  name  was  Morrison.  He  was  not  equal 
in  accomplishments  to  the  Barony  schoolmaster  at  Tulli- 
body.  He  took  to  teaching  because  he  had  not  limbs 
enough  to  fit  him  for  anything  else.  He  had  only  one 
arm.  He  used  to  mend  his  pens  dexterously,  while 
holding  them  firmly  under  the  little  stump  that  remained 
on  the  other  side. 

Robert  Dick  made  little  progress  under  this  master. 
He  learned  his  lessons  well  enough,  and  read  as  many 
books  as  he  could  find  or  borrow.  But  he  had  a  great 
compensation  at  Dam's  Burn  for  his  want  of  school 
learning.  It  was  at  Dam's  Burn  that  he  imbibed  his 
love  of  Nature.  The  green  Ochils  rose  right  behind  his 
father's  house.  By  stepping  into  the  back-green,  he  could 
at  once  ascend  the  heights.  He  could  ramble  up  the 
burns,  and  in  the  sheltered  corners,  behind  the  rocks,  find 
many  precious  flowers  and  plants. 

The  boy  who"  plays  about  a  mountain  side,  or  among 
the  clefts  of  the  hills,  finds  many  things  to  amuse  him. 
In  spring  time  there  are  the  birds ;  in  summer  there  are 
the  plants  and  flowers;  and  in  winter  there  are  the 
icicles  hanging  down  the  ledges  of  the  rocks.  Robert 
also  found  out  a  variety  of  stones  among  the  hills, — 
the  felspar,  porphyry,  and  greenstones,  which  are  com- 
mon in  the  Ochils.  He  wondered  at  the  difference 
between  them, — made  a  collection  of  them,  which  he 
treasured  at  a  dike-side,  behind  his  father's  house, — 
and  tried  to  find  out  the  cause  of  the  difference  between 
one  stone  and  another. 

This  climbing  of  the  Ochils  led  him  into  difficulties. 


DICK'S  STEP-MOTHER.  13 


And  this  leads  us  to  a  point  in  the  history  of  Bobert 
Dick's  life  which  cannot  be  omitted,  inasmuch  as  it 
coloured  his  whole  future  life.  The  years  of  childhood 
and  boyhood  are,  as  it  were,  a  sort  of  prophetic  recital 
of  the  years  of  manhood.  They  constitute  the  little 
stage  on  which,  with  puny  powers,  we  unconsciously 
rehearse  the  scenes  of  after  life. 

The  boy  has  in  him  the  seeds  of  good  and  the  seeds 
of  evil.  Which  will  prove  the  stronger  ?  No  one  can 
tell.  But,  to  a  large  extent,  it  depends  upon  the  effects 
of  love  and  sympathy  at  home.  The  presence  of  these 
may  call  into  life  the  best  growths  of  the  soul,  and  the 
absence  of  them  may  raise  up  the  noxious  miasmas  that 
poison  the  whole  human  heart. 

It  will  be  remembered,  that  when  Thomas  Dick 
removed  to  Dam's  Burn,  he  married  again.  Other  chil- 
dren were  soon  added  to  the  household.  Then  the 
feelings  of  the  step-mother  came  into  play.  It  requires 
great  tact  and  temper  to  manage  a  family  in  which  there 
are  two  elements, — the  children  of  the  first  mother,  and 
the  children  of  the  second. 

The  new  Mrs.  Dick  was  a  good  wife  and  an  excellent 
mother,  so  far  as  her  own  children  were  concerned.  But 
she  did  not  get  on  well  with  her  husband's  children  by 
his  first  wife.  Perhaps  they  regarded  her  as  an  intruder 
in  the  household ;  and  where  her  own  children  were  con- 
cerned, she  naturally  regarded  them  with  preference'. 

Nor  were  her  husband's  attentions  to  his  children  by 
his  first  wife  at  all  to  her  taste.  What  was  done  for  them 
evoked  many  a  pang  of  maternal  jealousy.  Mother-lika 


14  PERSECUTIONS. 


human-like,  she  could  not  but  regard  these  young  things 
as  intruders  upon  her  own  children's  standing  room.  All 
that  was  given  to  them  was  so  much  taken  from  her 
own  offspring. 

Hence  arose  family  difficulties  in  the  household. 
Eobert  stayed  out,  rather  than  remain  indoors.  He 
wandered  about  among  the  hills.  He  wore  out  his 
shoes.  To  prevent  him  going  out,  his  step-mother  hid 
them.  Still  Robert  climbed  the  hills,  and  came  home 
with  bleeding  feet.  He  was  punished  for  his  misdoings, 
and  commanded  to  stay  at  home.  This  did  not  hinder 
him  from  going  out  again.  He  would  wander  along  the 
Devon  looking  for  birds'  nests.  This  was  as  bad  as 
climbing  the  Ochils,  and  he  was  again  thrashed  with  a 
stick. 

It  was  the  same  with  the  other  step- children.  James, 
the  youngest  son  of  the  first  wife,  struck  back.  Poor 
fellow!  He  was  pommelled  so  hard  that  he  could 
scarcely  stand.  Was  he  a  "dour,"  hard,  perverse 
boy?  Very  likely.  He  had  no  mother's  affection  to 
bear  him  up.  Eobert  Dick  never  complained.  He 
took  his  thrashings  without  grumbling.  Still  he  went 
on  in  his  old  way,  though  he  could  not  but  feel  the  hol- 
lowness  of  his  new  motherhood. 

At  last  the  children  were  got  out  of  the  house, 
Instead  of  being  sent  to  college  (as  had  been  his  father's 
intention),  Eobert  was  sent  to  Tullibody,  where  he  was 
apprenticed  to  a  baker.  Shortly  after,  James,  the 
youngest  boy,  went  to  sea ;  and  Agnes,  the  eldest,  went 
to  be  a  servant  at  Edinburgh. 


THE  DARK  SHADOW. 


Of  course  this  was  a  very  bad  training  for  an  intelli- 
gent, high-spirited  boy.  It  was  not  calculated  to  liber- 
ate the  ideal  human  being  which  lies  concealed  in  every 
child.  It  was,  on  the  contrary,  calculated  to  sour  the 
boy's  nature,  and  to  thwart  his  temperament  at  every 
point.  It  threw  a  dark  shadow  along  the  whole  of  his 
future  life. 

Long  afterwards,  in  speaking  to  Charles  Peach  about 
his  early  struggles,  he  said — "  All  my  naturally  buoyant, 
youthful  spirits  were  broken.  To  this  day  I  feel  the 
effects.  I  cannot  shake  them  off.  It  is  this  that  still 
makes  me  shrink  from  the  world."  It  will  be  necessary 
to  bear  these  facts  in  mind  while  reading  the  story  of 
Robert  Dick's  after  life. 

There  were,  however,  two  or  three  things  that 
Eobert  had  already  learnt.  He  was  educated,  as  Scotch 
boys  usually  are,  at  the  parish  school.  He  had  learnt 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and  a  little  Latin.  It  did 
not  amount  to  much,  but  it  was  the  beginning  of  a 
great  deal.  The  rest  of  his  education  he  owed  to  him- 
self. As  Stone,  the  son  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  gardener, 
said,  "  One  needs  only  to  know  the  twenty-six  letters  of 
the  alphabet  to  be  able  to  learn  everything  else  that  one 
wishes." 

Another  thing  that  he  learnt  during  this  trying 
period  of  his  life,  was  self-control.  Though  treated  with 
capricious  restraint,  he  never  retorted.  He  bore  uncom- 
plainingly all  that  was  laid  upon  him.  Though  strong 
and  spirited,  he  was  a  good-natured  boy.  He  felt  that, 
under  the  circumstances,  the  ill-treatment  of  his  step- 


16  LEA  VES  HOME. 


mother  was  a  thing  that  he  must  bear ;  and  he  bore  it 
uncomplainingly,  looking  forward  to  better  times. 

There  are  compensations  in  all  things.  He  was 
happy  to  leave  home.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  him  to  find 
that  there  was  some  other  roof  under  which  he  could 
live  in  comparative  comfort. 

But  he  never  forgot  the  circumstances  under  which 
he  had  left  home.  When  he  afterwards  heard  of  a  neigh- 
bour losing  his  wife,  he  said,  "Ah!  a  sad  thing  for 
the  bairns !  Had  my  own  mother  been  alive  I  would 
never  have  been  a  baker ! " 


CHAPTEE  III. 

ROBERT  DICK  APPRENTICED. 

EGBERT  DICK  was  apprenticed  to  Mr.  Aikman,  a  baker 
in  Tullibody,  when  he  was  thirteen  years  old.  Mr. 
Aikman  had  a  large  business,  and  supplied  bread  to 
people  in  the  neighbouring  villages  as  far  as  the  Bridge 
of  Allan. 

The  life  of  a  baker  is  by  no  means  interesting.  One 
day  is  like  another.  The  baker  is  up  in  the  morning 
at  three  or  four.  The  oven  fire  is  kindled  first.  The 


18  LIFE  OF  A  BAKER.  CHAP.  in. 

flour  is  mixed  with  yeast  and  salt  and  water,  laboriously 
kneaded  together.  The  sponge  is  then  set  in  some  warm 
place.  The  dough  begins  to  rise.  After  mingling  with 
more  flour,  and  thorough  kneading,  the  mass  is  weighed 
into  lumps  of  the  proper  size,  which  are  shaped  into 
loaves  and  "bricks,"  or  into  "baps,"  penny  and  half- 
penny. This  is  the  batch,  which,  after  a  short  time,  is 
placed  in  the  oven  until  it  is  properly  baked  and  ready 
to  be  taken  out.  The  bread  is  then  sold  or  delivered  to 
the  customers.  When  delivered  out  of  doors,  the  bread 
is  placed  on  a  flat  baker's  basket,  and  carried  on  the 
head  from  place  to  place. 

Eobert  Dick  got  up  first  and  kindled  the  fire,  so  as  to 
heat  the  oven  preparatory  to  the  batch  being  put  in. 
His  nephew,  Mr.  Alexander  of  Dunferrnline,  says  "  he 
got  up  at  three  in  the  morning,  and  worked  and  drudged 
until  seven  and  eight,  and  sometimes  nine  o'clock  at 
night."  - 

As  he  grew  older,  and  was  strong  enough  to  carry 
the  basket  on  his  head,  he  was  sent  about  to  deliver  the 
bread  in  the  neighbouring  villages.  He  was  sent  to 
Menstrie,  to  Lipney  on  the  Ochils,  to  Blairlogie  at  the 
foot  of  Dunmyat,  and  farther  westward  to  the  Bridge 
of  Allan,  about  six  miles  from  Tullibody. 

The  afternoons  on  which  he  delivered  the  bread  were 
a  great  pleasure  to  Dick.  He  had  an  opportunity  for  ob- 
serving nature,  which  had  charms  for  him  in  all  its  moods. 
When  he  went  up  the  hills  to  Lipney,  he  wandered  on 
his  return  through  Menstrie  Glen.  He  watched  the 
growth  of  the  plants.  He  knew  them  individually,  one 


CHAP.  in.          BEGINNINGS  OF  BOTANY.  19 

from  the  other.  He  began  to  detect  the  differences 
between  them,  though  he  then  knew  little  about  orders, 
classes,  and  genera.  When  the  hazel-nuts  were  ripe  he 
gathered  them  and  brought  loads  of  them  home  for  the 
enjoyment  of  his  master's  bairns.  They  all  had  a  great 
love  for  the  'prentice  Kobert. 

He  must  also,  in  course  of  time,  have  obtained  some 
special  acquaintance  with  botany.  At  all  events,  he 
inquired,  many  years  after,  about  some  particular  plants 
which  he  had  observed  during  his  residence  at  Dam's 
Burn  and  Tullibody.  "  Send  me,"  he  said  to  his  eldest 
sister,  "  a  twig  with  the  blossom  and  some  leaves,  from 
the  Tron  Tree  in  Tullibody."  The  Tron  Tree  is  a  lime 
tree  standing  nearly  opposite  the  house  in  which  Eobert 
was  born. 

"  Send  me  also,"  he  said,  "  a  specimen  of  the  wild 
geranium,  which  you  will  find  on  the  old  road  close  by 
the  foot  of  the  hills  between  Menstrie  and  Alva.  I  also 
want  a  water-plant  [describing  it]  which  grows  in  the 
river  Devon."  The  two  former  were  sent  to  him,  but 
the  water-plant  could  not  be  found. 

Eobert's  apprenticeship  lasted  for  three  years  and  a 
half.  He  got  no  wages — only  his  meals  and  his  bed. 
He  occupied  a  small  room  over  the  bakehouse.  His 
father  had  still  to  clothe  him,  and  his  washing  was  done 
at  home.  On  Saturdays  he  went  with  his  "  duds "  to 
Dam's  Burn.  But  either  soap  was  scarce,  or  good-will 
was  wanting.  His  step-mother  would  not  give  him 
clean  stockings  except  once  a  fortnight.  His  sister 
Agnes  used  to  accompany  him  home  to  Tullibody  in  the 


20  A  GREA  T  READER.  CHAP,  m 

evening,  and  at  the  Aikmans'  door  she  exchanged  stock- 
ings with  him,  promising  to  have  his  own  well  darned 
and  washed  by  the  following  Sunday. 

The  day  of  rest  was  a  day  of  pleasure  to  him.  He 
did  not  care  to  stay  within  doors.  He  had  shoes  now, 
and  could  wander  up  the  hills  to  the  top  of  Dunmyat 
or  Bencleuch,  and  see  the  glorious  prospect  of  the 
country  below ;  the  windings  of  the  Devon,  the  wind- 
ings of  the  Forth,  and  the  country  far  away,  from  the 
castle  of  Stirling  on  the  one  hand  to  the  castle  of 
Edinburgh  on  the  other. 

Dick  continued  to  be  a  great  reader.  He  read  every 
book  that  he  could  lay  his  hands  on.  Popular  books 
were  not  so  common  then  as  they  are  now.  But  he 
contrived  to  borrow  some  volumes  of  the  old  Edinburgh 
Encyclopedia,  and  this  gave  him  an  insight  into  science. 
It  helped  him  in  his  knowledge  of  botany.  He  could 
now  find  out  fo»  himself  the  names  of  the  plants ;  and  he 
even  began  to  make  a  collection.  It  could  only  have 
been  a  small  one,  for  his  time  was  principally  occupied 
by  labour.  Yet,  with  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  a  deter- 
mination to  obtain  it,  a  great  deal  may  be  accomplished 
in  even  the  humblest  station. 

In  1826,  Mr.  Dick  was  advanced  to  the  office  of 
supervisor  of  excise,  and  removed  to  Thurso.  Eobert 
was  then  left  to  himself  in  Tullibody.  He  had  still  two 
years  more  to  serve.  One  day  followed  another  in  the 
usual  round  of  daily  toil.  The  toil  was,  however, 
mingled  with  pleasure,  and  he  walked  through  the 
country  with  his  bread  basket,  and  watched  Nature 
with  ever-increasing  delight. 


LEAVES  TULLIBODY.  21 


He  made  no  acquaintances.  The  Aikmans  say 
"  that  he  was  very  kind  to  his  master's  children — that 
he  was  constantly  "bringing  them  flowers  from  the  fields, 
or  nuts  from  the  glens,  or  anything  curious  or  interesting 
which  he  had  picked  up  in  the  course  of  his  journeys." 
He  occupied  a  little  of  his  time  in  bird-stuffing.  He 
stuffed  a  hare,  which  he  called  "  a  tinkler's  lion."  It 
need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  children  were  very  fond 
of  their  father's  'prentice. 

At  length  his  time  was  out.  He  was  only  seventeen. 
But  he  had  to  leave  Tullibody,  and  try  to  find  work  as 
a  journeyman.  He  bundled  up  his  clothes  and  set  out 
for  Alloa,  where  he  caught  the  boat  for  Leith.  He  never 
saw  Tullibody  again,  though  he  long  remembered  it. 
His  father  and  mother  were  buried  in  the  churchyard 
there ;  and  he  could  not  help  having  a  longing  affection 
for  the  place.  But  he  could  never  spare  money  enough 
to  revisit  the  place  of  his  birth. 

Long  after,  when  writing  to  his  brother-in-law,  he 
said, — "And  ye  have  been  up  to  Alloa.  Well,  I  do 
believe  that  is  a  bonnie  country,  altho'  I  fancy  it  is  not 
in  any  sense  the  poor  man's  country.  Nothing  but  men 
of  money  there;  though  fient  a  hair  did  I  care  for 
their  grandeur  while  I  lived  there.  The  hills  and  woods, 
and  freedom  to  run  upon  them  and  through  them,  was 
all  I  cared  about. 

"  '  What  though,  like  commoners  of  air, 
We  wander  out  we  know  not  where, 

But  either  house  or  hall  ? 
Yet  Nature's  charms,  the  hills  and  woods, 
The  sweeping  vales,  and  foaming  floods, 
Are  free  alike  to  all.' 


22  DICK  A  JOURNEYMAN.  CHAF.  in. 

I  daresay  I  might  pick  up  a  plant  or  a  stone  with  very 
different  feelings  from  those  I  felt  in  the  days  of  old. 
But  let  them  go !  There  is  no  use  in  repining." 

Again,  when  writing  to  a  fellow  botanist,  who 
doubted  whether  Digitalis  purpurea  was  a  native  of 
Caithness,  he  said,  "  I  have  seen  more  of  the  plant  in 
Caithness  than  I  ever  saw  about  Stirling,  Alloa,  or  on 
the  Ochil  hills, — more  than  I  ever  saw  in  the  woods  of 
Tullibody." 

Eobert  Dick  found  a  journeyman's  situation  at  Leith, 
where  he  remained  for  six  months.  His  life  there  was 
composed  of  the  usual  round  of  getting  up  early  in  the 
morning,  kneading,  baking,  and  going  about  the  streets 
with  his  basket  on  his  head,  delivering  bread  to  the  cus- 
tomers. It  was  a  lonely  life ;  and  the  more  lonely,  as  he 
was  far  away  from  Nature  and  the  hills  that  he  loved. 

From  Leith  he  went  to  Glasgow,  and  afterwards  to 
Greenock.  He  was  a  journeyman  baker  for  about  three 
years.  His  wages  were  small ;  his  labour  was  heavy ; 
and  he  did  not  find  that  he  was  making  much  progress. 
He  continued  to  correspond  with  his  father,  and  told 
him  of  his  position.  The  father  said,  "  Come  to  Thurso, 
and  set  up  a  baker's  shop  here."  There  were  then  only 
three  bakers'  shops  in  the  whole  county  of  Caithness, — 
one  at  Thurso,  one  at  Castleton,  and  another  at  Wick. 

In  that  remote  district  "  baker's  bread  "  had  scarcely 
come  into  fashion.  The  people  there  lived  chiefly  on 
oatmeal  and  bere,* — oatmeal  porridge  and  cakes,  and 

*  Bere  or  bar  (Norwegian)  a  commoner  kind  of  barley. 
"  I  sing  the  juice  Scotch  bear  can  make  us. " — BURNS. 


DICK  GOES  TO  THURSO. 


barley  bannocks,  with  plenty  of  milk.  Upon  this  fare 
men  and  women  grew  up  strong  and  healthy.  Many  of 
them  only  got  a  baker's  loaf  for  "  the  Sabbath." 

Eobert  Dick  took  his  father's  advice.  He  went 
almost  to  the  world's  end  to  set  up  his  trade.  He 
arrived  at  Thurso  in  the  summer  of  1830,  when  he  was 
about  twenty  years  old.  A  shop  was  taken  in  Wilson's 
Lane,  nearly  opposite  his  father's  house.  An  oven  had 
to  be  added  to  the  premises  before  the  business  could 
be  begun;  and  in  the  meantime  Eobert  surveyed  the 
shore  along  Thurso  Bay. 

Thurso  is  within  sight  of  Orkney,  the  Ultima  Thule  of 
the  Eomans.  It  is  the  northernmost  town  in  Great 
Britain.  John  o'  Groat's — the  Land's  End  of  Scotland 
— is  farther  to  the  east.  It  consists  of  only  a  few 
green  mounds,  indicating  where  John  o'  Groat's  House 
once  stood.* 

Thurso  is  situated  at  the  southern  end  of  Thurso  Bay, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Thurso  river, — the  most  productive 
salmon  river  in  Scotland.  The  fish,  after  feeding  and 
cleaning  themselves  in  the  Pentland  Firth,  make  for  the 
fresh  water.  The  first  river  they  come  to  is  the  Thurso, 
up  which  they  swim  in  droves. 

Thurso  Bay,  whether  in  fair  or  foul  weather,  is  a 
grand  sight.  On  the  eastern  side,  the  upright  cliffs  of 
Dunnet  Head  run  far  to  the  northward,  forming  the 
most  northerly  point  of  the  Scottish  mainland.  On  the 

*  A  very  comfortable  hotel  has  recently  been  erected  close  to  the 
site  of  John  o'  Groat's.  Many  pleasure  parties  come  from  Wick  and 
Thurso  to  spend  the  day  there,  and  pick  up  the  John  o'  Groat's  buckiea. 


24  ASPECTS  OF  THE  SEA.  CHAP.  HI. 

west,  a  high  crest  of  land  juts  out  into  the  sea,  forming 
at  its  extremity  the  bold  precipitous  rocks  of  Holborn 
Head.  Looking  out  of  the  bay  you  see  the  Orkney 
Islands  in  the  distance,  the  Old  Man  of  Hoy  standing 
up  at  its  western  promontory,  At  sunset  the  light  glints 
along  the  island,  showing  the  bold  prominences  and 
depressions  in  the  red  sandstone  cliffs.  Out  into  the 
ocean  the  distant  sails  of  passing  ships  are  seen  against 
the  sky,  white  as  a  gull's  wing. 

The  long  swelling  waves  of  the  Atlantic  come  rolling 
in  upon  the  beach.  The  noise  of  their  breaking  in 
stormy  weather  is  like  thunder.  From  Thurso  they  are 
seen  dashing  over  the  Holborn  Head,  though  some  two 
hundred  feet  high;  and  the  cliffs  beyond  Dunnet  Bay 
are  hid  in  spray. 

Eobert  Dick  was  delighted  with  the  sea  in  all  its 
aspects.  The  sea  opens  many  a  mind.  The  sea  is  the 
most  wonderful" thing  a  child  can  see;  and  it  long  con- 
tinues to  fill  the  thoughtful  mind  with  astonishment. 
The  sea-shore  on  the  western  coast  is  full  of  strange 
sights.  There  is  nothing  but  sea  between  Thurso  and 
the  coasts  of  Labrador. 

The  wash  of  the  ocean  comes  by  the  Gulf  Stream 
round  the  western  coasts  of  Scotland,  and  along  the 
northern  coasts  of  Norway.  Hence  the  bits  of  drift- 
wood, the  tropical  sea-weed,  and  the  tropical  nuts, 
thrown  upon  the  shore  at  Thurso. 

In  the  same  way,  bits  of  mahogany  are  sometimes 
carried  by  the  ocean  current  from  Honduras  or  the  Baj 
of  Mexico,  and  thrown  upon  the  shore  on  the  northern 


THE  SEA-MEW'S  CRY.  25 


most  coasts  of  Norway.  One  evening,  while  walking 
along  the  beach  near  Thurso,  Eobert  Dick  took  up  a 
singular-looking  nut,  which  he  examined.  He  remarked 
to  the  friend  who  accompanied  him,  "  That  has  been 
brought  by  the  ocean  current  and  the  prevailing  winds 
all  the  way  from  one  of  the  West  Indian  Islands. 
How  strange  that  we  should  find  it  here !" 

Kobert  Dick  always  admired  the  magnmcent  sea 
pictures  of  Thurso  Bay — its  waves  that  gently  rocked  or 
wildly  raged.  He  enjoyed  the  salt-laden  breath  of  the 
sea  wind ;  and  even  the  cries  of  the  sea  birds.  Here  is 
his  description  of  the  sea-mew :  " '  Ha  ga  tirwa ! '  How 
strange  and  uncouth !  How  very  unnatural  the  cry 
seemed.  It  was  only  the  cry  of  a  sea  bird.  It  was 
within  sight  of  the  ocean.  There  had  been  a  storm.  It 
was  over,  but  the  waves  in  long  rolling  breakers  dashed 
themselves  in  a  rage  on  the  sandy  shore,  and  then  were 
quiet.  But  quiet  only  for  a  moment.  'Ha  ga  tirwa!' 
Kestless  and  unwearied,  another  and  another  long  wave 
followed  and  burst  into  spray.  And  thus  it  has  ever 
been  'since  evening  was,  and  morning  was.'  It  was 
then  evening,  the  stars  began  to  twinkle ;  and  after  a 
little  the  full  moon  rose.  But  still '  Ha  ga  tirwa !' " 

But  before  proceeding  with  Eobert  Dick's  history, 
it  is  necessary  that  we  should  give  a  short  account  of 
the  county  of  Caithness,  over  the  whole  of  which 
he  afterwards  wandered  in  search  of  the  botany,  as 
well  as  of  the  geological  formation  of  the  district. 


THURSO  BAV. 


CHAPTEE   IV. 

CAITHNESS. 

THE  name  of  Caithness  is  derived  from  the  old  Norse. 
It  indicates  the  ness,  naze,  or  nose  of  Cattey.*  Many 
of  the  headlands  are  also  denominated  ness,  from  Brim's 
Ness  to  the  west  of  Thurso,  to  Noss  Head  north  of  Wick. 
Indeed,  the  same  word  is  applied  to  headlands  along  the 
east  coast  of  Scotland  and  England — from  Tarbat  Ness 
in  Eoss  to  Dungeness  in  Kent.  The  same  word  is 
applied  to  the  Naze  in  Norway  and  in  Essex,  and  to 

*  Caithness,  supposed  to  be  the  peninsula  of  the  Catti,  a  tribe  cele- 
brated by  Tacitus  in  his  account  of  the  Low  German  tribes. — TACITUS, 
C.  xxx.  Germania,—oT  perhaps  from  the  Ugnan  (Lapp)  "  Ketje  "—an 
end  or  extremity.—/.  Taylor. 


MAP  OF   CAITHNESS. 


CHAP.  iv.         CAITHNESS  SCANDINA  VI AN.  27 

Cape  Gris  Nez  (Gray  Nose)  near  Calais.  It  usually  in- 
dicates a  headland  which  the  Scandinavians  have  named, 
or  near  which  they  have  settled. 

Caithness  seems  to  have  been  almost  entirely  Scan- 
dinavian. The  creeks  or  bays  in  which  the  Norsemen 
anchored,  or  where  they  ran  their  boats  ashore,  are 
called  by  Norwegian  names,  from  Wick,  the  greatest 
fishing  station  in  the  world,  to  Freswick,  Sleswick, 
D Warwick,  and  such  like  inlets. 

The  Gaels  seem  to  have  been  pushed  inland  towards 
the  hilly  country  of  Sutherland,  while  the  Scandinavians 
occupied  the  low-lying  ground  along  the  coast.  Almost 
every  farm  steading  is  called  by  a  Scandinavian  name. 
Hence  Scrabster,  Lybster,  Seister,  Thurster,  Ulbster,  and 
such  like — the  word  ster  being  from  "  saetr,"  the  Scandi- 
navian word  for  farm.  Dahls,  or  dales,  penetrate  the 
country  to  the  southward,  though  the  Celtic  word  Strath 
is  still  preserved.  Hence  Strath  Halladale  and  Strath 
Helmsdale  in  Sutherlandshire.  North  of  that  region, 
the  rivers  are  called  forss  or  water.  Worsaae  derives 
the  name  of  Thurso  from  Thor  the  pagan  god,  and  aa  a 
river.  Hence  Thorsa,  or  Thor's  river. 

The  people  also  resemble  their  progenitors.  The  fair 
hair,  blue  eyes,  and  tall  figures  of  the  Scandinavians  are 
still  preserved  throughout  the  county, — in  contradis- 
tinction to  the  small  size,  the  dark  hair,  the  swarthy 
skin,  and  the  black  or  steely-blue  eyes  of  the  Celts,  to 
the  south  and  west  of  Scotland. 

All  the  firths,  or  inlets  of  the  sea,  are  known  by  Norse 
names.  The  Pentland  Firth,  which  runs  between  the 


28  PENTLAND  FIRTH.  CHAP.  iv. 

north  coast  of  Caithness  and  the  Orkneys,  was  in  old 
Norse  called  the  Petland  Fiord.  Here  we  have  the 
mythical  Picts  again.  Bleau,  in  his  Geographical  Atlas, 
says  that  the  Picts,  when  defeated  by  the  Scots,  fled  to 
Duncansby,  from  whence  they  crossed  to  Orkney.  But, 
meeting  with  resistance  by  the  natives,  they  were  forced 
to  return.  On  their  way  back  to  Caithness,  they  all 
perished  in  the  firth;  from  which  catastrophe  it  was 
ever  after  called  the  Pictland  or  Pentland  Firth. 

Heavy  currents  run  through  the  Firth.  The  tide  runs 
at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour.  A  full-rigged  ship, 
with  her  sails  set  and  a  favourable  wind,  is  sometimes 
driven  back  by  the  tide.  This  I  have  seen  when  jour- 
neying along  the  shores  of  the  Firth.  Sometimes  it  is 
whirled  round  amidst  the  eddying  currents.  Where  the 
currents  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  the  North  Sea  meet, 
the  water  is  churned  and  eddied  about  as  in  a  maelstrom. 
At  the  east  end  of  the  Firth  is  the  island  of  Stroma,  which 
in  old  Norse  means  "  the  island  in  the  current."  The 
population  of  the  island  is  of  pure  Norwegian  descent ; 
the  men  being  excellent  sailors  and  boatmen. 

Not  far  from  this  island,  and  in  sight  of  John  o' 
Groat's,  are  the  two  Pentland  Skerries,  commanding  the 
eastern  entrance  to  the  Firth.  They  were  originally 
called  Petland  Skjaere.  The  largest  skerry  contains 
two  lighthouses,  one  higher  than  the  other,  to  be  a  surer 
guide  to  the  mariner. 

During  the  equinoctial  gales,  the  wind  sweeps  across 
the  county  with  great  fury.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to 
hold  one's  feet.  Cattle  are  blown  down,  and  trees  are 


CHAP.  iv.  TREES  IN  CAITHNESS.  23 

blown  away.  The  thatched  roofs  of  the  cottages  are 
held  down  by  strong  straw  ropes  with  heavy  stones 
hanging  at  their  ends;  otherwise  the  roofs  would  be 
blown  away,  as  well  as  the  cottages  themselves. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  grow  a  tree  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  county.  Hedges  are  almost  unknown.  Instead 
of  hedges,  the  fields  are  separated  from  each  other  by 
Caithness  flags  set  on  end.  To  one  accustomed  to  the 
beautiful  woods  and  hedgerows  of  the  south,  the  cheer- 
lessness  of  Caithness  scenery  may  well  be  imagined. 
Kobert  Chambers  said  of  the  county — "  The  appearance 
of  Caithness  is  frightful,  and  productive  of  melancholy 
feelings."  "  It  is  only  a  great  morass,"  says  another 
writer ;  "  the  climate  is  unfavourable  ;  the  stormy 
winds  are  always  blowing  across  it;  mists  suddenly 
come  on,  and  the  air  is  always  damp." 

A  desperate  effort  has  been  made  to  grow  trees  at 
Barrogill  Castle,  within  sight  of  the  Pentland  Firth.  A 
wood  surrounds  the  east  side  of  the  castle.  The  trees 
.are  planted  thick,  and  they  are  protected  by  a  high  wall. 
But  at  the  point  at  which  the  wall  ends,  the  tops  of  the 
trees  are  sharply  cut  away  as  if  by  a  scythe.  They  are 
chilled  and  eaten  down  by  the  sea-drift. 

The  best  wood  in  the  northern  part  of  the  county  is 
at  Castlehill,  where  the  imported  trees  are  protected  by 
rising  grounds  on  all  sides.  The  only  tree  that  thrives 
in  Caithness  is  the  common  bourtree  or  elder.  The 
trembling  poplar,  the  white  birch,  and  the  hazel,  are 
also  occasionally  found  in  sheltered  places. 

But  though  the  county  of  Caithness  is  for  the  most 
3 


30  THE  COAST  SCENERY.  CHAP.  iv. 

part  flat  and  cheerless,  it  is  redeemed  from  monotony  by 
its  glorious  coast  scenery.  On  the  east,  as  well  as  on  the 
west,  the  rocks  jut  out  into  the  ocean  in  stupendous 
cliffs.  "When  the  stormy  winds  do  blow"  is  the 
time  to  see  the  wonders  of  the  north — at  Duncansby 
Head,  at  Dunnet  Head,  at  Holborn  Head,  at  Noss  Head, 
and,  indeed,  all  round  the  coast.  At  Wick  Bay,  only  a 
few  years  ago,  a  tremendous  storm  from  the  east  dashed 
to  pieces  the  new  breakwater,  lilting  up  stones  of  tons 
weight  and  dashing  them  on  the  beach, — thus  setting  at 
defiance  the  skill  and  ingenuity  of  the  engineer  who  had 
built  it. 

Duncansby  Head  is  also  exposed  to  the  full  fury  of 
the  North  Sea.  It  is  a  continuous  precipice  about  two 
miles  in  extent,  and  of  a  semicircular  shape.  It  is  re- 
markable for  its  stupendous  boldness,  and  the  wild  and 
striking  appearance  of  the  chasms  and  goes  by  which  it 
is  indented.  In  front  of  the  cliff  are  three  Stacks,  which 
have  been  washed  round  by  successive  storms,  and 
stand  out  bare  and  red  several  hundred  yards  from  the 
mainland.  The  cliff  consists  principally  of  old  red  sand- 
stone, and  partly  of  Caithness  slate. 

The  huge,  long,  white-crested  billows,  lashed  into  fury 
by  the  storm,  chase  each  other  up  the  beach,  and  burst 
with  astounding  force.  At  high  tide,  they  dash  up  the 
cliffs  and  rush  over  the  summit  into  the  mainland. 
Fiom  thence  they  run  down  over  the  inland  slopes,  into 
a  rivulet  which  joins  the  Pentland  Firth  near  John  o' 
Groat's.  From  the  summit  of  the  cliff  a  fine  view  is 
obtained  of  the  Skerries  at  the  mouth  of  the  Firth,  of 


CHAP.  iv.         CAITHNESS  OLD  CASTLES.  31 

Stroma,  the  island  in  the  current,  and  of  the  Orkney 
Islands  as  far  as  the  bold  headland  of  Hoy. 

Along  the  east  coast,  numberless  castles  are  built 
upon  the  cliffs.  They  are  mostly  in  ruins.  Many  ot 
them  are  prehistoric.  Wick  Castle,  Girnigo  Castle, 
and  Keiss  Castle,  are  the  oldest.  No  one  knows  who 
built  them.  Most  probably  they  are  the  strongholds  of 
the  Scandinavian  chiefs,  who,  at  some  unknown  period, 
took  possession  of  the  lowland  part  of  the  county. 

The  castle  of  Al-Wick — or,  as  it  is  usually  called,  the 
Auld  Man  of  Wick — seems  to  be  one  of  the  most  ancient. 
It  consists  of  a  grim-looking  tower  or  keep  of  the  rudest 
masonry,  perforated  here  and  there  with  arrow -slits. 
It  is  three  stories  high;  but  entirely  roofless  and  floorless. 
It  is  surrounded  by  an  outer  wall,  within  which  are  the 
ruins  of  some  old  houses.  A  deep  broad. moat  defends 
it  on  the  land  side.  At  present,  it  forms  an  excellent 
landmark  to  vessels  approaching  that  part  of  the  coast. 

Girnigo  Castle,  situated  on  the  promontory  of  Noss 
Head,  is  also  very  old.  Castle  Sinclair,  which  was  added 
to  it,  has  a  history,  which  Girnigo  has  not.  But  the 
old  builders  were  so  much  better  than  the  new  ones, 
that  while  Castle  Sinclair  has  fallen  to  ruins,  Girnigo 
Castle  stands  as  firmly  as  it  did  at  the  time  at  which  it 
was  built. 

The  constantly  rolling  sea,  ever  for  ever,  washes  itself 
against  the  rocks,  grinding  away  the  softest  parts. 
The  red  sandstone  goes  first,  leaving  long  hollows 
amongst  the  slates,  through  which  the  sea  drives  in- 
land. In  stormy  weather,  the  waves  wash  in  with 


GIRNIGO  CASTLE. 


greatforce,  some- 
times a  quarter  of  a 
mile  or  more*  and  at  the" 
far    end,  they  d^ive    up    into 
the  open  air,  blowing  like  a  whale. 
These  hollows  under  the  rocks  are 
called  goes  or  gyoes.     They  are  common  x^ 
all  round  Caithness.      One  of  them  is 
near   Wick,    at   the   castle    of  Al  -  Wick. 
Eobert    Dick   describes   another  near    Thurso, 
which  will  be  found  referred  to  in  a  future  part 

Of  the  Story.  [GIRNIGO  CA 

From  the  northern  part  of  Caithness,  where  the 
ground  is  comparatively  flat  inland,  and  full  of  lochs 
from  Thurso  to  Wick,  the  land  gradually  ascends, 
until  we  find  hills  and  then  mountains  close  upon 
the  borders  of  Sutherland.  Morven,  Maiden  Pap, 


AGRICULTURE.  32 


and  Skerry  Ben,  form  part  of  a  range  of  mountains, 
extending  from  Sandside  Bay  on  the  north,  to  Helms- 
dale  on  the  south.  Morven  is  the  great  mountain  of 
Caithness.  It  is  2331  feet  high.  It  is  regarded  as  the 
great  weather-glass  of  the  county.  When  the  mist 
gathers  about  its  base,  rain  is  sure  to  follow ;  but  when 
the  mist  ascends  to  the  top  and  disperses,  leaving  the 
majestic  outline  of  the  mountain  exposed  to  view,  then 
the  weather  will  be  fine.  "  During  harvest  especially," 
says  a  local  writer,  "all  eyes  are  directed  towards  it; 
and  it  never  deceives. 

"  In  vision  I  behold  tall  Morven  stand, 
And  see  the  morning  mist  distilling  tears 
Around  his  shoulders,  desolate  and  yrand." 

From  what  we  have  already  stated,  it  will  be  under- 
stood that  Caithness  is  by  no  means  a  fertile  county. 
Until  a  comparatively  recent  period  agriculture  was  in 
a  very  backward  state.  When  Pennant  visited  the 
county  about  a  hundred  years  ago,  he  describes  it  as 
little  better  than  "  an  immense  morass,"  with  here  and 
there  some  fruitful  spots  of  oats  and  here,  and  much 
coarse  grass. 

In  those  places  where  any  agriculture  was  carried 
on,  the  women  did  the  work  of  horses.  They  carried 
the  manure  on  their  backs  to  the  field;  and  did  the 
most  of  the  manual  labour.  The  land  could  scarcely 
be  called  ploughed.  The  Caithness  plough  was  one- 
stilted.  It  was  dragged  over  the  ground  by  a  yoke  of 
oxen,  driven  by  a  woman.  There  were  neither  barns 
nor  granaries  in  the  county.  The  corn  was  preserved 


34  ROADS. 


in  the  chaff  in  bykes,  which  were  low  stacks  in  the 
shape  of  bee-hives,  thatched  quite  round. 

Thurso,  the  chief  place  in  Caithness,  carried  on  a 
trade  with  Norway  and  Denmark,  long  before  it  began 
to  communicate  with  the  rest  of  Scotland.  The  sea 
was  by  far  the  easiest  mode  of  transit;  and  all  tne 
people  along  the  coast  were  sailors.  But,  indeed,  there 
was  very  little  traffic  to  be  carried  on.  The  only  two 
clusters  of  houses  in  the  county  were  Thurso  and 
Wick.  Thurso  must  have  been  the  more  important 
place,  as  it  not  only  had  a  church,  but  also  a  bishop — 
the  Bishop's  Palace  being  close  at  hand.  Thurso  was  a 
small  fishing  town,  and  Wick  contained  only  a  few 
hundred  inhabitants.  But  the  fishing  ha,s  long  left 
Thurso,  and  gone  to  Wick.  "  The  only  fishing  at 
Thurso  now,"  said  Dick,  "is  sillocks  and  sillock  scrae. 
The  salmon  fishing,  however,  is  the  best  in  the  king- 
dom." 

There  were  then  no  roads  in  Caithness.  The  exten- 
sive hollows  in  the  flat  slaty  ground  were  filled  with 
morasses.  There  was  not  a  single  wheel-cart  in  the 
county  before  1780.  Crubbans  were  the  substitutes  for 
carts.  They  were  wicker  baskets.  Two  of  them,  hung 
one  on  each  side  of  a  pony  from  a. wooden  saddle,  be- 
neath which  was  a  cushion  of  straw,  carried  corn,  goods, 
and  other  articles.  Six  or  seven  ponies  thus  loaded, 
says  Henderson  in  his  Agricultural  Survey  of  Caithness, 
might  be  seen  going  in  a  kind  of  Indian  file,  each  tied 
by  the  halter  to  the  other's  tail,  a  person  leading  the 
front  horse,  and  each  of  the  others  was  pulled  forward 


THE  ORD  OF  CAITHNESS  35 


by  the  tail  of  the  one  before  him.  Yet  traffic  was  car- 
ried on  throughout  England  in  the  same  manner,  about 
three  hundred  years  ago. 

Caithness  was  behind  in  everything.  The  only  geo- 
graphy of  the  county  was  known  from  Danish  sources. 
Timothy  Pont  made  his  first  map  in  1608.  It  was  shut 
out  from  the  rest  of  Scotland  by  the  mountainous  county 
of  Sutherland.*  It  was  long  before  a  road  could  be 
made  to  enable  the  people  to  communicate  with  their 
countrymen  farther  south.  The  only  road  lay  along  the 
eastern  shore,  among  rocks  and  sand,  which  were  often 
covered  by  the  tide.  The  inland  road  lay  over  the  Ord 
of  Caithness.  The  Ord  is  a  formidable  pass  between 
Sutherland  and  Caithness.  It  is  situated  at  the  eastern 
boundary  of  the  two  counties.  There  is  a  lofty  mountain 
on  one  side  of  the  road,  and  a  steep  precipice  on  the 
other,  at  the  foot  of  which  is  the  sea. 

The  Ord  is  the  termination  of  a  long  mountain  ridge, 
and  is  the  brow  of  a  steep  hill  overhanging  the  ocean.  On 
the  Sutherland  side,  the  headland  is  cleft  into  a  gorge  of 
great  depth,  which  runs  a  long  way  inland.  The  old 
road — before  the  present  bridge  was  built  over  the  gorge 
— was  a  mere  path  or  shelf  along  the  outer  edge  of  the 
promontory  twelve  hundred  feet  above  the  sea.  When 

*  It  may  seem  strange  to  us  that  the  extreme  north-western  corner 
of  Great  Britain  should  be  called  Sutherland.  No  inhabitants  of  Scot- 
land could  have  bestowed  so  inappropriate  a  name.  It  was  evidently 
given  by  a  people  living  still  farther  to  the ,  north.  Sutherland,  in 
short,  is  the  mainland  to  the  south  of  the  Orkney  Jarldom.  Here,  as 
well  as  in  Caithness,  we  find  numerous  Norwegian  names.  The  barren 
uplands  were  left  to  the  Gael.— TAYLOB,  Words  and  Places. 


THE  ORD  OF  CAITHNESS. 


the  weather  was  stormy,  it  could  not  be  passed  in  safety. 
Even  in  fair  weather,  the  road  was  so  difficult  and  dan- 
gerous that,  when  the  chaise  of  a  landed  proprietor  had 
to  pass  it,  a  force  of  fifteen  or  twenty  persons  was 
employed  to  help  on  the  carriage  and  horses. 


JBD   OF   CAITHNESS. 


Pennant,  who  travelled  into  many  strange  places, 
described  the  pass  as  "  infinitely  more  high  and  horrible 
than  Penmaenmaur  in  Wales ;"  and  another  writer  says, 
"  that  if  any  stumble  thereupon,  they  are  in  danger  of 
falling  down  a  precipice  into  the  sea  at  the  bottom  of 
the  rock,  which  is  very  terrible  to  behold."  The  old 
path  is  still  to  be  seen  from  Helmsdale.  It  is  like  a 


ROAD  OVER  BEXC11EILT.  37 

sheep-track  winding  up  the  steep  brow  of  the  hill,  some 
three  or  four  hundred  feet  above  the  rolling  surge. 

The  road  to  Thurso  from  the  Ord  road  was  almost 
impassable.  It  was  a  mere  horse  track  over  the  hill  of 
Bencheilt.  This  road  was  made  passable  for  carriages 
through  the  energy  of  Sir  John  Sinclair.  The  Abbe" 
Gregoire  denominated  Sir  John  "  the  most  indefatigable 
man  in  Europe."  To  him  the  improvement  of  the  county 
of  Caithness  in  a  great  measure  belongs.  He  was  born 
at  Thurso  Castle,  an  ancient  edifice  built  by  the  sixth 
Earl  of  Caithness.  It  has  since  been  pulled  down  to 
make  room  for  a  spick-and-span  new  castle,  much  less 
picturesque  than  the  old  one.  It  stood  almost  within 
sea-mark  on  Thurso  Bay.  In  stormy  weather,  the  sea 
spray  sometimes  passed  over  the  roof.  Miss  Catherine 
Sinclair  has  said  that  fish  have  been  caught  with  a  line 
from  the  drawing-room  window ;  and  vessels  have  been 
wrecked  so  close  under  the  turrets,  that  the  voices  of 
the  drowning  sailors  have  been  heard. 

When  Sir  John  succeeded  to  his  estates,  three-fourths 
of  Caithness  consisted  of  deep  peat-moss,  and  of  hills 
covered  with  heath,  or  altogether  naked.  On  arriving  at 
his  majority,  he  determined  upon  the  improvement  of 
his  estates,  and  of  the  county  generally.  One  of  the 
first  things  that  he  did  was  to  endeavour  to  make  a  roaa 
to  Thurso  over  Bencheilt,  in  the  centre  pf  the  county. 
He  himself  surveyed  the  road  and  marked  out  its  lines. 
He  called  together  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  labourers 
to  meet  him  early  one  morning,  and  set  them  all  simul- 
taneously to  work.  They  began  at  the  dawn  of  day, 
3* 


38  SJK  JOHN  SINCLAIR.  CHAP.  iv. 

and  before  nightfall,  the  sheep-track,  six  miles  in 
length,  was  converted  into  a  road  perfectly  easy  for 
carts  and  carriages.  This  showed  what  energy  could 
accomplish. 

The  young  laird  was  not  satisfied  with  that.  He 
formed  a  large  number  of  farms  on  his  own  estate.  He 
enclosed,  drained,  and  reduced  them  to  order,  entirely  at 
his  own  expense.  He  built  bridges ;  he  made  roads ;  he 
introduced  the  best  cattle ;  he  provided  the  best  turnip, 
rye-grass,  and  clover  seeds ;  he  enjoined  upon  his  farmers 
to  adopt  a  regular  rotation  of  crops ;  and  in  a  short 
time  converted  what  had  been  a  barren  wilderness  into 
a  well-cultivated  district.  He  enclosed  on  his  own 
estate  about  12,000  English  acres  of  waste  land,  all  of 
which  eventually  repaid  the  outlay.  Among  his  other 
achievements,  he  introduced  the  Cheviot  breed  of  sheep 
into  the  whole^of  Scotland,  and  thus  doubled  the  value 
of  the  grazing  grounds  north  of  the  Tweed. 

Sir  John  tried  to  introduce  trees  at  Thurso,  but  he 
found  it  difficult  to  make  them  grow.  It  was  necessary 
to  dig  a  hole  of  large  dimensions  through  the  subsoil  of 
slaty  rock,  over  which  the  tenants  of  the  neighbouring 
townlands  were  obliged  annually,  for  seven  years,  to 
heap  a  large  mound  of  compost.  And  even  when  the 
trees  did  grow  they  were  often  blown  away  by  the 
furious  winds  from  the  north  and  west. 

Sir  John  even  tried  to  introduce  nightingales  into 
Caithness !  But  Nature  baffled  his  efforts.  He  obtained 
nightingales'  eggs  from  the  London  bird  fanciers.  They 
were  substituted  for  those  of  the  robin  redbreast.  The 


THURSO  NIGHTINGALES. 


eggs  were  hatched.  The  young  nightingales  soon  flew 
about  the  bushes  round  Thurso  Castle.  But  so  soon  as 
the  summer  had  ended,  the  birds  disappeared  and  never 
returned. 


DUNCANSBY   HEAD. 


CHAPTER  V. 

DICK  BEGINS  BUSINESS. 

DICK  began  business  for  himself  at  the  age  of  twenty. 
His  house  was  in  Wilson's  Lane,  not  far  from  the  old 
church.  The  river  Thurso  flows  past  the  bottom  of  the 
lane  into  the  sea,  which  is  close  at  hand. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Olrig,  was  the  proprietor.  After  he 
had  built  a  small  oven  behind  the  house  and  added  it 
to  the  shop,  Dick  went  over  from  his  father's  house  to 
live  there  and  begin  his  trade.  The  only  other  baker  in 
the  town  was  a  Mr.  Mackay,  who  was  also  a  Baptist 
preacher. 

There  was  not  much  trade  to  be  done ;  but  Eobert 
baked  a  little  every  day,  and  sold  his  bread  over  the 
counter.  When  he  was  out,  his  sister  Jane  attended  to 
the  business.  He  contrived  to  live  on  very  small  earn- 
ings, for  he  had  only  himself  to  provide  for.  He  required 
very  little  capital,  for  every  day's  batch  returned  the 
money's  worth  of  the  flour,  as  well  as  the  profit  to  the 
baker. 

Shortly  after  he  began  business,  we  find  him  writing 
to  Mr.  Aikman,  of  Tullibody,  and  requesting  him  to  send 
four  bags  of  third  flour,  one  bag  of  second,  and  one  bag 
of  best.  Mr.  Aikman  sent  the  flour  to  Thurso.  Dick 


CHAP  v.  CONCHOLOGY.  41 

remitted  £5 ;  but  his  old  master  said  "  he  need  not  re- 
mit the  balance,  as  he  would  have  need  of  the  money." 
In  fact,  three  years  elapsed  before  Eobert  Dick  could 
send  him  the  balance  of  the  account. 

When  Dick's  bread  was  sold,  or  while  his  sister  Jane 
was  watching  the  shop,  he  went  out  to  walk  along  the 
shore.  He  crossed  the  river  by  the  stepping-stones  while 
the  tide  was  out,  and  was  at  once  in  Thurso  East.  He 
passed  under  the  castle  and  walked  along  the  shore,  some- 
times as  far  as  Dunnet  Bay.  He  delighted  to  see  the 
long  rolling  waves  come  thundering  in  and  break  upon 
the  shore  in  clouds  of  spray.  The  broken  surge,  churned 
into  foam,  rushed  rapidly  up  the  beach  with  the  speed 
of  a  racehorse,  and  then  rushed  rapidly  back  again. 
Even  in  calm  weather,  there  is  a  ceaseless  moaning  of 
the  surge,  indicating  the  remnant  of  some  storm  far  away 
in  the  Atlantic.  When  the  storm  comes  nearer  the 
land,  the  waves  are  stronger  and  louder,  spending  their 
billows  on  the  shore.  "  Sometimes,"  says  Dick,  "  the 
noise  of  the  bay  is  heard  booming  over  the  town  with  a 
terrible  roar." 

His  walks  along  the  shore  awakened  in  him  a  taste 
for  conchology.  He  gathered  shells  by  the  score,  and 
arranged  them  in  a  cabinet.  He  gathered  up  numerous 
things  besides  shells.  He  found  a  specimen  of  the  nut 
of  the  cow-itch  shrub  of  the  West  Indies, — such  a 
nut  as  the  brother-in-law  of  Columbus  found  floating 
near  Madeira,  which  led  the  great  navigator  to  infer  the 
existence  of  a  western  continent.  He  found  also  wood, 
drilled  by  the  Teredo  navalis,  and  many  specimens  of 


42  BOTANY. 


seaweed,  which  had  been  washed  by  south-westerly 
winds  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.* 

Shells,  and  the  mollusks  which  inhabit  them,  were 
not,  however,  sufficient  to  occupy  his  attention.  He 
had  plenty  of  spare  time.  Indeed,  after  his  bread  was 
baked,  his  work  was  nearly  over  for  the  day.  He  had 
to  set  the  sponge  at  night,  ready  for  next  day's  batch. 
But  that  occupied  comparatively  little  time.  Meanwhile 
he  was  busy  with  his  books  and  his  studies. 

He  did  not  make  any  companions.  He  had  never 
felt  much  of  the  comforts  of  home.  His  social  nature 
had  been  almost  soured  there.  The  feeling  never  left 
him,  but  clung  to  him  through  life.  He  therefore 
roamed  about  by  himself  along  the  shore,  or  studied 
by  himself  in  his  solitary  household. 

He  reverted  to  his  study  of  botany,  though  it  might 
not  be  supposed  that  Thurso  was  a  fit  place  for  such 
a  study.  The  neighbourhood  was  without  trees,  with- 
out hedges — with  only  flagstones  dividing  one  field  from 
another.  Yet  the  seeing  eye  is  never  without  proper 
aliment.  It  finds  wonders  in  everything.  Where  the 
unseeing  eye  sees  nothing,  it  detects  differences,  and 
varieties,  and  classifications.  But  he  did  not  as  yet  go 

*  In  a  specimen  of  fucoid,  about  two  and  a  half  feet  in  length,  which 
I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Dick  of  Thurso,  there  are  stems  continu- 
ous throughout,  that  though  they  ramify  into  from  six  to  eight  branches 
in  that  space,  they  are  quite  as  thick  at  top  as  at  bottom.  They  are 
the  remains,  in  all  probability,  of  a  long  flexible  fucoid,  like  those 
fucoids  of  the  intertropical  seas,  that,  streaming  slantwise  in  the  tide, 
rise  not  uufrequently  to  the  surface  in  fifteen  and  twenty  fathoms  water. 
— HUGH  MILLER,  Rambles  of  a  Geologist. 


CHAP.  v.  THE  SEA  SHORE.  43 

deeply  into  the  subject,  for  he  could  not  afford  to  buy 
books.  Nevertheless,  he  accurately  distinguished  the 
differences  of  one  plant  from  another.  The  further 
pursuit  of  botany  was  held  in  reserve  for  some  future 
time. 

About  two  years  after  Robert  Dick  had  begun 
business  in  Thurso,  his  father  was  promoted  to  the  office 
of  Collector  of  Excise,  and  was  removed  to  Haddington, 
where  he  ended  his  official  career.  His  eldest  sister 
Agnes  married  Mr.  Alexander,  and  afterwards  removed 
to  Tullibody.  When  all  the  family  had  left,  Eobert  was 
left  alone — literally  alone.  He  then  took  into  his 
service  Annie  Mackay,  a  Highland  woman,  who  served 
him  long  and  faithfully  to  the  close  of  his  life.  She 
was  his  housekeeper,  and  attended  to  the  shop  while 
Dick  was  on  his  journeys  through  Caithness. 

Yet  Robert,  though  alone,  was  not  solitary.  Nature 
was  all  in  all  to  him.  He  enjoyed  his  walks  along  the 
sea-shore,  and  sang  to  himself  as  he  went  along.  He 
wandered  about  Dunnet  Head,  and  the  rocky  cliffs  at 
Holborn  Head.  He  saw  many  things  that  had  never 
been  seen  before.  He  detected  the  scales  of  fish,  and 
even  the  heads  of  fossil  fish  amongst  the  rocks. 

The  Clett  on  Holborn  Head  was  one  of  his  favourite 
spots.  It  is  a  huge  isolated  mass  of  rock,  composed  of 
dark  flagstone.  It  is  inaccessible  by  human  foot.  The 
rock  is  quite  perpendicular.  The  surges  of  the  ocean 
have  washed  it  away  from  the  mainland.  It  is  screaming 
with  sea  birds.  Miles  away  you  hear  the  cries  of  the 
okies,  or  auks,  which  haunt  it.  They  sit  in  long  rows, 


44  THE  COUNTRY  INLAND.  CHAP.  v. 

"  like  a  lot  of  bottles  on  end,"  as  Dick  described  them, 
on  the  ledges  of  the  Clett,  and  there  they  'breed  and 
bring  up  their  young. 

Here,  as  on  the  east  coast,  great  Goes  are  found.  The 
sea  dashes  in  through  the  washable  rocks,  and  drives  up 
in  clouds  of  vapour  far  inland.  One  of  the  Goes  is 
about  three  miles  in  length.  In  great  storms  the  sea 
deluges  the  whole  headland,  and  pours  back  in  clouds  of 
spray.  In  some  places  the  rocks  are  hollowed  into 
arches  by  the  surge,  and  in  great  gales  the  sea  pours 
into  them  with  a  rush  of  foam.  To  the  west  of  Holborn 
Head  there  is  a  long  line  of  projecting  headlands,  and 
in  a  clear  day  Cape  Wrath  may  be  seen  some  fifty 
miles  off.  There  is  no  land  between  you  and  the  coasts 
of  Labrador — nothing  but  the  boundless  ocean. 

Dick  also  explored  the  country  inland.  The  river 
Thurso  was  the  scene  of  some  of  his  future  discoveries. 
He  went  far  up  to  the  castle  of  Dirlot,  one  of  the  oldest 
buildings  in  Caithness.  He  went  up  the  hills  near 
Thurso,  from  which  he  saw  the  gigantic  Morven  far  away 
in  the  distance.  He  visited  the  Eeay  hills  and  the  Shurery 
hills,  which  were  afterwards  his  favourite  botanic 
grounds.  He  was  thus  laying  the  foundations  of  his 
future  knowledge,  not  only  in  botanical,  but  in  geological 
science. 

In  the  meantime  he  turned  aside  to  pursue  the  study 
of  entomology.  Here  his  seeing  eye  was  of  great  use  ;o 
him.  He  worked  out  the  natural  history  of  the  insects  of 
Caithness  from  his  own  personal  observation.  Notliing 
escaped  him.  He  collected  no  less  than  256  specimens 


CHAP.  v.  BEETLE  GATHERING.  45 

of  beetles  in  nine  months, — in  fact,  all  that  could  be 
collected  in  Caithness.  He  collected  220  specimens 
of  bees,  and  240  specimens  of  butterflies  and  moths. 
These  are  all  to  be  seen  in  the  Thurso  Museum.  They 
are  now  covered  with  living  moths,  grubs,  and  woodlice, 
and  fast  going  to  decay. 

The  boys  soon  found  out  the  strange  baker  and  his 
ongoings.  Boys  are  great  critics.  They  immediately 
detect  nonconformity.  When  they  saw  Dick  coming  out 
of  his  shop  in  his  chimney-pot  hat,  his  swallow-tailed 
coat,  and  jean  trousers,  they  were  immediately  after 
him.  They  followed  him  at  a  little  distance.  He  went 
up  the  green  sward  alongside  the  river ;  knelt  down  on 
his  knees ;  crawled  onward ;  and  then  brought  his  hand 
slap  down.  It  was  perhaps  some  insect  that  he  had 
been  long  seeking  for.  The  boys  saw  him  take  off  his 
hat,  put  in  the  object,  perhaps  impaling  it  with  a  pin. 

When  Dick  went  away,  the  boys  went  up  to  the  spot 
to  see  what  he  had  been  about.  They  found  nothing 
whatever,  only  green  grass.  They  did  not  know  that 
Dick  had  found  a  splendid  beetle.  They  went  home  to 
their  friends,  and  told  them  what  they  had  seen.  It 
thus  became  known  that  he  was  an  insect-collector. 
What  could  he  want  with  the  beetles  and  grubs  ?  Surely 
he  could  not  put  them  into  his  bread !  Faugh !  Then 
they  whispered  about  that  they  had  got  a  mad  baker 
amongst  them. 

Dick,  however,  made  friends  of  the  boys.  He  said  to 
them,  "Whenever  you  can  find  a  rare  butterfly,  bring  it  to 
me,  and  I  will  give  you  something  for  it.  If  it  be  in 


46  THE  DRAGON  FLY.  CHAP.  v. 

any  way  injured  I  will  not  have  it."  Away  the  boys 
went  hunting  butterflies.  Sometimes  they  brought  him 
in  a  good  specimen,  and  he  gave  them  sixpence  for  it. 
Sixpence  was  a  fortune  to  them.  It  bought  no  end  of 
tops,  clagum,  and  sweeties.  If  the  butterfly  was  of  no 
use,  he  would  take  it  in  his  hand,  and  let  it  out  of  the 
back  window.  "  Perhaps,"  he  said,  "  they  may  bring 
something  valuable  next  time."  When  an  unusual 
butterfly  was  brought  to  him,  he  took  great  care  of  it, 
saw  it  go  through  its  various  transformations,  and  noted 
the  results.  s 

His  love  of  insects  became  known,  and  his  curiosity 
about  them  spread  throughout  the  neighbourhood. 
Country  people  called  upon  him  and  brought  what  they 
thought  rare  things.  One  day  a  man  called  upon  him, 
and,  standing  right  before  him,  took  out  of  his  pocket  a 
paper  lucifer  box,  and  cautiously  screwing  off  the  lid,  he 
said  "  See !"  Dick  looked  into  the  box,  and  seizing  the 
creature  within  it  by  the  tail,  he  pulled  it  out,  and  then 
shoved  it  in  again.  "  Won't  it  sting  ?"  asked  the  man. 
"  Oh,  no,"  said  Dick,  "  it  is  a  very  humble  creature, — 
only  the  Green  Dragon  My :  it  lives  by  devouring  small 
flies."  "  Oh !"  said  the  man,  "  the  country  folks  call  it 
the  Bull  Adder,  and  they  say  that  it  stings."  "  I 
wouldn't  have  taken  it  by  the  tail  if  it  did."  "Won't  you 
have  it  ?"  "  No !"  The  man  accordingly  went  away 
with  the  dragon-fly  in  his  box. 

Robert  Dick's  mind  was  athirst  for  knowledge  at  this 
time.  He  was  searching  for  facts  of  all  sorts.  In  1835 
he  attended  three  courses  of  lectures  delivered  by  Mr. 


CHAP.  v.  PHRENOLOGY.  47 

Keir.  They  were  upon  astronomy,  geology,  and  phreno- 
logy. He  was  greatly  interested  by  the  lectures.  He 
not  only  heard  them  closely,  but  followed  them  up  by 
study.  He  was  particularly  impressed  by  the  lectures 
on  astronomy.  Halley's  Comet  was  then  careering 
through  the  heavens.  Appearing,  as  it  did,  once  in  every 
seventy-five  years,  it  was  calculated  to  make  a  deep 
impression  upon  his  thoughtful  mind. 

He  borrowed  such  books  on  astronomy  as  he  could 
obtain,  and  read  them  eagerly.  He  thus  gathered  a 
general  notion  of  the  subject ;  but  he  had  no  means  of 
following  it  up.  Telescopes  were  unknown  at  Thurso. 
He  could  only  look  up  to  the  heavens,  and  admire  and 
wonder.  He  was  thus  in  a  measure  forced  to  inquire 
into  such  matters  as  lay  within  his  own  reach.  He  was 
sent  back  to  mother  earth,  the  secrets  of  which  still 
remained  to  be  unveiled.  Hence  his  love  for  geology, 
and  the  beginning  of  his  knowledge  of  the  rocks  of 
Thurso,  which  he  first  obtained  from  Keir's  lectures. 

Phrenology  also  excited  his  deep  interest.  The  sub- 
ject had  been  made  popular  throughout  Scotland  by 
the  lectures  and  works,  and  probably  by  the  personal 
influence,  of  George  Combe  of  Edinburgh.  Though  the 
"  science,"  as  it  was  then  called,  is  now  nearly  forgotten, 
it  was  then  the  subject  of  much  discussion.  George 
Combe  started  the  Phrenological  Magazine  to  advocate 
his  views,  and  to  maintain  the  principles  of  phrenology. 
He  also  established  the  Phrenological  Lecture  Hall  and 
Museum,  where  he  collected  an  immense  number  of 
busts  of  distinguished  and  notorious  characters. 


BOTANY. 


Dick,  in  his  enthusiasm,  had  his  head  shaved,  and  a 
cast  was  taken  of  it  in  plaster  of  Paris.  He  gave  half 
a  crown  to  a  brave  little  girl,  and  induced  her  to  have 
her  head  shaved;  after  which  he  made  a  cast  of  her 
head  in  the  usual  way.  He  sent  to  Edinburgh  and  had 
a  phrenological  cranium  from  O'Neil,  the  famous  cast- 
maker.  Writing  to  his  eldest  sister,  he  said, — "  Mind, 
Nan,  that  when  you  seek  for  a  wife  for  Robert,  you  must 
find  one  with  a  high  forehead.  None  else  are  genuine." 

But  Eobert  could  not  go  on  looking  at  people's  heads, 
and  studying  their  development.  Big  heads  and  little 
heads,  big  bumps  and  little  bumps,  seemed  a  profitless 
study.  So  he  condescended  to  study  more  practical 
subjects, — things  that  lie  at  every  man's  door.  He  could 
no ':  grasp  the  heavens.  He  could  understand  the  planetary 
system ;  but  he  could  not  unravel  the  deeper  meanings 
of  the  vast  circle  cf  creation.  He  could,  however,  de- 
scend to  the  things  that  lay  at  his  feet, — to  his  commoD 
mother  earth,  which  is  as  full  of  wonders  as  the  stars. 
He  could  pursue  his  first  love, — the  love  of  flowers  and 
plants,  which  he  had  pursued  while  wandering  among 
the  Ochil  hills. 

Dick  was  still  a  bachelor.  He  had  a  house  and  a' 
shop  to  manage ;  and  some  of  his  friends  advised  him  to 
marry.  His  old  master,  Mr.  Aikman  of  Tullibody,  writing 
to  him  in  1834,  said : — "  Mrs.  Aikman  sends  her  kind 
respects  to  you.  She  is  happy  to  think  that  you  are 
still  a  bachelor,  as  her  family  is  mostly  girls."  Another 
friend  at  Greenock,  where  Dick  had  lived  when  a 
journeyman,  wrote  to  him  thus  : — "  My  wife  sends  her 


CHAP.  v.  BISCUIT  MAKING.  43 

best  wishes.  She  hopes  you  will  soon  get  married.  You 
are  losing  time  completely.  If  you  wait  much  longer  I 
will  be  speaking  to  you  about  my  daughter.  We  are 
beating  up.  We  have  two  married  already.  Come, 
come,  look  sharp!"  But  the  fly,  however  skilfully 
thrown,  could  not  draw  the  fish  from  his  depths. 

We  have  been  informed  that  Eobert  once  made  a 
proposal  of  marriage  to  a  young  lady,  but  that  she  refused 
him.  Some  overtures  of  reconciliation  were  afterwards 
made.  But  he  had  been  refused  once;  he  would 
not  be  refused  again.  The  disappointment  only  threw 
him  back  upon  himself.  He  became  more  recluse,  soli- 
tary, and  companionless,  than  before.  He  was  satisfied 
to  remain  unmarried,  with  Annie  Mackay  as  his  servant 
and  housekeeper. 

Among  the  things  which  occupied  Dick's  attention, 
was  a  mechanical  method  which  he  proposed  for  work- 
ing up  his  biscuit,  instead  of  using  the  baker's  rail.  For 
it  must  be  known  that  he  was  the  best  biscuit-maker  in 
Thurso.  He  had  brought  this  art  from  Tullibody.  Be- 
sides, his  master  sent  him  the  proper  receipts  for  the 
different  kinds  of  biscuit  and  "  parlyment."  In  making 
biscuit,  the  practice  is  to  work  the  dough  in  the  trough ; 
the  baker  sitting  on  a  rail,  bumping  the  stuff  up  and 
down  in  a  radiating  manner.  Dick  thought  this  might 
as  well  be  done  by  machinery.  He  got  a  mechanic  to 
help  him  to  perfect  the  machine ;  but  though  it  was 
completed,  it  was  not  used.  His  trade  was  not  great ; 
and  he  found  that  his  own  hands  were  amply  sufficient 
for  the  purpose  of  making  his  daily  bread. 


CHAPTEE  VI 
BOTANICAL  WANDERINGS. 

ROBERT  DICK  proceeded  with  his  study  of  natural 
science.  From  conchology  he  went  on  to  entomology 
and  botany.  He  gathered  insects  while  he  collected 
plants.  They  both  lay  in  the  same  beat.  After  his 
bread  was  baked  in  the  morning  and  ready  for  sale, 
he  left  the  shop  to  the  care  of  his  housekeeper,  and 
went  out  upon  a  search.  Or,  he  would  take  a  journey 
to  the  moors  and  mountains,  and  return  home  at  night 
to  prepare  for  the  next  day's  baking. 

He  began  to' make  his  entomological  collection  about 
the  year  1836,  when  he  was  about  twenty- five  years 
old.  He  worked  so  hard  at  the  subject,  and  made  so 
many  excursions  through  the  country,  that  in  about 
nine  months  he  had  collected  nearly  all  the  insect  tribes 
that  Caithness  contained.  He  spent  nearly  every 
moment  that  he  could  spare  until  he  thought  he  had 
exhausted  the  field. 

He  worked  out  the  subject  from  his  own  personal 
observation.  He  was  one  of  those  men  who  would  not 
take  anything  for  granted.  Books  were  an  essential 
end ;  but  his  knowledge  was  not  founded  on  books,  but 
on  Nature.  He  must  inquire,  search,  and  observe  for 


CHAP.  vi.  CAREFUL  OBSERVATION.  51 

himself.  He  was  not  satisfied  with  the  observations  of 
others.  He  must  get  at  the  actual  facts.  He  must 
himself  verify  everything  stated  in  books. 

He  was  not  satisfied  with  the  common  opinion  as 
to  the  species  or  genus  to  which  any  individual  of  the 
insect  world  belonged.  He  tested  and  tried  everything 
by  the  touchstone  of  science  and  careful  observation. 
If  he  had  any  doubts  about  an  insect,  from  a  gnat  to  a 
dragon-fly,  he  would  search  out  the  grub,  watch  the 
process  of  its  development  from  the  larva  and  chrysalis 
state,  until  the  fly  emerged  before  him  in  unquestion- 
able identity.  It  will  thus  be  observed  that  he  was 
from  the  first  imbued  with  the  true  scientific  animu? ; 
and  in  the  same  spirit  he  continued  to  find  out  and 
discover  the  true  workings  of  Nature. 

The  Thurso  people  did  not  quite  understand  the 
proceedings  of  their  young  baker.  He  made  good  bread, 
and  his  biscuits  were  the  best  in  the  town.  But  he 
was  sometimes  seen  coming  back  from  the  country 
bespattered  with  mud, — perhaps  after  a  forty  or  fifty 
miles'  journey  on  the  moors  in  search  of  specimens. 
What  were  they  to  make  of  this  extraordinary  conduct  ? 
It  could  have  no  connection  with  baking.  What  could 
he  have  been  doing  during  these  long  journeys  ? 

He  was  now  doing  fairly  in  business.  He  was  not 
yet  distracted  by  the  competition  that  afterwards  ruined 
him.  His  wants  were  very  small.  He  had  only  him- 
self and  his  housekeeper  to  provide  for.  He  was 
accordingly  able  to  save  money,  and  with  his  surplus 
capital  he  bought  books. 


52  PURCHASES  OF  BOOKS. 


"How  painfully,  how  slowly,"  he  once  said  in  a 
letter  to  Hugh  Miller,  "man  accumulates  knowledge! 
How  easily,  how  quickly,  it  escapes  and  is  gone ! 
Blessings  on  the  noble  art  of  printing,  under  the  shadow 
of  whose  dominion,  thoughts,  words,  and  deeds,  are 
piled  up  like  the  proliferous  corn  of  old  in  the  store- 
houses of  Pharaoh ! " 

Dick  was  now  buying  his  flour  from  a  merchant  in 
Leith.  He  requests  the  merchant  to  send  him  books  as 
well  as  flour.  The  books  were  purchased,  packed  in 
paper  in  the  centre  of  the  bags,  and  despatched  to 
Thurso,  by  way  of  Aberdeen,  Wick,  and  the  Pentland 
Firth.  We  find  him  thus  receiving  the  Gardener's 
Dictionary,  the  Naturalist's  Magazine,  and  the  Flori- 
graphia  Britannica.  He  also  directs  the  flour  merchant 
to  buy  him  a  microscope,  and  to  send  it  him  as  soon  as 
possible.  Hie  correspondent  says,  "I  have  at  length 
bought  for  you  the  long-wished-for  microscope.  It  is  a 
very  powerful  one.  I  hope  you  will  find  yourself 
amply  rewarded  for  your  time  and  expense."  The 
microscope  was  despatched  in  July  1835,  and  it  reached 
Dick  in  safety.  He  found  that,  in  the  course  of  his 
investigations  into  the  minutiae  of  objects,  he  could  not 
do  without  the  microscope. 

The  flour  merchant  afterwards  sent  Dick  numerous 
volumes  of  the  Naturalist's  Library,  and  bought  for  him  a 
copy  of  Hogarth's  Works, — the  large  edition,  with  the 
original  plates  restored.  We  find,  from  the  bill  of 
lading  accompanying  the  flour  and  the  volume,  that  its 
oinding  cost  Dick  two  guineas.  Other  books,  relating 


CHAP.  vi.  A  DEVOURING  READER.  53 

principally  to  botany,  conchology,  and  geology,  shortly 
followed.  Sometimes  a  phrenological  cast  from  O'Neil 
was  imbedded  in  the  flour.  We  find,  from  the  com- 
munications that  passed  between  the  correspondents, 
that  Dick  paid  his  accounts  promptly, — usually  within 
a  fortnight  after  the  delivery  of  the  flour. 

When  the  books  arrived  at  Thurso,  and  were 
unearthed  from  the  flour,  Dick  set  to  work  and  devoured 
them.  For  Dick  was  a  great  reader,  almost  a  ferocious 
reader.  He  read  everything  about  air,  earth,  sea,  and 
heaven,  as  the  multitude  of  books  collected  by  him 
sufficiently  indicate.  He  had  plenty  of  leisure.  When 
his  bread  was  baked,  and  ready  for  sale,  he  had  nothing 
else  to  do  for  the  day  but  read  and  wander.  When  the 
weather  was  wet  and  stormy,  as  it  often  was,  he  read, 
drew,  and  wrote  letters  to  far-away  friends.  For  he 
had  many  correspondents,  as  the  following  pages  will 
show. 

When  the  weather  was  fine,  he  set  out  on  his  walks, 
along  the  shore,  or  up  the  country,  sometimes  as  far  as 
Morven.  '"Many  is  the  walk,"  says  one  of  his  old 
acquaintances,  "  which  I  have  enjoyed  in  his  company  on 
the  sea-beach  near  Thurso  Castle.  I  was  once  with  him, 
when  I  found  a  new  shell,  and  it  was  truly  delightful  to 
hear  him  explain  its  history  and  habits,  as  if  it  had  been 
his  next-door  neighbour,  and  he  had  known  the  tiny 
thing  all  his  life  long.  How  kindly  and  meekly  he 
spoke,  and  how  ready  he  was  for  a  joke;  and  what 
a  keen  perception  he  had  of  the  ridiculous  in  everything 
ihat  crossed  his  observation.  The  same  night  we  also 
4 


54  HIS  WALKING  POWERS.  CHAP.  vi. 

found  a  curious  sort  of  nut,  which  he  told  me  had  been 
carried  by  the  ocean  currents  and  prevailing  winds  all 
the  way  from  the  West  Indies,  and  was  cast  up  011  the 
beach  just  below  Thurso  Castle." 

"  On  another   occasion,"  says   the  same   writer,  "  I 
walked  with  him  on  a  botanical  excursion,  as  far  as  I 


OLD  THURSO  CASTLE  :    FROM  THE  SHORE. 


could,  up  the  Thurso  river;  and  I  am  not  far  from  the 
truth  when  I  say  that  he  talked  all  the  way.  '  I  begin 
slowly,'  he  said,  referring  to  his  walking,  'but  we'll 
improve  before  long,'  and  so  it  proved;  for  before  he 
had  reached  Oldfield  he  had  got  into  a  four-miles-an- 
hour  pace,  and  by  the  time  we  reached  Isauld  it  was  a 
regular  trot  and  race  down  the  banks  and  across  the 
river  to  one  of  his  favourite  haunts.  I  cannot  now 


HIS  LONELY  JOURNEY.  55 

remember  what  were  the  special  prizes  of  the  excursion, 
though  I  well  remember  that  we  came  home  richly 
loaded  with  things,  to  me  rich  and  rare,  which,  with  his 
usual  kindness,  he  named  and  labelled  for  me  next  day. 
After  a  lapse  of  more  than  sixteen  years,  I  lighted 
accidentally  one  day  on  a  pile  of  plants,  collected  princi- 
pally in  Caithness,  and  forming  my  first  herbarium.  It 
had  passed  through  the  hands  of  Mr.  Dick,  and  bears  his 
sign-manual  on  every  sheet.  Any  one  would  say  it  is 
the  handwriting  of  an  educated  man — a  bold,  full, 
fluent  hand — without  any  trace  of  the  crampedness  and 
angularity  of  those  who  earn  their  bread  by  manual  toil. 
Besides,  the  technical  names  of  the  plants  are  always 
spelt  correctly." 

But  it  was  very  seldom  that  he  made  his  botanical 
excursions  with  others.  He  almost  invariably  went 
alone.  When  he  had  arranged  his  work,  and  had  a 
journey  in  view,  he  had  everything  in  order  by  the  hour 
that  he  intended  to  set  out ;  and  then  nothing  would 
detain  him.  When  about  to  start  on  a  long  journey,  he 
wore  thick-soled  boots,  with  hob-nails  in  them.  He 
soaked  his  stockings  with  water ;  and  when  he  came  to 
a  burn  he  soaked  them  again.  He  took  with  him  some 
ship  biscuit,  which  was  easily  carried.  This  constituted 
his  principal  refreshment  during  his  long  journeys.  The 
burn  or  the  mountain  tarn  supplied  beverage  enough  for 
one  of  the  most  temperate  and  enduring  of  men.  "  I 
never  drink  much  when  travelling,"  he  used  to  say.  "It 
takes  the  wind  out  of  me,  and  seriously  interferes  with 
my  comfort  and  endurance/'' 


56  SPRING  IN  THE  NORTH.  CHAP.  vr. 

How  he  delighted  in  spring !  He  welcomed  its 
approach  with  joy.  The  winters  were  usually  cold  and 
stormy.  The  cold  winds  blew  violently  over  Caithness, 
and  prevented  any  green  thing  appearing  on  the  surface. 
But  Dick  was  up  before  the  sun  was  up.  He  was  out 
before  the  flowers  were  out.  He  watched  them  thrust- 
ing their  way  upwards  into  the  air,  watched  them  while 
they  blossomed  into  flowers,  and  watched  them  while 
they  shrank  into  decay. 

Spring  is  late  in  the  north.  Even  at  the  beginning 
of  May  the  earth  is  still  brown.  Only  in  some  sheltered 
spots  by  the  river-side  are  any  green  things  to  be  seen. 
There  are  very  few  hedges  near  Thurso.  "  On  the  4th  of 
May,"  says  Dick,  "  the  buds  are  only  swelling.  There 
is  no  '  May  blossom '  in  Caithness.  Even  at  the  end  of 
May  the  few  hedges  are  not  in  full  leaf."  The  first 
flowers  that  appear  are  the  yellow  Coltsfoot,  the  yellow 
Primrose,  the  yellow  Buttercup,  the  Marsh  Marigold, 
the  little  yellow  Celandine,  and  a  few  blue  flowers  ot 
the  Dog  Violet.  These  are  all  the  beauties  of  the 
northern  flora  in  May.  The  cold  winds  are  still  sweep- 
ing over  the  county. 

Dick  went  out  one  morning  at  the  end  of  May, 
towards  the  Eeay  hills,  to  see  how  the  flowers  were 
growing.  The  morning  was  cold  and  cheerless.  The 
flag  fences  along  the  road  were  hung  with  rain  pearls. 
When  he  reached  the  Reay  links,  he  found  the  ground 
covered  with  cowslips.  From  thence  he  went  up  the 
hills  to  the  waterfall  to  gather  ferns.  They  were  only 
beginning  to  expand.  The  summer  moss,  Polytrichum 


CHAP.  vi.  FERNS  IN  JUNE.  57 

was  there  in  thousands.  By  and  by  everything  would 
be  in  bloom. 

Even  on  the  24th  of  June — midsummer  day — 
the  ferns  were  not  fully  out.  "  The  first  fern  I  saw," 
says  Dick,  "  was  Lastrea  dilatata,  but  it  was  so  ugly  that 
it  was  not  worth  looking  at  a  second  time.  The  next  I 
saw  was  Asplenium  trichomanes,  or  Common  Maiden 
Hair  ;  but  the  specimens  were  too  small  for  my  pur- 
pose. The  next  was  the  Black-stalked  Spleenwort.  I 
passed  through  a  forest  of  brackens,  and  saw  the  Northern 
Hard  Fern,  and  the  Black  Bog-rush — a  plant  rare  in 
Scotland,  even  on  the  west  coast.  I  passed  on  and  went 
up-hill,  where  I  saw  the  Beech  Fern  and  many  other 
plants,  of  which  European  Sanicle  was  the  most  abun- 
dant. It  was  once  thought  to  cure  every  disease,  and 
was  called  '  Self-heal.'  I  saw  the  Common  Polypody, 
and  the  Oak  Polypody.  Up  the  hill  the  Foxglove  was 
the  most  conspicuous.  I  also  found  "Woodruff,  Spotted- 
leaved  Hawkweed,  and  Persian  Willow;  white  roses  and 
red  roses ;  and  other  plants  too  numerous  to  mention. 
I  wound  along  by  a  sheep-road  to  the  hill-top,  and  lay 
down,  looking  across  the  dead  level  of  the  county.  I 
counted  thirteen  lochs ! " 

At  the  beginning  of  July,  he  adds, — "We  are  just 
getting  into  first-rate  order  here  as  to  wild  plants.  We 
shall  by  and  by  have  a  grand  display  of  yellow  flowers 
— all  yellow ;  tens  of  thousands,  and  ten  times  ten, — 
all  destined  to  pass  away  after  fulfilling  the  great  end 
for  which  they  came  into  flower — leaving  seed  for  times 
to  come  times  without  end." 


58  CAITHNESS  FLORA. 


On  the  24th  of  July  he  says,  "  Now  it  gets  warmer. 
The  corn  becomes  half  full  of  marigold.  The  heather 
begins  to  bloom.  I  made  for  the  seaside,"  he  adds, 
"  and  found  a  butterfly  sleeping  on  the  heather !  Poor 
thing !"  As  the  summer  heat  increases,  the  Caithness 
grasses,  plants,  and  flowers,  make  their  appearance  in 
succession.  "  People  in  the  south,"  says  Dick,  "  think 
that  as  Caithness  is  so  far  north,  its  flora  must  differ 
greatly  from  that  in  their  own  neighbourhood.  No 
doubt  the  general  aspect  of  a  district  in  the  south 
differs  very  strikingly  in  its  prominent  features.  And 
yet,  after  all,  we  have  very  few  plants  that  may  not  also 
be  found  in  the  south. 

"  The  Caithness  flora  is  not  alpine — not  even  sub- 
alpine.  I  know  of  only  three  Baltic  plants  in  Caith- 
ness ;  and  of  these  only  one  is  a  rarity.  Indeed  it  is 
peculiar  to  Caithness ;  for  Caithness  is  the  only  British 
district  in  which  it  grows.  We  have  the  Baltic  rush  by 
the  river-side.  But  then  Juncus  balticus  grows  at  Barry 
Sands,  near  Dundee.  Last  summer,  I  was  much  pleased 
to  meet  the  Baltic  rush  growing  in  a  small  marsh  about 
six  miles  inland.  I  was  highly  delighted.  I  had  never 
seen  it  so  far  from  the  sea." 

Robert  Dick  proceeded  with  the  study  of  botany  in 
the  most  resolute  way.  He  would  take  nothing  for 
granted.  Where  others  had  observed,  he  also  would 
observe,  and  verify  for  himself.  Hence,  with  the 
utmost  toil  and  labour,  he  wandered  over  Caithness,  to 
see  the  plants  growing  in  their  native  habitats.  He 
must  find  them  where  they  grew,  and  study  them,  from 


CHAP.  vi.        THE  NORTHERN  MIDSUMMER.  59 

time  to  time,  on  the  spot.  He  determined  to  master 
the  entire  subject.  He  mapped  out  the  country  into 
districts,  and  resolved  carefully  to  examine  each  of  them 
in  turn.  It  was  a  long  and  arduous  work,  but  he  suc- 
cessfully carried  out  his  purpose.  At  length  the  plants 
of  Caithness,  from  one  end  of  the  county  to  the  other 
— from  the  Morven  hills  in  the  south  to  Dunnet  Head 
in  the  north — from  Noss  Head  in  the  east  to  Halladale 
Head  in  the  west — became  as  familiar  to  him  as  the 
faces  of  familiar  friends. 

The  banks  of  the  river  Thurso  were  among  his  favourite 
haunts.  He  searched  the  valley  in  its  remotest  nooks, — 
from  its  source  in  Bencheilt  to  its  entrance  into  the 
sea  at  Thurso.  The  flats  along  its  serpentine  course 
abound  in  plants  and  grasses,  which  he  scanned  with  the 
true  naturalist's  eye.  During  the  long  summer  nights, 
when  "  day  never  darkens  into  mirk,"  he  would  make 
journeys  of  forty  or  fifty  miles,  for  the  purpose  of  gather- 
ing some  favourite  plant  in  its  far-off  native  habitat. 
He  would  return  home  in  glory,  bringing  with  him  a 
stem  of  grass,  a  flower,  or  a  bulb. 

During  midsummer  time  in  the  north,  it  is  light 
nearly  all  the  night  through.  The  sun  slightly  descends 
below  the  horizon,  but  the  light  still  remains.  Farther 
north,  the  sun  is  seen  at  midnight.  When  it  rises  in 
Caithness,  the  morning  is  a  prolonged  dawn.  An  eloquent 
writer  says,  "  The  earth  is  most  beautiful  at  dawn ;  but 
so  very  few  people  see  it,  and  the  few  that  do  are 
almost  all  of  them  labourers,  whose  eyes  have  no  sight 
for  that  wonderful  peace,  and  coolness,  and  unspeakable 


60  SOLITUDE  NOT  LONELINESS.       CHAP.  vi. 

sense  of  rest  and  hope  which  He  like  a  blessing  on  the 
land.  I  think  if  people  oftener  saw  the  break  of  day 
they  would  vow  oftener  to  keep  that  dawning  day  holy 
and  would  not  so  often  let  its  fair  hours  drift  away  with 
nothing  done  that  were  not  best  left  undone." 

Dick  had  many  a  long  and  lonely  walk  at  sunset,  at 
dawn,  and  even  at  midnight.  And  yet  he  was  not 
lonely.  His  love  of  nature  made  a  paradise  of  that  bare 
north  country.  His  solitude  was  not  loneliness.  Solitude, 
to  him,  was  sweet  society.  He  felt  the  companionship 
of  nature  about  him — on  the  moors,  in  the  mountains, 
and  along  the  sea-shore.  On  calm  evenings,  when  the  sea 
was  at  rest,  he  walked  along  the  sands.  The  sea,  though 
quiet,  seemed  to  breathe.  It  was  like  a  living  thing — 
like  a  creature  at  rest. 

Dick  was  an  insatiable  wanderer.  When  he  had 
done  his  daily  work,  and  the  weather  was  fine,  he  set 
out  on  his  botanical  excursions.  The  county  was  all 
before  him.  He  would  go  to  the  Reay  hills  in  search 
of  ferns ;  or  up  the  Thurso  river  in  search  of  plants  and 
grasses ;  or  to  the  extreme  point  of  Dunnet  Head.  His 
eyes  were  always  open  to  receive  new  impressions. 
He  wondered  at  the  infinite  varieties  of  nature,  even  in 
that  cold  bare  country.  The  lines  written  by  Longfellow 
upon  another  great  lover  of  nature,  are  quite  as  appli- 
cable to  Dick  : 

"  And  he  wandered  away  and  away 

With  Nature,  the  dear  old  nurse, 
Who  sang  to  him  night  and  day 
The  rhymes  of  the  universe. 


CHAP.  vi.  JO  Y  ON  THE  MOORS.  61 

"  And  whenever  the  way  seemed  long, 

Or  his  heart  began  to  fail, 
She  would  sing  a  more  wonderful  song, 
Or  tell  a  more  marvellous  tale." 

He  was  more  joyful  on  the  moors  than  amid  the 
noise  of  streets.  There  he  was  alone  with  himself. 
Not  a  sound  was  to  be  heard  as  he  trudged  along,  save 
the  beating  of  his  own  heart — not  a  voice  save  that  of 
heaven.  The  clouds  threw  their  purple  shadows  over 
the  moor.  The  grouse  flew  up  with  a  whirr,  whirr! 
The  blue  mountain  hare  flew  past  him,  though  there 
was  no  danger  to  be  apprehended  from  him. 

The  deluge  sometimes  caught  him.  One  afternoon,  in 
August,  he  walked  thirty-two  miles  amidst  soaking  rain. 
He  had  gone  up  to  the  top  of  a  mountain,  and  found 
only  a  plant  of  white  heather.  He  walked  and  ran  all 
the  way  back,  through  moors,  mosses,  and  heather, 
jumping  the  flagstone  fences ;  and  at  last  reached  home 
after  nine  and  a  half  hours'  walking  and  running.  Yet 
he  was  up  next  morning  at  six,  and  went  through  his 
day's  work  as  usual. 

The  following  is  a  pleasanter  day's  adventure.  It 
was  written  to  his  sister  at  the  end  of  August : — "  Since 
I  wrote  you  last,  I  have  managed  to  walk  thirty-six 
miles.  Long,  long  ago,  I  chanced  to  find  a  Fern  eighteen 
miles  up  the  country.  It  was  not  new,  consequently 
not  a  discovery ;  but  it  was  as  good  as  such  to  me.  It 
had  never  crossed  me  in  all  my  wanderings,  or  rather  I 
had  never  found  it  until  then.  No  one  told  me  where 
it  grew,  for  the  best  of  reasons — that  no  one  knew, 


A  HIGHLAND  GLEN. 


Since  I  first  found  it,  I  have  every  year  gone  a- walking 
to  it,  just  to  visii  it,  again  and  again.  Tliis  year,  I  have 
been  there  and  back.  The  fern  is  very  small :  I  enclose 
a  specimen.  It  is  the  Rue-leaved,  or  Wall  Spleenwort. 
The  rocky  spot  in  which  it  grows  contains  many  other 
ferns,  some  of  them  not  at  all  common. 

"  Besides  the  wild  rocky  scenery  of  the  place,  there 
is  the  only  approach  to  a  Highland  glen  which  we  have 
in  Caitliness.  You  set  out  from  Thurso,  and  for  the 
first  three  or  four  miles  there  is  nothing  but  corn  and 
bere  on  each  side  of  the  road ;  and  in  dry  leas,  showers 
of  yellow  Crowfoots  and  Ragworts ;  with  here  and  there 
the  blue  heads  of  Scabious,  or  yellow  Dandelions,  or 
yellow  Hawkbits.  All  is  yellow,  yellow,  dashed  here 
and  there  with  masses  of  purple  heath,  redder  by  far 
than  you  can  possibly  imagine. 

"  On  you  go? .diverting  the  time  as  you  best  can, — foi 
all  is  wonderful.  Then,  at  the  distance  of  ten  miles 
from  Thurso,  you  are  on  a  hill-top,  and  you  stand  and 
look  around  you.  It  is  sweet  to  stand  on  a  hill-top,  and 
gaze  far  up  the  country.  Southwards  you  see  farther 
than  you  will  ever  wander.  Of  course  you  cannot  tell 
in  words  all  that  you  see.  You  gaze  eastward,  north- 
ward, and  westward ;  and  then,  after  satiating  yourself 
with  the  prospect,  you  move  down  the  farther  side  of 
the  hill,  and  get  onward.  Twelve  miles,  thirteen  miles, 
and  many  wonders  are  to  be  seen.  And  in  due  time 
you  get  among  the  heather — heather  everywhere — and 
water  black  to  drink.  After  going  a  mile  through  a 
moor,  you  find  yourself  all  at  once  on  the  brink  of  a 


CHAP.  vi.  A  LONELY  MOOR.  63 

precipice.  You  look  down,  and  the  waters  are  tumbling 
and  surging  below;  you  are  satisfied,  and  could  sing 
with  joy  too.  After  a  time,  I  went  my  way  home- 
wards." 

Dick  often  relieved  his  solitary  moments  by  writing 
to  his  sister,  then  living  at  Haddington.  She  had  com- 
plained to  him  of  her  lowness  of  spirits,  when  he  thus 
wrote : — "  Cheer  up,  cheer  up,  my  bonnie  sister,  and  I 
will  tell  you  a  story.  One  fine  summer  evening,  not 
long  ago,  your  brother  set  out  for  the  far-away  hills. 
He  had  been  there  before.  The  sun's  heat  was  strong 
when  he  set  out  (it  was  then  August),  but  on  he  went, 
past  bothies,  and  houses,  and  milestones,  until  he  was 
'o'er  the  muir  amang  the  heather.'  Then  past  burns 
and  lochs,  up  a  hill  and  over  a  hill,  through  a  bog  and 
through  a  mire,  until  the  sun  set,  and  still  he  was  toil- 
ing on,  with  a  long,  long  moor  before  him. 

"  Have  you  ever  been  all  alone  on  a  dreary  moor, 
when  the  shadows  of  the  coming  darkness  are  settling 
down,  and  the  cold  clammy  fog  goes  creeping  up  the 
hill  before  you  ?  It  is  hard  work  and  very  uncanny 
walking  to  pick  your  steps,  as  there  is  no  proper  light  to 
guide  you.  For  you  must  remember  that  moors  are  not 
bowling-greens  or  finely-smoothed  lawns.  They  may 
be  flowery  paths,  it  is  true,  but  very  rough  ones,  full  of 
man-traps,  jags,  and  holes,  into  which,  if  you  once  get, 
you  may  with  difficulty  wade  your  way  out  again. 

"But  on  I  went, — hop,  step,  and,  jump, — now  up, 
now  down,  huffing  and  puffing,  with  my  heart  rapping 
against  my  breast  like  the  clapper  of  a  mill.  Then 


64  A  HILL-TOP  AT  NIGHT. 


everything  around  looked  so  queer  and  so  quiet,  with 
the  mist  growing  so  thick  that  it  was  difficult  to  distin- 
guish one  hill  from  another.  Had  I  not  been  intimately 
acquainted  with  every  knowe  and  hillock  of  the  country 
through  which  I  was  travelling,  I  never  could  have  got 
through  it.  But,  cheer  up !  never  lose  heart !  There's 
the  little  loch  at  last,  and  there's  the  hill !  Ay,  but 
your  work's  not  done  yet.  You  must  climb  the  hill,  for 
what  you  seek  is  only  upon  its  very  top. 

"It's  rough  work  running  through  a  moor,  but  it 
takes  your  wind  clean  out  of  you  to  climb  the  hill  that 
lies  beyond  it.  Were  you  ever  up  a  hill-top  at  night, 
your  lee  lane,  with  the  mist  swooping  about  you  and 
drooking  your  whiskers  and  eyebrows  ?  I  daresay  no. 
But  up  this  hill  I  had  to  clamber  on  my  hands  and 
knees  to  find  the  plants  that  I  had  come  in  search  of. 
Yes !  I  found  them,  though  I  was  not  quite  sure  until 
the  sun  had  rise*n  to  enlighten  me.  Then  I  found  that 
I  had  made  out  my  point 

"The  light  enabled  me  to  make  my  way  downhill. 
Feeling  thirsty,  as  well  I  might,  I  clambered  over  rocks, 
and  braes,  and  heather,  to  a  very  pretty  loch  at  the  hill- 
foot.  Picking  my  steps  to  a  place  full  of  large  stones,  I 
came  to  a  pair  of  them  where  I  stooped  down  into  the 
clear  water  and  drank  my  filL  It  is  a  grand  thing  to 
dip  your  nose  down  into  the  water  like  a  bird,  with  the 
shingle  and  gravel  lying  below  you,  and  then  take  your 
early  morning  drink. 

"  But  1  have  no  time  to  say  out  my  say.  Only  this, 
sister,  only  this  :  never  lose  heart  in  the  thickest  mists 


CHAP.  vi.  JOURNEY  TO  MORVEN.  65 

you  should  ever  get  into ;  but  take  heart,  for  assuredly 
the  sun  will  rise  again,  and  roll  them  up  and  away,  to 
be  seen  no  more." 

In  a  future  letter  to  his  sister,  written  on  the  12th 
of  November,  he  thus  describes  his  journey  to  Morven 
top  : — 

"On  Tuesday  last  I  set  out  at  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning  to  go  to  the  top  of  Morven.  Morven  is  a  hill 
to  the  south  of  this,  and  by  measurement  on  the  map 
28  miles  as  the  crow  flies.  But  taking  into  account  the 
windings  and  turnings  of  the  road — up  hill,  down  hill, 
and  along  valleys — it  is  a  good  deal  more :  say  32  miles 
from  Thurso  to  Morven  top. 

"  For  the  first  18  miles  I  had  a  road :  the  rest  of 
the  way  was  round  lochs,  across  burns,  through  mires 
and  marshes,  horrid  bogs,  and  hummocky  heaths.  I 
tucked  up  my  trousers,  and  felt  quite  at  ease,  though  I 
was  ankle  deep,  and  often  deeper,  for  fifteen  minutes  on 
end,  and  sometimes  more.  When  I  had  a  marsh  to 
wade  I  had  it  level,  but  when  I  had  heather  I  had  an 
awful  amount  of  jumping.  ...  At  last,  however,  I 
found  myself  on  the  top  of  the  famous  Morven. 

"  The  Caithness  people  have  few  hills.  They  think  a 
mighty  deal  of  Morven  and  Maiden  Pap  and  Skerry  Ben. 
But  these  hills  are  not  much  to  boast  of.  They  are  none 
of  them  as  big  as  books  make  them,  and  I  laughed  when 
I  thought  of  what  people  had  said  to  me  about  this 
wonderful  Morven.  One  said  that  it  was  so  very  high 
that  it  would  take  half  a  day  to  climb  from  the  toot  of 
the  hill  to  the  top.  Another  account,  given  in  a  book, 


66  MORVEN  TOP. 


stated  that  Morven  could  only  be  ascended  from  the 
west  side,  being  totally  inaccessible  on  all  other  sides. 
Downright  nonsense!  Morven  is  accessible  on  every 


"  My  object  in  ascending  the  hill  was  to  gather 
plants,  and  of  course  I  went  up  the  steepest  face  to  get 
among  the  crags  and  stones  near  the  top.  Morven  is 
poor  in  plants.  I  found  nothing  new.  True,  the 
season  was  too  far  gone,  but  there  in  sheltered  spots 
many  of  them  still  lived.  On  the  top  Alchemilla  alpina 
was  in  flower.  I  observed  from  the  decayed  leaves  on 
all  sides  that  the  various  species  were  not  many. 
Braalnabin,  a  much  lower  hill,  and  much  nearer  to  Thurso, 
is  better  for  ferns.  Two  weeks  since  I  went  there  and 
got  nine  different  ferns  all  in  bloom,  though  none  of 
them  were  new  to  me. 

"  Strange  it  was  to  look  around  me.  The  day  was 
cold  and  stormy.  The  sun  was  shining  above  me,  but  a 
snowstorm  was  battling  far  below.  Skerry  Ben  was 
grey-white  with  snow.  The  sound  of  the  wind  among 
the  crags  was  like  the  roaring  of  the  sea  along  the  shore. 

"I  reached  Morven  top  at  eleven  o'clock  A.M.  and 
left  it  at  two  P.M.*  It  was  now  mid-day.  The  river  of 
Berridale  runs  at  the  foot  of  Morven.  The  best  way 
of  getting  over  it  is  to  wade  through  it ;  but  what  of 
that  ?  The  Highlandman  walks  best  when  his  feet  are 
wet,  and  so  does  the  Lowlandman,  if  he  could  only  be 
persuaded  to  try.  In  going  to  Morven  I  had  waded  no 
fewer  than  six  burns,  and  at  least  a  score  of  marshes. 
My  feet  had  not  been  dry  since  seven  in  the  morning. 


MORTEN  MOUNTAIN. 


WIND  AND  FIRE.  67 


It  was  all  the  same  to  me  which  way  I  took.  'Onward  !' 
was  the  word.  And  yet  the  light  of  day  was  gone  and 
the  moon  was  up,  long  long  before  I  gained  a  civilised 
road. 

"  The  night  became  windy  and  stormy.  Tremendous 
sheets  of  hailstones  and  rain  impeded  my  progress,  so 
much  so  that  I  thought,  as  Burns  says,  that '  the  deil  had 
business  on  his  hand,'  and  that  he  was  determined  to 
finish  my  course  with  Morven.  But  no !  In  spite  of 
hail,  rain,  wind,  and  fire  (in  fact  I  had  them  all),  I  got 
home  at  three  o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning,  having 
walked,  with  little  halt,  for  about  twenty-four  hours.  I 
went  to  bed,  slept  till  seven  o'clock,  then  rose,  and  went 
to  my  work  as  usual.  Sixty  miles  is  a  good  walk  to 
look  at  a  hill.  Oh,  those  plants,  those  weary  plants  !  " 

On  one  of  his  midnight  excursions  Dick  was  taken 
for  a  poacher.  It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  rivei 
Thurso  is  one  of  the  best  salmon  rivers  in  Scotland, 
Indeed,  in  early  spring,  there  is  no  river  that  comes  up  to 
it.  Sir  John  Sinclair  boasted  that  on  one  occasion  2500 
salmon  had  been  caught  at  one  haul — a  draught  that  has 
never  been  exceeded.  The  price  paid  by  the  salmon- 
fishers  is  so  high — at  present  £20  per  rod  monthly — 
that  the  river  is  carefully  watched  to  prevent  poaching. 

One  night  a  gentleman  in  charge  of  the  river  went 
out  to  see  that  the  keepers  were  doing  their  duty,  and 
also  to  detect  the  poachers  if  he  could.  He  went  to  a 
particular  spot  where  there  were  evident  traces  of  poach- 
ing. The  river  was  then  in  good  poaching  order. 

Just  at  the  break  of  day,  an  hour  or  more  before  sun- 


68  STALKING  A  POACHER.  CHAP.  vi. 

rise,  the  watcher  saw  the  figure  of  a  man  on  the  horizon, 
some  hundred  yards  distant.  He  shrank  down,  and  crept 
forward,  watching  the  man's  movements  in  the  grey 
dawn  of  morn.  He  was  seen  close  by  the  river's  side, 
prowling  up  and  down  the  banks.  Surely  this  must  be 
a  poacher.  The  man  moved  on.  When  he  appeared 
on  some  liigh  bank,  the  watcher  hid  himself  so  that  he 
might  not  be  seen  between  him  and  the  horizon.  He 
crawled  forward  on  all  fours,  stalking  the  poacher  as 
he  would  a  deer. 

At  last,  after  nearly  two  hours'  stalking  and  dodging, 
the  man  suddenly  disappeared  in  some  low  crevices  in 
the  rocks,  just  below  Dirlot  Bridge.  The  sun  was  just 
rising  ;  the  watcher  saw  him  crouching  down,  as  if 
hiding  something  amongst  the  ferns.  Of  course  it  must 
be  a  salmon !  -With  beating  heart,  he  suddenly  rushed 
up  to  the  man," and  shouted,  "Now  I  have  caught  you 
poaching!" 

The  man's  back  was  towards  him.  He  was  intently 
gazing  on  some  object  before  him.  He  turned  round  in 
a  composed  manner,  and  said,  "  No,  sir,  I  am  not  poach- 
ing ;  I  am  only  gathering  some  specimens  of  plants !" 
He  then  opened  his  handkerchief,  which  contained  some 
herbs,  plants,  and  flowers.  The  watcher  was  disap- 
pointed and  disgusted.  He  had  been  crawling  for  two 
hours  on  his  hands  and  knees,  coming  up  with  his 
man,  and  finding  in  his  possession,  not  a  salmon,  but  a 
lot  of  things  which,  in  his  estimation,  were  worse  than 
useless ! 

Dick  was  then  sixteen  miles  from  Thurso,     He  had 


CHAP.  vi.     THE  STALKER  DISAPPOINTED.  69 

left  home  at  midnight  in  search  of  his  favourite  botanical 
specimens.  Some  of  them  were  so  minute  and  delicate 
that  they  could  only  be  seen  at  sun-dawn.  It  was  only 
at  the  break  of  day  that  they  unfolded  their  delicate 
tints,  spread  their  leaves,  and  put  forth  their  lovely 
blossoms  to  the  rising  sun — perhaps  revealed  to  the  per- 
fervid  botanist  by  the  glistening  of  a  dew-drop. 

Thus  Dick  was  rewarded,  but  not  the  salmon-watcher 
who  had  stalked  him. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
DISCOVERS  THE  "HOLY  GRASS." 

"  IT  is  surely,"  said  Dick  to  a  Mend, "  a  strange  time  we 
live  in,  when  a  poor  devil  cannot  gather  weeds  without 
being  made  a  nine  days'  wonder  of  to  some,  and  a  butt 
of  derision  to  others." 

Many  people  about  Thurso,  who  saw  Dick  coming 
into  the  town  with  his  feet  bedabbled  with  dirt  and  his 
jean  trousers  wet  up  to  the  knees,  said  that  he  would 
have  been  much  better  employed  in  attending  to  his 
bakery  than  in  wandering  about  the  country  in  search 
of  beetles,  bumbees,  ferns,  and  wild  plants. 

But  he  never  missed  attending  to  his  business. 
Science  was  his  pleasure;  and  the. pursuit  of  it  became 
his  habit.  One  science  led  to  another.  From  Con- 
chology  he  went  to  Entomology,  and  from  these  he 
went  to  Botany  and  Geology.  Nothing  came  amiss  to 
him.  He  found  "  sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  every- 
thing." 

For  a  long  time  he  kept  all  that  he  did  to  him- 
self. He  had  no  friends  to  whom  he  could  com- 
municate the  knowledge  he  had  acquired.  He  was 
only  a  poor  baker.  He  did  not  mix  with  the  educated 
class.  He  spent  his  thrifty  savings  on  books.  His 


CHAP.  vii.          RECEIVES  A  DEPUTATION.  71 

dress  cost  little.  His  best  clothes  were  many  years  old. 
His  long  swallow-tailed  coat  with  brass  buttons  was 
considered  antediluvian.  His  tall  chimney-pot  hat  was 
entirely  out  of  date.  Sometimes  he  was  jeered  at  as 
he  passed  along. 

The  boys  knew  that  he  had  a  love  of  nature.  This 
is  the  first  taste  that  a  country  boy  develops.  Some- 
times they  were  a  little  frightened  at  him.  They  viewed 
him  with  awe,  if  not  apprehension,  when  they  encountered 
him  among  the  rocks  with  his  hammer  and  chisel,  or 
came  upon  him  as  he  emerged  from  a  ditch,  or  from 
behind  a  turf  wall,  in  his  pursuit  of  insects,  or  grasses, 
or  mosses.  But  their  fear  was  always  tempered  by  the 
knowledge  that  any  curiosity  they  alighted  on,  in  the 
shape  of  a  stone,  or  a  butterfly,  or  a  beetle,  would  always 
be  repaid  by  the  mysterious  man  when  brought  to  him, 
by  a  roll,  or  a  cookie,  or  a  biscuit,  or  sometimes  by  a 
sixpence. 

One  boy — now  a  well-known  minister — called  upon 
Dick  when  about  twelve  years  old.  He  was  sent,  with 
another  boy,  as  a  deputation  from  a  number  of  their 
schoolfellows,  to  ascertain  something  about  the  bones  of 
a  cuttle-fish  which  they  had  found  upon  the  shore.  The 
boys  went  into  his  shop  with  considerable  fear;  but 
they  found  the  baker  in  excellent  humour.  He  brought 
down  from  his  library  several  books,  which  he  spread 
out  among  the  loaves  of  bread  on  his  counter,  and 
pointed  out  to  them  specimens  of  other  cuttle-fish  bones 
that  had  been  found.  "We  were  much  astonished," 
says  the  minister,  "  to  be  told  that  if  we  came  back  when 


72  A  GENERAL  REFEREE.  CHAP,  vn 

he  was  less  busy,  he  would  tell  us  more  about  it ;  but 
neither  of  us  ever  mustered  courage  for  a  second  visit." 

Another  says — "  Boys  out  bird-nesting  on  the  braes, 
or  fishing  by  the  river-side  or  amongst  the  rocks,  have 
often  got  from  him  a  lesson  in  Natural  History  which 
they  would  hardly  forget  in  a  lifetime." 

Dick  began  to  be  considered  a  general  referee.  When 
anything  unusual  was  found — a  plant,  a  stone,  a  butter- 
fly, or  a  fish — he  was  at  once  appealed  to.  One  day  a 
boy  came  in  with  a  message  from  a  fisherman.  A  sun- 
fish  had  been  caught  in  Thurso  Bay,  and  brought  ashore. 
Dick  was  sent  for  to  come  and  see  it.  He  was  busy 
with  his  bread  at  the  time,  and  could  not  leave  the 
bakehouse.  The  fisherman  sent  another  message,  saying 
that  if  Dick  did  not  come  down  immediately,  he  would 
cut  up  the  fish.  "Then  tell  him  to  cut  away,"  said 
Dick ;  "  I  don't  like  these  peremptory  orders." 

A  person  who  made  considerable  pretensions  to 
botanical  knowledge  met  him  one  day,  and  asked  if  he 
knew  whether  the  county  produced  any  Statice  armeria. 
"Oh!"  said  Dick,  "if  you  will  just  call  it  Lea  Gilly- 
flower, or,  if  you  please,  Thrift,  you  will  find  it  at  any 
roadside." 

Another  gentleman  found  a  pretty  flower  growing 
profusely  in  a  small  strath  a  few  miles  out  of  Thurso. 
He  took  it  to  Dick.  "Do  you  know  that?"  he  asked. 
"  Yes,"  he  said ;  "  you  got  it  at  the  side  of  the  burn  at 
Olrig."  "  How  do  you  know  that  ?"  "  Because  it  grows 
in  two  or  three  more  places  in  Caithness ;  but  these  are 
loo  far  off  for  you  to  have  been  there  to-day." 


CHAP.  vii.  THE  HOLY  GRASS.  73 

Another  called  upon  him  with  a  strange  flower.  "  I 
have  got  a  new  thing  for  you  to-day,  Mr.  Dick !"  "  Oh 
no,"  said  Dick,  "  I  know  it  quite  well.  You  got  it  near 
Shebster  " — indicating  a  small  hillock  on  a  moor  in  the 
western  part  of  the  parish  of  Thurso.  "  Yes,"  said  the 
inquirer;  "but  how  do  you  know  that?"  "Simply 
because  it  grows  nowhere  else  in  Caithness." 

Thus,  in  course  of  time,  he  had  pretty  nearly  mastered 
the  botany  of  Caithness.  Among  his  other  discoveries 
of  plants  in  Caithness,  which  had  before  been  altogether 
unknown,  was  his  discovery  of  the  Hierochloe  lorealis, 
or  Northern  Holy  Grass,  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
Thurso.  It  is  called  Holy  Grass,  because  the  people  in 
Sweden  and  Norway  were  in  the  habit  of  strewing  their 
churches  with  it.  It  emits  a  scent  when  lying  in  quan- 
tities, and  when  trampled  on  by  the  feet  of  the  wor- 
shippers. It  is  detected,  when  growing,  by  its  beautiful 
spiral  stem  and  its  rich  golden  seed. 

The  plant  had  been  first  admitted  into  the  British 
Flora  on  the  authority  of  Don.  But  no  one  else  had 
found  it.  After  the  death  of  Don  the  plant  was  placed 
in  the  doubtful  list  of  the  London  Catalogue,  and  it 
.  was  finally  dropped  out  altogether.  Dick  was  surprised 
at  the  discovery,  but  he  took  no  means  to  make  it  known. 
He  kept  the  plant  for  about  twenty  long  years  beside 
him.  He  was  too  solitary  and  too  bashful  to  rush  into 
print  with  his  botanical  findings.  It  was  only  when  a 
young  botanist,  who  had  heard  of  Mr.  Dick's  scientific 
knowledge,  called  upon  him,  saw  the  plant  and  ascer- 
tained its  habitat,  that  the  information  about  the  new 


74  DICK'S  REPORT. 


plant  was  communicated  to  the  Professor  of  Botany 
at  Edinburgh. 

The  professor  at  first  doubted  the  existence  of  the 
plant  in  Britain.  He  could  scarcely  believe  that  it  existed 
in  Caithness,  the  northernmost  county  of  Scotland.  He 
observed,  however,  that  if  Dick  had  really  found  the 
plant,  he  had  rescued  the  celebrated  botanist  Don  from 
an  undeserved  calumny.  For  Don  had  asserted  that  the 
plant  was  found  in  Britain,  whereas  all  the  botanists  of 
note  averred  that  the  Holy  Grass  was  not  indigenous, 
but  had  been  imported  from  other  countries. 

Dick  was  specially  requested  to  send  a  communica- 
tion respecting  the  plant,  and  where  it  was  to  be  found. 
He  accordingly  did  so  in  July  1854.  He  also  sent  a 
specimen  of  the  Holy  Grass  to  Professor  Balfour  of 
Edinburgh.  We  must  here  anticipate ;  and  insert  the 
paper  which  Dick  prepared  for  the  Botanical  Society, 
twenty  years  after  the  plant  had  been  found.  The  paper 
runs  as  follows  : — 

"  About  ten  minutes'  walk  from  the  town  of  Thurso 
there  is,  by  the  river-side,  a  farm-house  known  by  the 
name  of  the  Bleachfield,  opposite  to  which,  on  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  river,  there  is  a  precipitous  section  of  boulder 
clay ;  opposite  to  the  clay  cliff,  and  fringing  the  edge  of 
the  stream.  Any  botanist  can,  in  the  last  week  of  the 
month  of  May,  or  in  the  first  and  second  weeks  of  June, 
gather  50  or  100  specimens  of  Hierochloe  borealis. 
Passing  upwards  along  the  river  bank,  and  at  no  great 
distance,  there  is  another  clay  cliff,  where  a  few  hundreds 
of  Hierochloe  may  likewise  be  got.  It  also  fringes  the 


THE  MOONWORT.  75 


edge  of  the  river.  But  the  plant  must  be  looked  for  at 
the  time  indicated ;  for  by  the  third  week  of  June  the 
beauty  of  Hierochloe  has  passed  away,  and  by  the  first 
of  July  the  herbage  has  become  so  rank  that  the  Holy 
Grass,  now  ripe,  and  turned  of  a  silky  brown,  and  is  com- 
pletely hidden  from  view.  Farther  up,  between  Giese 
and  a  section  of  boulder  clay  a  little  below  Todholes, 
the  plant  may  likewise  be  picked  in  hundreds.  Hiero- 
chloe has  never  failed  to  appear  in  these  localities 
during  the  last  twenty  years."* 

The  Eoyal  Botanical  Society  afterwards  sent  Dick  a 
special  vote  of  thanks  for  his  paper,  and  also  for  the 
specimen  of  the  plant  which  he  had  sent  for  the  Bota- 
nical Gardens. 

To  return  to  his  botanical  wanderings.  His  sister, 
who  lived  at  Haddington,  was  very  delicate,  and  he 
often  tried  to  amuse  her  with  the  descriptions  of  his 
walks  in  the  country. 

In  the  beginning  of  July  he  writes  to  her  as  follows : 
— "  I  have  had  two  walks — one  of  five  miles,  the  other  of 
ten  miles.  The  five  miles'  walk  was  to  see  a  fern  called 
the  Moonwort.  It  grows  in  abundance  in  a  spot  not 
far  away.  I  shall  never  forget  the  strange  wonder  with 
which  I  first  saw  it.  So  I  again  walked  off  to  the  locality, 
where  I  knew  it  grew  in  all  its  glory.  The  season  has 
been  very  dry  here,  and  the  fern  has  not  attained  its 
usual  height.  Nevertheless  I  found  it.  During  my 
journey  I  saw  much  to  admire. 

*  Annals  of  Natural  History,  October  1854.  Botanical  Society  of 
Edinburgh. 


76  THE  STORKSBILL.  CHAP,  vn, 

"My  ten  miles'  walk  I  had  yesterday  evening.  It 
was  fearfully  warm.  The  sky  was  full  of  fire,  but  it  did 
not  rain.  There  were  great  black  mountains  of  clouds 
in  the  air.  It  was  a  dead  calm,  with  not  a  breath  of 
air.  I  was  told  that  I  must  not  go  out,  for  it  would  be 
a  downpour  before  long.  But '  he  that  will  to  Cupar 
maun  to  Cupar.'  My  imagination  told  me  of  beautiful 
geraniums  (Storksbill),  which  I  longed  to  see.  Off  I 
went !  The  clouds  were  in  motion,  but  without  wind. 
It  was  terribly  sultry.  After  a  long  perspiring  walk  I 
arrived  at  my  journey's  end — a  small  precipice,  lined 
with  plants. 

"  I  was  now  at  home — intensely  at  home.  The  pre- 
cipice was  not  in  length  a  stone's  throw.  It  was  only 
about  twenty  feet  in  height.  But  there  I  found  many 
most  interesting  plants.  There  were  a  few  of  the 
Trembling  Poj)lar  trees,  about  four  feet  high.  There 
were  Eoses  and  Willow  Herb  in  flower  (Epilobium 
angustifolium,  E.  montanum,  and  E.  quadrangulum). 
There  was  Ardbis  hirsuta,  a  plant  I  never  get  in  Caith- 
ness but  here  :  Stone  Bramble,  Common  Sanicle,  Carices, 
and  Butterworts  in  scores.  And  in  the  crevices  of  the  crags 
ferns — Male  ferns  and  Lady  ferns — Black  Spleenworts, 
Maiden-hair  Spleenworts,  and  many  other  plants.  Among 
the  rest  I  found  plenty  of  Rough  Brome  Grass — a  grass 
I  saw  alive  for  the  first  time — alive  by  scores.  So  here 
was  my  reward !  Well,  I  am  increasing  in  knowledge, 
if  not  in  wisdom.  I  hope  to  get  up  at  one  o'clock  to- 
morrow morning." 

A  little  later  in  the  month  he  says — "  This  being  one 


WALKS  FOR  FERNS. 


of  my  rambling  days  I  did  not  leave  Thurso  until  the 
postman  had  gone  round  with  his  letters  between  one 
and  two  o'clock.  Of  course  I  could  not  go  far  to-day. 
But  there  is  a  fern  growing  about  a  mile  and  a  half  off, 
which  I  should  like  to  see  once  more.  I  once  thought 
the  fern  to  be  very  rare,  not  having  met  with  it  in  all 
my  rambles,  except  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  of  Morven,  in 
the  extreme  south  of  the  county.  Then  I  found  the 
same  fern  about  four  or  five  miles  from  this,  eastward  of 
the  Fairies'  Hill  (Lysa) ;  afterwards  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  out  of  Thurso  ;  and  then  about  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  eastward  of  the  town.  The  search  for  plants  is 
amusing ;  and  when  I  come  unexpectedly  upon  plants  in 
a  spot  which  I  had  before  minutely  searched,  I  wonder 
where  my  eyes  had  been  all  the  time." 

"  On  Saturday  last,"  he  says  in  another  letter  to  his 
sister, "  I  got  up  in  the  morning  at  three,  worked  until  mid- 
day, and  then  I  set  off  on  a  journey  of  nine  miles  to  gather 
a  specimen  of  a  plant.  Before  I  started  I  took  off  my 
shoes  and  dipped  my  feet,  stockings  and  all,  into  a  basin 
of  water.  I  then  tied  my  shoes  on  and  set  off.  When  I 
had  gone  six  miles  I  came  to  a  burn  '  roarin'  fou,'  through 
which  I  walked  ankle-deep.  Fifteen  minutes  later  I 
walked  through  another  burn,  and  then  through  another 
and  another  burn — four  burns  in  all. 

"  I  pulled  the  plant  and  returned  homewards.  My 
route  lay  across  Dunnet  sands.  The  tide  was  ebbing. 
I  kept  close  by  the  waves.  As  they  rolled  in,  in  long 
breakers,  they  went  far  up  the  sands.  For  about  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour  I  walked  ankle-deep  in  salt  water. 


78  WALK  TO  DORERY.  CHAP.  vn. 

After  leaving  the  shore  I  had  six  miles  to  walk.  I 
reached  home  at  eight  in  the  evening  with  my  plant, 
having  walked  eighteen  miles  in  four  hours  and  forty 
minutes." 

On  another  afternoon  in  July  he  goes  to  the  Dorery 
hills.  "I  had  a  ramble,"  he  said,  "on  Saturday  last, 
after  my  day's  work  was  over.  While  on  my  way  I  found 
in  a  quarry,  at  a  loch,  a  fossil  fish  snout  or  two,  and 
some  plants.  I  got  to  the  hills,  about  ten  miles  off, 
and  examined  ferns  and  roses.  I  had  a  grand  view 
of  the  Sutherland  hills.  I  stood  in  a  sheltered  nook, 
and  gazed  at  the  sunlight  shining  far  over  the  distant 
mountains.  I  never  forget  any  of  these  moments.  I 
turned  aside  this  morning  just  to  gaze  upon  the  moon. 
It  was  about  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  All  was 
still,  solemn,  and  impressive." 

The  road  to  the  Dorery  hills  lies  through  a  bare 
and  slightly  undulating  country.  The  fields  are  sepa- 
rated from  the  road  by  fences  of  Caithness  flag.  On 
either  side  you  observe  here  and  there  mounds  of  green 
earth,  underneath  which  are  said  to  be  the  so-called 
Picts'  Houses.  After  the  cultivated  fields,  come  the  moors 
— quiet,  solitary,  and  sublime. 

After  the  moors  you  reach  the  heathery  hills.  The 
highest  of  the  hills  is  called  Ben  Dorery.  There  is  a 
cleft  between  the  two  principal  hills,  and  at  the  farther 
side  of  the  main  hill  is  a  hollow,  surrounded  by  projec- 
tions of  slaty  rock,  in  which  Dick  would  sit  down,  and 
look  with  delight  on  the  prospect  before  him.  In  the  far- 
reaching  plain  below  there  was  nothing  but  heather 


DORERY  HILL.  79 


moor,  and  moss,  in  the  midst  of  which  twelve  lochs 
might  be  seen  glittering  in  the  sunshine,  with  the 
Sutherland  hills  far  in  the  distance. 

The  scene  is  lonely  and  solitary.  Not  a  house  is  to 
be  seen.  Not  a  sound  is  to  be  heard,  excepting  the  shot 
of  a  sportsman  during  the  grouse  season.  Below  the 
hill,  is  Loch  Shurery,  quietly  sleeping  in  the  sunshine. 


THE  DOS3RY   HILLS. 


Rising  the  hill  and  looking  north,  you  see  the  flat  county 
of  Caithness,  with  moors  and  lochs  in  the  toreground, 
and  beyond  them  the  flag-fenced  fields  in  the  distance. 
The  Dorery  hills  were  attractive  to  Dick,  not  only 
because  of  the  solitary  scenery,  but  because  they  were 
lull  of  ferns  of  many  sorts,  togetliei  with  many  of  the 
plants  and  grasses  of  which  he  was  constantly  in  search. 


80  DICK'S  FERNERY.  CHAP.  vii. 

Dick  had  another  special  fernery  at  Achavaristil, 
under  the  Reay  hills,  about  ten  miles  from  Thurso.  It 
was  nearly  opposite  Sir  Robert  Sinclair's  shooting-lodge. 
It  was  a  sheltered  place,  where  ferns  grew  in  beauty. 
Dick  kept  the  place  an  entire  secret.  For  a  long  time, 
no  one  obtained  access  to  it.  No  one  knew  of  it.  He 
transplanted  ferns  from  all  parts  of  the  county,  that 
they  might  grow  and  spread  there  long  after  he  was  dead. 
But  alas,  some  mischievous  person  found  out  the  place, 
and  pulled  up  the  "  weeds."  What  a  bitter  day  that  was 
for  Robert  Dick ! 


CHAPTEE  VIH 

DUNNET  HEAD. 

THE  coast  scenery,  east  and  west  of  Thurso,  is  very  grand. 
On  the  one  side  it  rises  into  Holborn  Head,  and  on  the 
other  into  the  long  perpendicular  rocks  of  Dunnet  Head. 
Holborn  means  Hell's  child,  from  Holla  the  goddess  of 
hell,  and  biorn  child.  Many  a  ship  has  been  dashed 
against  the  rocks  there.  This  has  probably  originated 
the  peculiar  name  of  the  headland. 

When  a  ship  in  the  North  Atlantic  is  caught  by  a 
storm,  and  the  wind  blows  violently  from  the  west,  she 
is  driven  towards  the  rockbound  coast  of  the  Hebrides. 
If  she  can  weather  the  Butt  of  Lewis,  she  is  driven 
towards  the  gigantic  rocks  of  Cape  Wrath,  which  extend 
for  about  fifty  miles  towards  Holborn  Head.  If  she  can 
manage,  by  backing,  to  enter  Scrabster  Eoads,  she  is 
safe.  If  not,  she  is  driven  upon  the  rocks,  and  utterly 
destroyed — ship,  men,  and  cargo. 

The  faces  of  the  rocks  are  hollowed  into  gaping 
caverns,  where  the  waves  thunder  in,  and  roll  along  the 
gyoes  far  inland.  The  leap  of  the  waves  is  only  exceeded 
by  their  rebound  seaward  again.  They  rush  up  the 
face  of  the  rock  like  a  pack  of  hounds,  and  spread  them- 
selves along  the  summit  in  blinding  showers  of  spray 


82  SCRABSTER  ROADS.  CHAP.  vm. 

As  you  stand  upon  the  top  of  the  rocks  in  fine  weather, 
they  seem  to  precipitate  themselves  into  the  sea, — in 
many  cases  overhanging  the  water. 

Inside  of  Holborn  Head  is  Scrabster  Eoads.  Many 
ships  ride  at  anchor  there  while  the  wind  blows  hard 
from  the  west.  They  are  well  protected  by  the  head- 
land, which  juts  out  towards  the  north-east.  Scrabster 
Harbour  is  also  comparatively  safe. 

But  when  the  wind  blows  from  the  north  or  north- 
east, the  ships  riding  at  anchor  there  are  in  great  danger. 
The  waves  come  in  with  great  force.  They  come  hissing 
along  with  their  fleece  of  froth,  and  break  with  violent 
force  upon  the  shore.  They  rebound  again,  dragging  the 
pebbles  under  them  with  a  rattle,  and — to  quote  the  words 
of  Hardy — are  like  "  a  beast  gnawing  bones." 

After  one  of  these  storms,  Dick  went  down  to  the 
sea-shore  to  ascertain  whether  any  of  the  secrets  of 
Nature  had  been  laid  bare.  "  We  have  had  a  terrible 
storm  here,"  he  says ;  "  such  a  force  of  wind  that  I  have 
never  felt  the  like,  so  terribly  strong  and  continuous. 
It  has  caused  great  disaster  to  the  shipping.  The 
storm  fairly  whipped  six  vessels  out  of  Scrabster  Eoads, 
and  dashed  them  ashore  to  ruin. 

"  When  the  wind  abated,  I  went  down  to  the  shore, 
and  found  a  piece  of  old  land  strewed  here  and  there 
with  prostrate  hazel  stems.  I  picked  out  of  the  clay  five 
nuts.  How  long  it  is  since  they  grew  I  know  not,  but 
it  must  have  been  ages  ago.  Perhaps  geologists  would 
say  that  they  grew  when  Britain  stood  thirty  feet  higher 
than  it  does  now.  But  that  is  all  conjecture.  Certainly 


SHIPWRECKS.  83 


the  land  along  our  shores  had  once  a  very  different 
appearance." 

On  another  occasion  he  says — "The  wind  to-day 
blows  fearfully  hard.  A  large  ship,  with  seventeen  men 
on  board,  is  ashore  at  Ham,  thirteen  miles  off.  About 
mid-day  we  expected  a  ship  ashore  here.  Unless  the 
wind  abates,  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  others  came 
ashore  to-morrow.  The  wind  is  howling  like  mad,  and 
roaring  like  thunder  over  the  town." 

Dunnet  Head,  north-east  of  Thurso,  was  one  of  Dick's 
favourite  haunts.  It  was  a  long  walk  to  the  lighthouse, 
which  fronts  the  Pentland  Firth.  But  he  often  wan- 
dered to  it,  and  descended  the  headland  to  the  sea  by 
paths  known  only  to  himself.  The  perpendicular  rocks 
which  surround  the  head,  average  about  two  hundred 
feet  high;  but  at  the  northern  end,  which  forms  the 
northernmost  point  of  Scotland,  the  rock  rises  three 
hundred  feet  above  sea  level ;  and  from  the  summit  of 
the  contiguous  eminence,  the  height  above  the  sea  is 
more  than  four  hundred  feet. 

Dunnet  Head  forms  a  peninsula,  extending  from  the 
village  of  Dunnet  on  the  south  to  the  village  of  Brough 
on  the  north.  From  these  points  it  extends  northward. 
The  peninsula  contains  about  three  thousand  acres  of 
uncultivated  moor,  with  no  fewer  than  ten  small  lochs 
or  tarns  on  its  summit.  In  winter  time  the  lochs  are 
crowded  with  swans,  geese,  ducks,  and  northern  seafowl. 
Most  of  the  birds  summer  in  Greenland,  and  winter  on 
Dunnet  Head. 

This  immense  rampart  of  rocky  headland  runs  along 


84 


D WARWICK  HEAD. 


the  northern  shore  of  Dunnet  Bay,  by  Dwarwick  Head, 
in  an  easterly  direction.  Then  turning  sharp  round  to 
the  north  by  Eough  Head,  the  rocks  wend  northwards, 
then  slightly  eastwards,  until  you  find  yourself  under 
Easter  Head,  where  the  lighthouse  is  erected.  This  is 
the  highest  point  of  the  cliffs.  They  then  extend  to  the 


DWARWICK  HEAD. 


south-east,  and  afterwards  towards  the  south,  ending  at 
the  village  of  Brough. 

In  fine  or  even  rough  weather,  when  the  wind  is  east- 
erly, a  yachting  trip  under  the  cliffs  is  full  of  interest. 
In  Dunnet  Bay  the  sea  is  quiet,  being  protected  from 
the  east  by  the  high  grounds  of  the  peninsula.  Dwar- 
wick Head  forms  a  singular  headland,  the  strata  dipping 
slightly  towards  the  sea.  Between  this  and  Eough 


CHAP.  vni.  DUNNET  LIGHTHOUSE.  85 

Head  is  a  wick  or  bay,  in  which  ships  find  safe  shelter 
— an  old  retreat  of  the  Vikingers. 

Eough  Head  is  a  bold  headland.  Numerous  boulders 
are  strewn  at  the  bottom  of  the  cliff.  There  are  points 
near  Dwarwick  Head  and  Rough  Head,  where  an 
approach  to  the  sands  is  possible,  though,  in  some  places, 
it  is  rather  precipitous.  There  are  numerous  gyoes  along 
the  headland,  worn  out  into  inland  caves  by  the  powerful 
washings  of  the  sea.  There  is  one  near  Dwarwick  which 
penetrates  far  inland.  When  the  sea  is  rough,  and  drives 
in  from  the  west,  the  sea  dashes  up  far  inland,  and  blows 
through  the  opening  like  a  whale,  throwing  abroad  sheets 
of  spray. 

The  precipices  gradually  rise.  In  certain  places  the 
rocks  seem  to  have  slipped  away  towards  the  bottom,  and 
left  steep  slopes  overgrown  by  ferns.  There  are  numer- 
ous wild  birds  among  the  cliffs.  Cormorants  are  seen 
winging  their  solitary  way  towards  the  north.  Deep 
caves  appear  in  the  face  of  the  rock ;  with  here  and  there 
a  recent  slip  from  the  summit  to  the  sea,  where  the 
stones  lie  in  a  rough  slope.  The  red  sandstone  of  the 
rocks  looks  so  clear,  so  solid,  and  so  near  at  hand,  that 
it  might  be  thought  they  were  only  a  gunshot  distant, 
though  they  are  a  mile  and  a  quarter  away. 

And  now  we  are  under  the  lighthouse,  where  the 
strata  are  nearly  level.  The  precipice  here  is  some  three 
hundred  feet  high.  The  lighthouse  is  on  the  crest  of 
the  rocks,  only  about  thirty  feet  from  the  precipice.  It 
is  the  highest  lighthouse  in  Scotland.  The  height  of 
the  lantern  above  the  highest  spring  tides  is  346  feet, 


FORCE  OF  THE  SEA. 


and  the  light  is  seen  twenty-three  miles  off,  on  either 
side  of  Dunnet  Head. 

Even  here  there  seem  to  have  been  recent  slips,  for 
there  are  long  slopes  of  rock  at  the  bottom  overgrown 
with  ferns  and  greenery.  The  sea  is  constantly  washing 
and  grinding  away  the  red  sandstone  and  slates,  so  that, 
in  course  of  time,  the  lighthouse  will  have  to  be  removed 
farther  inland. 

Notwithstanding  the  height  of  the  cliffs,  the  sea, 
when  driving  strongly  from  the  west,  rushes  right  up 
the  face  of  the  rocks,  and  dashes  over  the  lighthouse, 
sometimes  breaking  the  glass  with  the  stones  which  it 
carries  with  it.  Such  is  the  prodigious  force  of  the  wind 
and  the  sea  united,  that  the  very  rock  itself  seems  to 
tremble,  while  the  lighthouse  shakes  from  top  to  bottom. 

We  are  now  in  the  Pentland  Firth,  and  the  waves  are 
rolling  strong  ^from  the  eastward.  The  wind  and  the 
waters  dash  about  the  little  ship,  and  she  tacks  and  bears 
round  under  the  shelter  of  the  headland.  But  not  before 
her  decks  have  been  well  drenched  by  the  billows.  She 
has  now  to  make  headway  against  the  tide,  which  is 
rushing  into  the  Pentland  Firth  at  the  rate  of  some  ten 
miles  an  hour.  At  last,  retracing  her  pathway  under  the 
rocks,  Eough  Head  is  passed ;  a  calm  comes  on ;  the  ship 
makes  a  tack  across  the  bay ;  and  at  length  Dwarwick 
Head  is  passed,  and  the  buoyant  little  yacht  makes  her 
way  into  Castletown  harbour,  from  whence  she  set  out. 

We  have  thought  it  necessary  to  give  this  account  of 
Dunnet  Head,  because  it  was  so  often  the  scene  of 
Robert  Dick's  explorations.  Sometimes  also,  Hugh 


DUN'XET  HEAD  :    FROM  THK  EAST. 


CHAP.  vin.  TRIP  TO  DUNNET.  87 

Miller  accompanied  him  in  his  researches  after  the  Old 
Eed  Sandstone,  which  is  found  on  both  sides  of  the  head- 
land. This  will  afterwards  be  found  in  the  course  of  the 
narrative. 

In  the  course  of  one  of  his  letters  to  his  sister,  Dick 
thus  describes  one  of  his  journeys  to  Dunnet  Head.  It 
was  made  in  April,  while  the  weather  was  still  very 
wild:— 

"Determined  not  to  be  beat,  I  waited  over  snow, 
hail,  frost,  and  rain,  until  I  could  set  out.  Then  I  had 
my  ramble.  It  was  a  fine  morning,  but  after  I  had  set 
out  it  began  to  rain.  It  blew  and  rained  for  five  miles. 
I  saw  little  beyond  a  bare  country.  The  fields  were  red, 
and  the  grass  by  the  road-side  was  withered  and  brown. 
All  was  of  a  sad,  desolate  appearance.  I  was  walking 
in  an  easterly  direction,  and  the  wind  was  blowing 
south-west.  To  fend  me  from  the  rain,  I  turned  my  face 
northerly,  and  saw  only  a  tossing  sea,  and  the  Orkney 
hills  overspread  with  snow.  I  passed  through  the  mile- 
long  village  of  Castletown,  and  there  I  saw  trees,  yes, 
most  respectable  trees  !* 

"  On  the  top  of  a  stone  wall  to  the  right  I  saw  some 
tufts  of  moss.  I  went  to  the  moss  and  looked.  It  was 
all  in  fruit.  I  think  it  was  Hypnum  popuieum.  I  had 
seen  it  before.  I  crossed  burn  after  burn,  and  then  the 

*  There  are  not  only  trees  but  woods  about  Mr.  Trail's  seat  at 
Castlehill.  There  is  a  hollow  valley  there,  along  the  river  Duran,  which 
has  been  beautifully  planted.  The  place  is  well  protected  from  the 
north  and  east  winds,  and  the  trees  grow  to  as  fine  dimensions  as  they 
do  in  the  south  of  England.  But  this  is  the  only  wood  in  the  north 
of  Caithness. 


DUNNE T  CLIFFS. 


long  dreary  sands  of  Dunnet  lay  before  me — blank  and 
bare,  or  tossed  into  fantastic  hillocks.  The  sand  was 
blowing  before  the  wind.  The  waves  were  thundering 
along  the  shore. 

"  I  saw  a  man  breaking  sandstone  boulders.  He  little 
thought  of  what  he  was  doing,  or  of  the  time  when  ice 
went  grinding  along  the  surface  of  the  stone  he  was 
hammering.  No :  he  was  building  a  cottage,  and  the 
stone  was  only  a  stone  to  him,  and  nothing  more. 

"  Passing  on,  I  left  all  human  habitations  behind,  and 
had  only  heather,  heather,  before  me.  The  heather  was 
brown  and  burnt-like,  so  severe  had  been  the  weather 
during  the  past  winter.  As  I  passed  on,  I  found  a 
cocoon  of  the  Emperor  Moth  sticking  on  a  piece  of 
heather.  I  was  next  brought  to  a  stop  by  some  crimson- 
tipped  lichens — moss  cups.  They  were  taller  than  any 
specimens  I  had  seen  before,  but  they  were  under  shelter. 

"After  crossing  another  burn,  and  striding  through 
heather  only  ankle  deep,  I  found  myself  on  the  edge  of 
the  precipitous  cliffs  of  Dunnet  Head.  Before  I  de- 
scended down  their  front  I  looked  around.  Orkney 
seemed  quite  near,  with  the  snow-wreaths  on  its  hills. 
The  waves  of  the  Pentland  Firth  were  rolling  away 
westerly. 

"  Down  I  went !  down !  It  was  at  that  place  only 
about  100  feet  deep.  When  I  reached  the  foot  of  the 
cliff,  I  gazed  upward  in  wonder  and  admiration,  full  of 
intense  curiosity  to  see  the  various  layers  of  sand — for 
such  it  once  was.  It  is  not  every  day  that  one  stands 
at  the  foot  of  such  a  cliff. 


CHAP.  vin.  FERNS  AT  DUNNET.  89 

"I  moved  westwards.  I  passed  along  delighted. 
The  scene  was  grand  and  unusually  striking.  I  came 
at  length  to  a  narrow  fissure,  up  which  I  forced  my  way 
in  quest  of  Ferns.  Yes,  Ferns !  Ferns  grow  green  on 
Dunnet  Cliffs  all  the  year  round.  In  fact,  Dunnet  Head 
is  a  forest  of  ferns.  It  was  the  Sea  Spleenwort  that  I 
wanted,  and  sure  enough  I  found  it  growing  green  in  all 
its  glory.  I  gathered  a  few,  and  left  the  rest. 

"  Retracing  my  steps,  I  ascended  the  cliff.  It  then 
began  to  rain,  and  it  rained  nearly  all  the  way  home." 

Dick  often  descended  the  cliff,  sometimes  to  gather 
ferns,  and  at  other  times  to  inspect  the  geological 
conditions  of  the  rocks.  One  day  he  went  down  the 
face  of  the  headland  a  little  to  the  west  of  the  light- 
house. He  went  searching  about  among  the  rocks  and 
clefts,  finding  many  new  things  to  wonder  at.  But  he 
completely  forgot  the  lapse  of  time.  Looking  round,  he 
found  that  the  tide  had  risen  and  completely  overflowed 
the  path  among  the  rocks  by  which  he  had  come.  On 
one  side  was  the  precipice,  on  the  other  was  the  sea, 
coming  in  higher  and  higher  at  every  wave.  He  had  no 
alternative  but  to  go  onward,  for  the  sands  were  still  dry 
in  front  of  him.  At  length  he  discovered  a  portion  of 
the  headland  which  he  thought  might  be  attempted,  and 
he  succeeded,  with  much  difficulty  and  danger,  in  reach- 
ing the  summit  of  the  cliff. 

In  fine  weather,  when  the  billows  are  asleep  and  the 
waters  merely  lave  the  base  of  the  cliffs,  pleasure  parties 
sometimes  set  sail  from  Thurso,  and,  when  the  tide  is 
low,  they  land  on  the  sands  under  Dunnet  Head.  On  one 


90  DUNNET  SANDS.  CHAP.  vm. 

occasion,  Dr.  Smith  and  a  party  who  had  just  landed 
from  their  boat,  found  to  their  amazement  that  Dick  was 
there  before  them.  He  seemed  to  have  got  there  by 
miracle.  But  no ;  he  had  merely  come  down  the 
rocks  by  a  path  known  only  to  himself,  for  assuredly 
nobody  else  would  have  risked  his  life  in  so  perilous 
a  descent. 

Dr.  Smith  asked  him  to  return  with  his  party  in 
the  boat.  No !  he  would  ascend  the  rocks  by  the  path 
down  which  he  had  come.  Besides,  he  never  accepted 
any  accommodation  of  this  sort  while  on  his  journeys. 
His  skin  was  in  a  state  of  perspiration,  which  he  desired 
to  maintain.  If  he  took  a  seat  in  a  boat  or  in  a  road 
conveyance,  with  his  wet  feet,  he  was  sure  to  get  chilled, 
and  the  result  was  a  severe  cold.  Hence  he  strode  back 
to  Thurso  by  the  heather,  the  sands,  and  the  road,  as  he 
had  come. 

On  one  occasion  Dick  describes  the  geology  of 
Dunnet  Head.  It  is  during  the  month  of  June  that 
he  undertakes  his  journey.  He  has  already  reached 
Dunnet  sands,  which  are  about  seven  miles  by  road  from 
Thurso.  The  description  is  best  given  in  Dick's  own 
words : — 

"Dunnet  sands  are  a  long  and  a  weary  trail  in  a 
warm  day  in  June,  when  the  dark  thunder-clouds  creep 
overhsad,  when  not  a  breath  of  air  stirs,  and  all  is  still 
and  motionless,  save  the  dull,  sluggish  fall,  at  solemn 
pauses,  of  the  incoming  and  retreating  waves  on  the 
burning  sands,  or  the  humming  of  the  overjoyed  flies 
feeding  on  the  dead  fish  cast  up  by  the  tide ;  when  the 


GEOLOGISING.  91 


cattle  from  the  benty  links  have  come  down  towards  the 
sea,  where  they  stand  knee-deep  in  it,  stooping  and 
eyeing  it  wistfully,  but  yet  unable  to  drink ;  when  the 
parched  sands  stretch  away  in  the  distance,  the  heated 
air  nickering  upwards  like  the  breath  of  a  furnace ! 

"  I  look  up,  and  implore  the  '  all-conquering  sun  to 
intermit  his  wrath.'  He  only  continues  to  shine  out 
stronger  and  fiercer ;  till  at  last,  faint  and  exhausted.  I 
throw  myself  down,  and  drink  out  of  the  burn  which 
flows  across  the  sands,  careless  of  the  consequences. 
Your  very  wise  people  may  say  what  they  please  about 
the  consequences  of  imbibing  cold  water  when  over- 
heated, but  I  have  never  found  any  harm,  but  much  good 
to  be  the  result,  and  in  no  case  more  than  in  taking  this 
drink  out  of  the  burn  as  I  crossed  the  sands  towards 
Dunnet. 

"  Refreshed  and  invigorated,  I  rose  and  pursued  my 
way.  Not  long  after,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  striking  iny 
first  hearty  blow  on  the  yellow  stones  which  crop  out 
through  the  unconsolidated  beach.  I  examine  and 
search  for  organic  remains.  But  no.  Again  and  again 
my  efforts  are  renewed,  and  still  the  answer  is,  No. 

"  Passing  on  along  the  foot  of  the  cliffs — now  yellow- 
ish, then  reddish — now  thin  and  slaty-like,  then  in  thick 
solid  beds — I  go  rambling  along. 

" '  Owre  mony  a  weary  ledge  he  limpit, 
An'  aye  the  tither  stane  he  thumpit ; ' 

but  thumped  in  vain.  Oh  for  one  scale !  But  no ;  no 
organisms;  not  one,  though  you  upturned  the  whole 
stupendous  accumulation  of  quartzy  sand,  which  rears 


92  DESCENDING  THE  CLIFFS.       CHAP.  vin. 


its  lofty  and  weathered  front  to  the  wasting  waves  and 


"  We  have  chosen  the  right  time,  when  the  tide  is  at 
the  lowest.  Consequently  we  are  enabled  to  move 
along  at  the  foot  of  the  cliffs,  which  otherwise  would  be 
impassable.  We  actively  and  untiringly  explore,  but 
with  no  success;  and  are  at  last  so  wearied  that  we 
clamber  up  to  the  top  of  the  headland  by  a  rugged  sort 
of  footpath,  and,  moving  along  the  edge  of  the  precipice, 
we  make  through  the  grass  and  heather  for  the  crags 
immediately  facing  the  Western  Ocean.  How  strange 
to  find,  as  we  move  along,  a  white  butterfly  or  two 
flitting  about,  a  solitary  mason  wasp,  and  a  sparrow- 
hawk  looking  out  for  prey,  the  sun  all  the  while  beating 
down  upon  us. 

"  It  is  possible  to  get  down  the  western  face  of  the 
rugged  cliffs  of  Dunnet  Head.  We  got  down,  and  what 
do  we  find  ?  ibe  sight  is  worth  all  the  toil  of  walk- 
ing to  see  it.  Immense  masses  of  sandstone,  fallen  from 
the  cliffs  overhead,  skirt  the  mighty  wall.  The  masses 
lie  in  rude  confusion.  Applying  the  hammer  to  them, 
no  remains  of  fish  or  quadruped  are  to  be  found,  but 
pieces  of  quartz,  clay  pebbles  of  a  reddish  brown,  and  in 
some  places  balls  of  sulphur-yellow  clay,  as  big  as  a 
man's  fist.  Here  and  there  are  large  patches  of  some- 
thing like  rusty  sheet-iron,  which  would  almost  make 
one  fancy  that  they  were  the  remains  of  some  Antedilu- 
vian Frying-pan  that  had  been  swept  to  sea  and  buried 
there. 

"  There  is  very  little  real  red  sandstone  at  Punnet 


CHAP.  vin.  THE  SANDSTONE  BEDS.  93 

Head.  By  far  the  greatest  bulk  is  what  I  take  to  be  a 
yellow  quartzose  sand.  In  one  place,  and  in  one  place 
only,  is  the  sand  in  any  way  red.  In  crossing  Dunnet 
sands  we  had  not  failed  to  notice  little  stones,  standing 
out  here  and  there  in  the  sand,  left  by  the  retiring  tide, 
and  great  was  my  surprise  to  find  the  same  appearances 
here.  In  some  places,  where  the  boulders  are  a  little 
asunder,  the  exact  beds  of  the  strata  are  to  be  seen, 
walked  over,  handled,  and  hammered.  I  had  seen  sand- 
stone beds  with  here  and  there  a  pebble,  but  they  nevei 
struck  my  imagination  so  forcibly  as  now,  when  I  was 
down  upon  my  knees  and  busied  in  the  work  of  extrac- 
tion. 

"  What  a  vast  gathering  of  sand !  I  was  forced  to 
exclaim.  Where  did  it  all  come  from  ?  How  long  did 
it  take  to  pile  up  this  heap  in  the  silent  depths  of  the 
sea  ?  How  long  ?  How  many  years  ?  These  are  perti- 
nent questions, — questions  which  enter  one's  very  soul. 
Then  man  feels  instinctively  his  own  littleness,  and  his 
utter  inadequacy  to  solve  even  the  simplest  of  his 
questionings. 

"  But  however  amazed  he  may  feel  at  this  vast  pile  of 
sand,  it  was  at  one  time  unquestionably  much  greater. 
Looking  across  to  the  Orkneys,  immediately  opposite, 
the  spectator  cannot  fail  to  remark  that  they  are  of  the 
same  material.  Then,  turning  from  the  Orkneys  to  Hoi- 
born  Head,  where  a  strong  sea  now  rolls,  one  cannot  help 
looking  back,  and  we  are  led  to  picture  the  time  when 
there  was  no  sea  between  them,  but  only  sandstone 
beds,  stretching  continuously  from  shore  to  shore ! 


94  DUNNET  HEAD  SUBMERGED  !    CHAP.  vm. 

"  The  beds  have  been  burst  through  by  the  ocean,  and 
where  dry  land  once  was,  the  grampus  now  rolls,  and 
the  tall  ship  speeds  on  her  way  to  the  farthest  ends  of 
the  earth.  Amazing  change ! 

" '  Art,  empire,  earth  itself,  to  change  is  doomed  ; 
Earthquakes  have  raised  to  heaven  the  humble  vale, 
And  gulphs  the  mountain's  mighty  mass  entombed ; 
And  where  the  Atlantic  rolled  wide  continents  have 
bloomed.' 

"  Who  told  Beattie  this  ?  It  seems  to  prove  Lyell's 
theory  of  the  sameness  of  ancient  and  existing  causes 
for  geological  changes  in  the  earth's  surface.  And  the 
change  is  still  going  on ;  and  '  come  it  will,  the  day 
decreed  by  fate,'  when  not  a  vestige  of  the  sandstone  of 
Dunnet  Head  will  be  found  above  the  encroaching 
ocean. 

"  What  induces  me  to  think  so  is  this  : — 1st,  Dunnet 
Bay  does  not,  in  my  opinion,  owe  its  existence  to  a  fault, 
but  has  been  literally  hammered  out  by  the  force  of 
the  Atlantic  waves.  The  sandy  links  are  the  broken 
remains,  in  part,  of  the  dispersed  strata;  and  were 
they  now  to  become  solidified,  they  would  be  found  as 
rich  in  fossil  remains  as  the  present  beds  are  barren. 
2d,  The  ocean  tempests  are  telling  surely  on  the  western 
face  of  the  beds  of  Dunnet  Head;  and  time  alone  is 
wanted  to  effect  their  ruin.  3d,  The  beds  on  the  south, 
at  Brough,  are  in  some  places  in  a  mouldering,  crumb- 
ling state,  and  the  sea  will  ultimately  effect  a  junction 
with  the  upper  end  of  Dunnet  Bay.  Dunnet  Head  will 
for  some  time  be  an  island ;  but  it  will  ultimately  be 


CHAP.  viii.  HA  VEN  OF  B ROUGH.  95 

blotted  out  of  existence  altogether.  There  is  a  prophecy 
for  you ! 

"  I  remember  once  getting  up,  towards  the  end  of 
harvest,  while  the  blue  canopy  above  was  still  adorned 
and  enriched  with  innumerable  stars.  I  was  gaily  crossing 
Dunnet  sands  in  the  first  peep  of  day,  when  I  made 
directly  across  the  peninsula  for  the  stupendous  cliff 
immediately  westward  of  the  little  haven  of  Brough.  I 
found  that  the  tide  did  not  retire  far  from  the  coast,  but 
rose  and  fell  close  to  the  cliffs,  wetting  and  allowing  to 
dry  the  big  stones  at  the  base  of  the  precipice. 

"  The  cliff,  under  which  I  rested  for  a  time,  was  about 
150  feet  high.  It  seemed  sound  and  hard.  The  morn- 
ing sun  rose  in  beauty.  I  hammered  away,  and  kept 
moving  down  upon  the  hamlet  of  Brough.  There  I  found 
the  cliffs  in  sad  decay ;  in  fact,  they  were  a  sloping  mass 
of  rotten  materials.  A  little  out  to  sea  there  is  a  ledge 
of  what  was  once  red  sandstone.  It  is  a  mouldering 
hint  of  what  is  to  come.  It  is  50  feet  in  height,  and 
rests  upon  slate. 

"  I  had  made  this  long  journey  in  the  hope  of  find- 
ing some  very  fine  organisms  where  the  slate  cropped 
out  from  beneath  the  sand.  I  found  a  few  fish  scales 
and  droppings,  but  no  fossils ;  and  sounded  a  retreat, 
very  much  chagrined  at  having  to  return  home  almost 
empty-handed. 

"  There  is  a  loch  or  two  near  Dunnet  Head.  There  is 
one  on  the  top  of  the  hill.  It  is  a  quiet  secluded  spot, 
a  place  of  great  attraction  for  wild  swans,  geese,  and 
ducks,  during  their  autumnal  migration,  when  winging 


96  THE  HALIE  LOCH.  CHAP.  vnr. 

their  way  southward.  There  is  another  loch  lower  down, 
famed  for  its  miraculous  cures.  It  is  quite  common  for 
mothers  to  carry  their  sickly  children  there  on  the  first 
Monday  morning  of  a  Wraith;  and,  going  round  the 
puddle  three  times,  they  dip  in  the  chick  at  the  end  of 
each  revolution.  The  children  have  sometimes  returned 
home  cured.  So  they  say. 

"  I  remember  a  sort  of  cure.  A  poor  woman  took 
thither  a  child  who  could  neither  sit,  stand,  walk,  nor 
talk.  She  performed  the  customary  observances,  and 
returned  amidst  much  derision.  But  lo!  a  marked 
change  took  place  in  the  child.  He  gained  strength, 
walked,  and  learned  to  speak.  He  often  came  to  my 
back  premises,  and  called  out :  '  Bakie,  bakie,  gie's  a 
lopie;'  but  still  he  was  very  ancient-looking  in  the  face. 
About  two  or  three  years  after  he  died  of  gravel.  So  that 
the  cure,  whateyer  it  might  be,  was  not  permanent." 

The  piece  of  water  referred  to  by  Dick  is  Dunnet 
Loch,  or  the  Halie  Loch,  not  far  from  the  village  of 
Dunnet.  It  was  once  supposed  to  possess  great  healing 
virtues.  People  came  from  all  parts  of  Caithness  and 
the  Orkneys,  to  be  cured  by  the  waters.  The  patient 
had  to  walk  round  the  loch,  or,  if  not  able  to  walk,  he 
was  carried  round  it.  He  washed  his  hands  and  feet  in 
the  loch,  and  then  threw  a  piece  of  money  into  it.  He 
had  to  do  this  early  in  the  morning,  and  must  be  out  of 
sight  before  sunrise.  There  was  in  ancient  times  a 
Roman  Catholic  chapel  dedicated  to  St.  John  at  the  east 
end  of  the  loch.  Some  say  that  the  alleged  healing 
virtues  of  the  waters  were  converted  into  a  source  of 


THE  "  WITCH  HAG: 


97 


pecuniary  emolument  by  the  priests.  The  loch  is 
merely  a  collection  of  water  dropped  from  the  clouds, 
and  possesses  no  healing  or  other  qualities,  except  those 
of  rain  water. 

Among  the  superstitions  of  Caithness,  the  Swallow 
is  called  "  Witch  hag."  They  say  that  if  a  swallow  flies 
under  the  arm  of  a  person,  it  immediately  becomes 
paralysed.  Is  it  because  of  the  same  superstition,  that 
in  some  parts  of  England  the  innocent  Swift  is  called 
"  the  Devilin  "  ? 


DISTANT    VIEW    OF   DUNNET    HEAD:     FROM    BARROGILL  CASTLE. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
GEOLOGY— DISCOVERY  OF  A  HOLOPTYCHIUS. 

ROBERT  DICK  had  now  been  engaged  for  many  years  in 
studying  the  wonderful  aspects  of  Nature  in  the  North. 
Caithness  was  not  too  wild  or  dreary  for  him.  The 
shells  on  the  sea-shore,  the  grasses  along  the  river-sides, 
the  mosses  growing  on  the  boulders,  the  ferns  abounding 
in  Dunnet  cliffs,  were  all  full  of  interest.  And  now  he 
proceeded  to  probe  the  ground  under  his  feet. 

He  had  long  had  a  taste  for  geology.  While  gather- 
ing his  botanical  specimens  he  had  often  found  fossil 
fishes  in  the  slaty  rocks.  He  first  observed  them  in 
1835,  a  few  years  after  he  had  settled  at  Thurso.  At 
first  they  excited  his  wonder ;  then  his  surprise, — for  dis- 
tinguished geologists  had  asserted  that  no  fossil  remains 
were  to  be  found  in  the  Scotch  Highlands.*  But  here  they 
were  under  his  own  eyes !  Why  should  he  not  explore 

*  The  Rev.  W.  D.  Conybeare  and  William  Phillips,  Esq.,  in  their 
Outlines  of  the  Geology  of  England  and  Wales  (1822),  said,  "A  cir- 
cumstance cannot  fail  to  have  struck  the  observer  during  the  course  of 
his  researches,  which  opens  to  his  view  a  far  more  extensive  and 
interesting  field  of  his  inquiry  with  regard  to  the  relations  of  these 
rocks  to  the  general  revolutions  of  nature  ;  for  he  will  have  found  in 
many  of  these  beds  spoils  of  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdom  im- 
bedded, particularly  the  remains  of  marine  zoophytes  and  shells,  often 


CHAP.  ix.  GEOLOGY  OF  CAITHNESS.  99 

them  ?  Why  should  he  not  study  them,  and  verify  the 
facts  for  himself? 

Among  the  first  books  that  he  bought  was  Mantell's 
Wonders  of  Geology.  This  revealed  to  him  quite  a  new 
world — the  world  of  wonders  at  his  feet.  He  after- 
wards bought  Dr.  Buckland's  Bridgewater  Treatise.  This 
book  also  greatly  excited  his  imagination.  But  there 
was  nothing  in  it  about  the  fossils  of  Caithness.  He 
next  borrowed  a  book  from  Sir  George  Sinclair,  contain- 
ing a  journal  of  Mr.  Bushby's  travels  through  Caithness. 
He  made  copious  extracts  from  it,  and  endeavoured  to 
verify  the  facts  therein  stated. 

Mr.  Bushby's  object  seems  to  have  been  to  discover 
whether  Caithness  contained  any  metalliferous  ores. 
He  also  bored  largely  for  shell  marl,  with  the  object  of 
mixing  it  with  the  mosses,  and  thus  producing  culti- 
vable land.  Bushby  was  not  a  geologist,  and,  in  his 
search  for  what  was  valuable,  he  overlooked  the  flags, 
the  fossils,  the  old  red  sandstone,  and  many  of  the  most 
interesting  facts  in  the  geology  of  Caithness. 

It  was  not  until  the  appearance  of  Hugh  Miller's 
publications  that  Dick's  mind  was  set  in  the  right 
direction.  In  the  month  of  September  1840,  there 
appeared  in  the  Witness  newspaper  the  first  of  a  series 
of  articles  under  the  title  of  "  The  Old  Eed  Sandstone." 

in  such  abundance  as  to  constitute  nearly  the  entire  mass  of  the  parti- 
cular strata.  ...  In  some  counties,  he  will  perceive,  none 
of  these  remains  occur— for  instance,  in  Cornwall  and  the  Scotch 
Highlands ;  in  others  (as  in  the  south-eastern  counties  of  England) 
not  a  well  can  be  sunk,  or  a  pit  opened,  without  presenting  them  in 
abundance." 


100  HUGH  MILLER. 


The  articles  were  collected  and  published  in  the  form  of 
a  book  in  the  following  year.  Dick  purchased  a  copy, 
and  read  it  with  great  interest. 

He  immediately  set  to  work  to  investigate  the  geology 
of  Caithness.  He  again  wandered  over  it  from  one  end 
of  the  county  to  the  other.  But  his  best  findings  were 
near  Thurso.  Along  the  coast  there,  he  had  already 
found  fish  bones,  fish  heads,  fish  snouts,  fish  scales, 
sufficient  to  freight  a  large  ship.  But  he  had  never 
yet  found  an  entire  specimen.  At  last  he  succeeded ; 
and  then  began  his  correspondence  with  Hugh  Miller. 

He  did  not  know  Hugh  Miller ;  so  that  he  addressed 
him  through  an  intermediate  friend,  Mr.  Alexander 
Sinclair.  The  letter  is  dated  the  10th  of  March  1845. 
Dick  intimated  that  he  was  about  to  send  off  from 
Thurso  to  Leith,  by  the  "  Union  "  steamer,  a  number  of 
fossil  bones  fpr  Mr.  Miller.  He  said,  "  If  Mr.  M.  has 
seen  anything  similar  to  the  piece  No.  1,  with  the  tri- 
angular knob,  all  my  dreams  of  astonishing  the  geological 
world  by  something  new  are  in  a  measure  at  an  end ; 
for  'tis  not  alone  the  size  of  the  pieces  that  I  value,  but 
their  singularity. 

"  An  acquaintance  here  has  suggested  that  the  piece 
I  have  attempted  to  delineate  was  the  plate  that  covered 
the  lower  half  of  the  Coccosteus ;  but  in  this  I  find  it 
hard  to  agree,  for  I  have  two  lower  halves  of  Coccosteus 
tilted  over  on  their  backs,  and  they  are  not  at  all  like 
this  strange  piece.  The  lower  half  of  these  pieces  has 
no  triangular  knob  at  the  upper  end  in  the  centre  of  the 
plate.  Nor  will  it  do,  in  my  opinion,  to  say  that  per* 


CHAP.  ix.          A  HOLOPTYCHIUS  FOUND.  101 

haps  the  knob  and  the  rib-like  processes  were  separated 
from  the  centre  plate,  and  washed  away  before  it  was 
buried,  for,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  they  were  originally 
solidly  united  in  one  piece,  and  the  knob  could  not  even 
have  been  wrenched  away  without  leaving  a  mark 

"  Besides,  in  these  two  pieces  of  Coccosteus  cuspidatus 
alluded  to,  there  is  a  knot-like  bone,  with  a  long  stalk 
at  the  lower  end,  and  nothing  of  the  same  kind  in  the 
piece  now  sent.  If  this  piece,  strange  as  it  is,  was  in 
reality  the  lower  half  of  a  Coccosteus,  Mr.  Miller  must 
correct  his  description  when  he  speaks  of  it  as  one  plate 
or  piece,  save  the  two  small  side  pieces  that  '  fill  up  the 
angle.'  Mr.  Miller  knows  what  I  mean. 

"  I  am  pretty  confident  that  I  have  got  something 
new  to  geologists,  and  for  this  reason — rude  as  my 
sketch  of  the  fish  jaws  is — Mr.  Miller  must  know  them 
to  be  the  remains  of  a  Holoptychius." 

Five  days  later  (15th  March)  Mr.  Dick  again  writes 
to  Mr.  Miller : — "  Not  a  moment  shall  be  lost  in  sending 
you  by  steamer  those  curious  Old  Bones.  At  the  same 
time,  I  cannot  send  you  one  of  them — the  largest  piece 
— as  it  was  found ;  but  I  will  send  you  a  cast  of  it — a 
stucco  likeness  of  what  the  huge  buckler  was  when  it 
lay  in  the  bed  of  the  rock,  after  I  had  brought  it  to 
light  after  its  long  entombment." 

The  fossil  fish  found  by  Dick  was  indeed  a  discovery. 
The  frontal  plates  of  the  Holoptychius  measured  full 
sixteen  inches  across,  and  from  the  nape  of  the  neck  to 
a  little  above  the  place  of  the  eyes,  full  eighteen ;  while 
a  single  plate  belonging  to  the  lower  part  of  the  head 


102  BEGINNINGS  OF  GEOLOGY.         CHAP.  ix. 

measured  thirteen  and  a  half  inches  by  seven  and  a  half. 
Dick  was  rejoiced  to  find  that  Hugh  Miller  valued  the 
discovery  so  much,  and  that  he  complimented  him  on 
the  results  of  his  laborious  investigations. 

In  the  same  letter  in  which  he  communicated  the 
finding  of  the  fossil  Holoptychius,  Dick  described  to 
Hugh  Miller  the  beginning  of  his  geological  studies. 
He  had  been  long  wandering  about  Caithness,  making 
general  inquiries,  gathering  fossils,  finding  old  sea- 
beaches,  and  watching  the  grindings  made  by  icebergs 
on  the  rocks  j  but  now  he  had  begun  to  excavate  the 
rocks,  and  endeavoured  to  dissect  them  so  far  as  he 
could. 

"  I  never,"  he  said,  "  wielded  the  hammer  and  chisel 
until  last  spring — March  1844;  and  the  laying  bare  of 
the  large  fossil  (of  which  I  send  you  the  cast,  and  the 
remaining  fossjls)  was  one  of  my  first  exploits.  It  was 
about  the  vernal  equinox.  The  wind  blew  off  the  land. 
A  merry  sea  tripped  through  the  Pentland  Firth.  The 
tide  was  about  full.  The  waves  came  dashing  in  on  the 
rocky  shore,  in  long  rolling  billows,  scattering  in  spin- 
drift. 

"I  had  laid  the  large  plate  bare,  and  was  resting 
in  mute  astonishment  at  the  size  of  the  fossil— for  I 
measured  it  with  the  handle  of  the  hammer,  and  found 
it  fully  eighteen  inches  in  length — when  I  was  roused 
from  my  reverie  by  the  waves  dashing  against  my  feet. 
The  tide  was  now  coming  in !  What  was  I  to  do  ?  To 
raise  it,  stone  and  all,  was  impossible,  and  I  feared  that 
it  might  be  damaged  or  taken  away  if  I  left  it  until 


CHAP.  ix.  RAISES  THE  FOSSIL.  103 

next  evening.  There  was  no  time  to  deliberate.  The 
tide  was  nearly  up  to  the  stone. 

"I  then  attempted  to  lift  it  whole  out  of  its  bed, 
little  thinking,  in  my  ignorance,  of  the  extremely  brittle 
nature  of  petrified  bones.  Alas !  the  bone  broke  across ! 
I  gave  a  gasp,  and  cried  '  Oh !'  But  I  set  to  work  and 
lifted  the  rest  out,  and  put  the  whole  in  my  handker- 
chief. When  I  reached  home  they  were  a  mass  of 
broken  debris.  I  managed,  however,  to  put  the  bits 
together  again,  and  of  these  I  send  you  the  plaster 
cast. 

"  What  was  it  ?  was  it  really  a  Coccosteus,  six  feet 
long  including  the  tail  ?  What  do  you  think  I  imagined 
it  to  be  ?  Nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  gigantic  King 
Crab !  wanting  the  tail ;  eighteen  inches  one  way  and 
sixteen  inches  the  other.  I  wandered  through  Buck- 
land  in  vain,  and  then  believed  that  it  was  the  upper 
piece  of  a  Trilobite.  But  the  '  Old  Eed '  dissipated  all 
these  fancies. 

"  I  have  a  piece  or  two  of  fossil  bone  that  would 
puzzle  Agassiz  himself.  They  shall  all  be  sent  you. 
Whether  you  engrave  any  of  them  or  not,  you  are  on  no 
account  to  return  them.  They  would  never  see  the  light 
with  me. 

"  I  have  taken  note  of  what  you  say,  and  will  endea- 
vour to  comply  with  your  kind  suggestions  that  I  should 
make  further  searches.  ...  I  have  been  along  the  shore 
once  or  twice  already,  and  know  of  a  job  or  two — one  of 
them  rather  promising — a  bone,  as  long  as  my  finger,  is 
standing  out  of  an  impure  bituminous  limestone,  but 


104  MILLERS  ACKNOWLEDGMENT.        CHAP.  ix. 

what  the  bone  may  be  can  only  be  known  when  it  is 
dug  out." 

Hugh  Miller  afterwards  refers  to  the  circumstances 
under  which  Dick  sent  him  the  Holoptychius.  He 
says,  "  I  do  not  know  what  the  savans  of  Eussia  have 
been  doing  for  the  last  few  years ;  but  mainly  through 
the  labours  of  an  intelligent  tradesman  of  Thurso,  Mr. 
Kobert  Dick — one  of  those  working  men  .of  Scotland,  of 
active  curiosity  and  well-developed  intellect,  that  give 
character  and  standing  to  the  rest — I  am  enabled  to 
justify  the  classification  and  confirm  the  conjectures  of 
Agassiz.  Mr.  Dick,  after  acquainting  himself  in  the 
leisure  hours  of  a  laborious  profession  with  the  shells, 
insects,  and  plants  of  the  northern  locality  in  which  he 
resides,  had  set  himself  to  study  its  geology ;  and  with 
this  view  he  procured  a  copy  of  the  little  treatise  on  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone,  which  was  at  that  time,  as  Agassiz's 
monograph  of  the  Old  Eed  fishes  had  not  yet  appeared, 
the  only  work  specially  devoted  to  the  palaeontology  of 
the  system  so  largely  developed  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Thurso.  With  perhaps  a  single  exception — for  the 
Thurso  rocks  do  not  yet  seem  to  have  yielded  a  Pterich- 
thys — he  succeeded  in  finding  specimens,  in  a  state  of 
better  or  worse  keeping,  of  all  the  various  ichthyolites 
which  I  have  described  as  peculiar  to  the  Lower  Old 
Eed  Sandstone.  He  found,  however,  what  I  had  not 
described,  the  remains  of  apparently  a  very  gigantic 
ichthyolite;  and,  communicating  with  me  through  the 
medium  of  a  common  friend,  he  submitted  to  me,  in  the 
first  instance,  drawings  of  his  new  set  of  fossils ;  and 


CHAP.  ix.       WORKING  MEN  AND  GEOLOGY.  105 

ultimately,  as  I  could  arrive  at  no  satisfactory  conclu- 
sion from  the  drawings,  he  with  great  liberality  made 
over  to  me  the  fossils  themselves." 

With  reference  to  the  manual  labour  by  which  Dick 
earned  his  bread,  Hugh  Miller  says — "  There  is  no  work- 
ing man,  if  he  be  a  person  of  intelligence  and  informa- 
tion, however  unlearned,  in  the  vulgar  acceptation  of  the 
phrase,  who  may  not  derive  as  much  pleasure  and 
enlargement  of  ideas  from  the  study  of  geology,  and 
acquaint  himself  as  minutely  with  its  truths,  as  if  he 
were  possessed  of  all  the  learning  of  Bentley."  * 

In  a  subsequent  letter,  written  during  the  same  month, 
Dick  says — "We  have  gentlemen-geologists  here;  but 
not  one  of  them — though  they  have  been  many  years  in 
the  pursuit — have  a  single  piece  similar  to  those  I  send 
you.  They  have  repeatedly  gone  down  to  Thurso  East, 
and  returned  empty.  And  why  ?  For  this  simple  reason, 
that  they  were  afraid  to  fylef  their  trousers !" 

Certainly,  Dick  discovered  and  elucidated  many  things 
which  lie  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  common  men.  His 
indefatigable  industry  in  the  cause  of  science  enabled 
him  to  accomplish  much  more  than  thousands  of  men 
furnished  with  the  best  available  education,  and  with 
ample  means  and  time  at  their  command,  had  been  able 
to  achieve.  His  was  only  another  case  of  "  the  pursuit 
of  knowledge  under  difficulties." 

In  a  future  letter  to  Hugh  Miller  he  said—"  I  got 
your  enclosed  extract.  I  will  proceed  to  make  you  a 

*  Footprints  of  the  Creator,  pp.  25,  26  ;  Ed.  1876.  t  Dirty. 


106  THE  SCALDING  THEORY.          CHAP.  ix. 

map  of  Caithness.  As  to  the  dip  of  the  strata,  the 
geologists  are  right;  but  as  to  the  localities  of  the 
fossils,  they  are  greenhorns.  I  have  traced  all  the 
shores,  from  Ratter  on  the  east  to  Drumholiater  on  the 
west.  Some  beds  are  perfect  Museums  of  fish  heads  and 
bones.  I  will  send  you  some  coprolites  of  a  size  that 
will  make  you  doubt  if  they  really  have  been  voided  by 
fish.  Sometimes  I  think  larger  animals  must  have  in- 
habited the  sea  of  the  Old  Eed  Sandstone." 

On  the  8th  of  April  he  writes — "  In  your  outlines  of 
Mr.  Eose's  lecture,  in  your  last  paper  [the  Witness],  I 
find  a  more  rational  view  of  the  probable  use  of  the 
thick  coverings  of  the  animals  of  the  Old  Eed.  Dr. 
Buckland's  scalding  theory  always  appeared  to  me  to  be 
ludicrous,  and  not  in  keeping  with  facts.  Thus,  in  the 
same  strata  in  which  I  found  the  very  large  plate,  there 
were  scattered  ^promiscuously  scales  of  the  Osteolepis. 
You  know  how  thick  they  are,  and  you  now  also  know 
that  some  kind  of  animal  was  covered  with  mail  in 
snme  places  nearly  <m  inch  thick. 

"  Now,  there  is  no  proportion  between  the  protecting 
fi  igments  of  the  two  creatures ;  and  if  Buckland  was 
right  in  his  views,  it  must  have  been  as  perilous  for  poor 
Osteolepis  to  swim  side  by  side  with  Coccosteus  as  it 
would  be  for  a  modern  dandy  to  attempt  braving  the 
rigours  of  a  polar  winter  in  night-gown  and  slippers. 
The  heat  must  have  been  as  speedily  fatal  in  the  one 
instance  as  the  cold  would  be  in  the  other. 

"S  jvg  beneath  his  impenetrable  bone,  methinks  I  hear 
sa'j'y  '"/occo  laughing  at  poor  Osteolep,  and  ironically 


CHAP.  ix.        EYES  OF  THE  COCCOSTEUS.  107 

saying, '  Poor  fellow,  how  I  pity  you !  Why  don't  you 
put  on  more  clothes  ?  You  will  never  be  right  till  you 
get  a  thicker  jacket  to  keep  out  the  heat.'  'Well, 
Cocco,'  replies  his  comrade, '  I  am  very  warm  already. 
This  coat  of  mine  is  horrid  hot,  and  I  do  not  see  how  it 
would  mend  the  matter  to  put  on  another!'  This 
would  be  the  proper  answer  to  scalding  seas,  oceans  of 
hot  water,  and  fish  with  thick  coats  to  keep  out  the 
heat ! " 

From  this  time  forward  Eobert  Dick  sent  all  the  new 
fossils  that  he  found  to  Hugh  Miller  for  the  purpose  of 
illustrating  his  books  on  geology,  especially  that  describ- 
ing The  Old  Red  Sandstone.  He  sent  numerous  speci- 
mens of  the  Coccosteus,  the  Diplopterus,  the  Asterolepis, 
the  Dipterus,  the  Osteolepis,  the  Glyptolepis,  and  many 
other  remains  of  ancient  fishes,  now  found  only  in  a 
fossil  state.  In  1845,  he  sent  Hugh  Miller  the  first 
specimen  of  the  Coccosteus  minor,  which  he  had  found 
near  Thurso.  "  It  was  from  one  of  Mr.  Dick's  specimens 
of  this  species,"  says  Mr.  Miller,  "  that  I  first  determined 
the  true  position  of  the  eyes  of  the  Coccosteus — a  position 
which  some  of  my  lately  found  ichthyolites  conclusively 
demonstrate, — and  which  Agassiz,  in  his  restoration, 
deceived  by  ill-preserved  specimens,  has  fixed  at  a  point 
considerably  more  lateral  and  posterior,  and  where  eyes 
would  have  been  of  greatly  less  use  to  the  animal." 

In  his  future  editions  of  The  Old  Red  Sandstone 
Hugh  Miller  found  it  necessary  to  make  many  altera- 
tions in  the  text,  consequent  upon  the  observations  and 
discoveries  of  Robert  Dick.  In  his  preface  to  the  third 


108        HUGH  MILLER'S  MODIFICA  TIONS.     CHAP.  ix. 

edition,  published  in  1846,  Mr.  Miller  says  that  he  had 
found  it  necessary  to  make  a  good  many  additions  tc 
the  volume,  and  several  alterations  in  the  text,  where 
the  statements  appeared  to  require  modification. 

"  I  need  here,"  he  says,  "  refer  to  but  one  of  those  modi- 
fications ;  and  this  chiefly  that  I  may  have  an  opportu- 
nity of  acknowledging  my  obligations  to  the  meritorious 
individual  through  whose  kindness  I  have  been  furnished 
with  the  data  on  which  it  has  been  made.  It  was  stated 
in  the  two  former  editions  that  there  is  a  gradual  increase 
of  size  observable  in  the  progress  of  ichthyolitic  life, 
from  the  minute  fish  of  the  Silurian  System  up  to  the 
enormous  Holoptychius  of  the  Coal  Measures,  the  largest 
of  all  the  ganoids ;  and  that  the  Old  Eed  System,  whose 
lower  beds  border  on  the  deposits  of  the  Silurian  fish, 
and  upper  beds  on  those  of  the  gigantic  ganoid,  ex- 
hibited in  its  various  formations  this  gradation  of  bulk, 
beginning  with  an  age  of  dwarfs,  and  ending  with  an 
age  of  giants. 

"  Since  the  appearance  of  the  second  edition,  however, 
it  has  been  ascertained  that  there  were  giants  among 
the  dwarfs.  The  remains  of  one  of  the  largest  fish 
found  anywhere  in  the  system  have  been  discovered  in 
its  lowest  formation  near  Thurso  by  Mr.  Eobert  Dick, 
who,  by  devoting  his  leisure  hours  to  the  study  of 
geology,  in  a  singularly  rich  locality,  has  been  enabled 
to  add  not  a  few  interesting  facts  to  those  previously 
accumulated  truths  of  the  science  on  which  its  sounder 
theories  can  alone  be  erected,  and  who  has  kindly  placed 
at  my  disposal  his  collection  of  fossils.  And  the  positive 


CHAP.  ix.       THE  GIGANTIC  HOLOPTYCHIUS.          109 
/proof  which  they  furnish  has  convinced  me  that  the 


I  theory 


of  a  gradual  progression  in  size,  from  the  earlier 
to  the  later  Palaeozoic  formations,  though  based  originally 
on  no  inconsiderable  amount  of  negative  evidence,  must 
be  permitted  to  drop." 

He  afterwards  refers  to  the  comparatively  recent 
discovery  of  a  gigantic  Holoptychius  in  the  Lower  Old 
Red  Sandstone  of  Thurso  by  Mr.  Robert  Dick  of  that 
place.  "  It  bears  shrewdly,"  he  says,  "  against  the  line 
of  statement  in  the  text  of  the  book,  and  it  serves  to 
show  how  large  an  amount  of  negative  evidence  may  be 
dissipated  by  a  single  positive  fact,  and  to  inculcate  on 
the  geologist  the  necessity  of  cautious  induction."* 


*  Hugh  Miller's  Old  Red  Sandstone,  p.  176.     Ed.  1875. 
6* 


CHAPTER  X. 
GEOLOGY  OF  THE  COAST  NEAR  THURSO. 

A  CORRESPONDENCE  began  between  Eobert  Dick  and 
Hugh  Miller,  which  went  on  apace.  Nothing  would 
satisfy  Dick  but  an  early  visit  from  his  friend  to  see  the 
fossils  actually  lying  in  their  beds.  "I  have  some 
famous  things  for  you  to  see,"  said  Dick.  "  There  is  a 
head  of  Holoptychius,  which  I  have  left  for  you  to  pick 
out  for  yourself.  There  is  a  cranial  buckler  of  an 
Asterolepis,  which  I  want  you  to  see  in  its  proper  site. 
Come,  come  without  delay :  there  is  no  end  of  wonders 
here — no  end  of  (lead  fish.  Even  the  town  of  Thurso  is 


COAST   NEAR   THURSO. 


CHAP.  x.  THE  EAST  SHORE.  Ill 

built  of  dead  fish !"  In  the  meantime,  to  strengthen  hia 
invitation,  Dick  proceeded  to  sketch  in  words  the 
scenery  of  the  sea- shore  at  Thurso — east  and  west  of 
the  town.  He  gave  a  map  in  outline  of  the  coast,  in- 
dicating the  convolutions  of  the  headlands  and  the  dip 
of  the  rocks. 

"  Come,"  said  Dick,  on  the  8th  of  April  1845,  "  come, 
I  will  lead  the  way.  We  shall  go  round  the  east  shore 
in  the  direction  of  Murkle  Bay,  and  I  will  direct  your 
attention  to  a  few  of  the  varied  peculiarities  of  our 
rocky  path.  Though  the  tide  is  at  low  ebb,  we  must  go 
round  by  the  bridge,  for  the  wintry  spates  have  driven 
away  the  stepping  stones  across  the  river.  .  .  .  We 
go  on,  and  are  now  snuffing  the  sweet  sea-breeze,  and 
through  the  openings  of  the  land  we  see  the  fair  blue 
sea, — rippling  bright  in  the  morning  sun,  and  stretching 
far  away  into  worlds  of  wonders.  Behind  us  lies 
Scrabster  roadstead.  You  see  the  Bishop's  Palace,  and 
above  it  the  little  burying-ground  on  the  brink  of 
the  cliff,  sea-worn  and  ragged,  where  the  echoes  of 
the  murmuring  waves  sing  a  never-ending  requiem  to 
the  departed.  And  there  is  the  old  kirk;  and  there, 
almost  beneath  our  feet,  is  the  bed  of  the  river.  See, 
there  is  a  nearly  horizontal  bed  of  clayey  flagstone, 
highly  calcareous  and  charged  with  organic  remains — 
scales,  bones,  spines,  snouts  of  fish,  and  plants. 

"We  pass  onward.  On  the  beach  between  us  and 
Thurso  East  Castle  lies  a  moderate  heap  of  rolled  stones 
of  various  sizes,  and  could  they  be  bound  together  they 
form  a  fine  specimen  of  modern  conglomerate, 


112  THURSO  EAST. 


"  We  are  now  between  the  castle  and  the  sea,  and 
look !  yonder  lie  the  upper  beds,  which  dip  away  north 
and  a  little  west.  The  underlying  beds  are  beneath  our 
feet,  for  the  tempests  of  many  years  have  washed  away 
the  upper  surfaces  at  high- water  mark ;  but  the  under- 
lying strata  do  not  dip  in  the  same  direction  as  the 
overlying,  but  nearly  west,  in  fact  a  little  south-west. 
How  is  this  ?  Were  the  edges  of  the  underlying  beds 
turned  up  before  the  upper  were  thrown  down  ? 

"  We  go  on  for  about  a  gunshot,  and  come  upon  a 
noted  fault.  We  tread  on  the  edges  of  the  strata,  which 
dip  apparently  due  east  or  north-east.  Forty-eight 
paces  farther  on  we  meet  another  fault.  The  strata  here 
appear  to  dip  west.  We  tread  again  on  the  edges  of  the 
strata.  How  is  this  ?  These  are  the  underlying  beds. 
The  cliff  is  from  eight  to  nine  feet  high,  and  look!  yonder 
lie  the  upper  b$ds,  which  stretch  unbroken  out  to  sea. 
The  lower  beds  are  highly  charged  with  organic  remains, 
and  so  are  the  upper.  The  latter  is  bituminous  and  cal- 
careous, and  here  I  find  stout  bones,  droppings,  scales  of 
Holoptychius,  and  plates  with  warts  on  them. 

"  We  come  to  a  bit  burnie — a  little  brawling  noisy 
thing  in  the  month  of  April.  We  step  across,  and  are  now 
on  firm  rock,  highly  calcareous, — a  rude,  ill-cemented, 
cross-grained  piece  of  stuff,  which,  in  some  places,  re- 
minds me  of  the  riddlings  of  lime.  As  we  pass  on,  the 
fossiliferous  beds  are  on  our  right  hand  and  on  our  left. 
They  are  not  all '  calcareous  flag  beds,'  as  described  by 
Murchison.  Indeed,  none  of  them  resemble  the  ordinary 
which  are  sawn  into  pavement.  They  are  more 


CHAP.  x.  "  THE  MAN  IS  MAD."  113 

bituminous.  And  see !  here  is  a  bed  of  highly  siliceous 
stuff,  and  there  is  one  of  green  clay,  slightly  sandy.  On 
taking  a  decomposed  piece  in  the  hand,  and  rubbing  it 
between  the  fingers,  it  feels  greasy. 

"  We  are  now  among  the  low  reefs,  and  look !  there 
are  multitudes  of  black,  brilliant,  quadrangular  scales,  and 
numerous  remains  of  fish, — snouts  innumerable,  scales 
of  Holoptychius,  pieces  of  fish  jaws,  teeth,  spines,  bones, 
warty  plates,  and  even  plants.  A  little  round  the  point, 
almost  in  the  line  of  a  fault,  under  a  rock,  I  found  that 
enormously  big  plate  [of  the  Holoptychius],  thirteen  and 
a  half  inches  across. 

"  While  occupied  in  belabouring  the  rock  to  dig  it 
out,  I  was  so  meditative  and  so  wondrously  affected, 
that  some  '  town  bodies,'  not  understanding  my  object, 
looked  down  upon  me,  and  speaking  to  each  other  said, 
'That  man  is  mad!'  But  I  was  not  so  mad  as  they 
thought  me  to  be. 

"The  dip  is  nearly  north,  and  the  fossils  are  most 
abundant  in  the  beds  of  rock  close  in  with  the  land.  I 
march  on  over  the  remains  of  departed  days,  and  medi- 
tate among  the  tombs  of  deceased  millions  of  living 
creatures, — tombs  such  as  Hervey  never  dreamt  of.  As 
I  proceed,  I  pass  successively  cliffs  innumerable,  faults 
innumerable,  fossiliferous  beds  innumerable;  for  they 
occur  in  detached  patches,  and  are  to  be  seen  on  the 
very  brink  of  the  precipice.  The  sea  is  now  dashing  its 
billowy  spray  unceasingly,  and  along  the  outer  edge  of 
the  breakers  the  crested  cormorant  and  spotted  divei 
ply  their  ceaseless  vocation. 


114  FOSSILIFEROUS  BEDS.  CHAP.  x. 

"  The  cliffs  are  now  about  forty  feet  high.  The  bitu- 
minous bed  underneath  is  charged  with  the  remains  of 
fish.  I  used  to  wonder  how  the  bed  here,  after  running 
fifty  paces  or  so,  suddenly  became  much  harder  and 
highly  siliceous.  The  sea  has  worn  it  into  ruts — deep 
ruts — and  the  remains  of  fish  can  be  seen  peeping  out  of 
the  sides.  There  are  numerous  fossil  plants  here. 

"  On  we  go,  and  soon  tread  upon  a  highly  siliceous 
bed,  very  rugged,  and  worn  into  many  strange  shapes 
and  gnarled  knots.  A  little  after,  we  pass  a  fossiliferous 
bed,  charged,  as  usual,  with  fragments  of  fish.  In  a 
short  while,  we  meet  something  like  an  abrupt  wall  of 
rock  stretching  across  the  path,  over  which  we  must 
climb.  Once  up,  we  find  that  the  sea,  which  has  told 
on  every  bed  we  have  hitherto  passed,  has  made  no 
impression  here.  A  highly  siliceous  bed  stretches  from 
the  land  in  a  long  slope,  sheer  down  into  the  waves, 
nearly  as  entire'  as  it  was  thousands  of  years  ago,  when 
the  real  red  sandstone  beds — once  continuous  across  the 
Firth  from  Orkney  to  Caithness — lay  upon  it;  and  though 
the  billows  break  at  every  tide  with  tremendous  force, 
the  siliceous  bed  seems  to  lie  as  firm  and  unworn  as 
ever.  The  wildest  north-west  winds  that  ever  blew,  and 
all  the  rushing  force  of  the  dashing  waves,  have  availed 
but  little  in  shaking  the  foundations  or  even  abrading 
the  surface  of  this  hard  siliceous  rock. 

"No  bed  similar  to  this — neither  on  the  east  to 
Castlehill,  nor  on  the  west  to  Reay — is  to  be  seen  at  this 
part  of  the  coast.  The  beds  have  everywhere  been  broken 
down,  more  or  less. 


A  FINE  SEA   VIEW 


"  It  is  with  a  feeling  of  enjoyment  that  the  ardent 
admirer  of  Nature  contemplates  the  surrounding  pro- 
spect. The  view  is  grand !  On  the  right  is  Dunnet 
Bay,  with  a  schooner  or  two  in  the  offing,  beating  up 
the  Tentland  Firth.  Then  there  are  the  red  cliffs  of 
Dunnet  Head.  In  long  perspective,  adown  the  Pentland 
Firth,  we  see  the  white  waves  chafing  the  island  of 


Waas;  and  right  over,  in  solitary  state,  the  swelling 
Orkney  hills  and  the  Man  of  Hoy  close  the  distance. 
Westward  we  look  over  the  wide  main,  no  land  be- 
tween us  and  the  coast  of  Labrador.  To  the  left,  along 
the  land,  we  see  Holborn  Head  and  the  bay  of  Thurso, 
— a  complete  panorama. 

"  We  go  on,  and  pass  fossiliferous  beds,  when  we  are 
stopped  by  a  deep  gully  worn  by  the  waves,  over  which 


116  PUDDING  GYOE. 


it  is  impossible  to  leap.  We  therefore  climb  the  cliff, 
and  pass  along  the  grassy  bank  on  the  top.  The  rocky 
beds  there  assume  varied  appearances ;  faults  in  abun- 
dance ;  here  an  opening  to  the  sea,  there  an  irregular 
wall ;  until  we  reach  Pudding  Gyoe,  where  the  cliffs  are 
steeper,  and  the  sea  comes  closer  in. 

"  Pudding  Gyoe  is  a  hollow  cave,  worn  into  the  solid 
rock  by  the  ceaseless  grinding  of  the  sea.  The  entrance 
can  only  be  seen  when  the  tide  is  at  low  ebb.  The  water 
from  above  percolates  through  the  strata,  highly  charged 
with  lime,  so  that,  in  creeping  through  the  rocks  under- 
neath, it  has  formed  a  stalactitic  covering,  not  unlike  the 
entrails  of  a  cow,  or  cow's  puddings,  and  hence  the  name 
of  Pudding  Gyoe. 

"  There  is  an  old  tradition  of  a  piper  who  ventured 
'too  far  ben,'  and  ultimately  lost  himself;  and  many 
people,  good  people,  heard  him  long  long  after,  playing 
his  pipes  in  a  low  hollow  sound,  some  four  miles  up  the 
country. 

"  The  beds  have  hitherto  been  dipping  northerly ;  but 
at  a  small  distance  farther  on,  a  range  of  rocks  dips  east; 
then  there  is  a  most  notorious  fault.  The  strata  drop 
down  almost  on  end,  dipping  east.  You  then  enter 
Sandy  Bay. 

"  On  the  farther  side  you  come  to  more  fossiliferous 
rocks.  The  remains  are  invariably  the  same — quad- 
rangular scales,  scales  of  Holoptychius,  snouts  of  Diplo- 
pterus,  teeth,  warty  bones,  and  some  other  large  bones." 

Dick  resumes  the  subject  of  the  above  ramble  along 
the  north-eastern  coast  on  the  29th  of  April  1845. 


MURKLE  BA  Y.  117 


"  On  leaving  Sandy  Bay  and  moving  eastward  in  the 
direction  of  Murkle  Bay,  the  strata  continue  to  dip 
northerly.  We  shortly  come  upon  a  fault,  when  a  total 
change  in  the  direction  of  the  dip  takes  place.  It  is 
now  nearly  due  west  We  tread  upon  their  upturned 
edges,  and  are  soon  involved  in  the  mazes  of  a  wilder- 
ness of  broken  rocks.  Stones  of  every  shape,  size,  and 
description  are  lying  around,  as  if  a  multitude  of  men 
had  been  at  work  with  sledge  hammers,  and  left  the 
place  a  scene  of  the  rudest  confusion. 

"  The  truth  is,  the  sea  rolling  in  winter  and  summer 
across  the  strata,  in  placid  or  in  sullen  majesty,  or  in 
whirling  or  dashing  storms,  has  broken  but  not  removed 
this  mass  of  stony  wreck.  It  is,  nevertheless,  a  noted 
phenomenon  of  the  scenery. 

"  Murkle  Bay  owes  its  existence  to  a  noted  fault,  and, 
in  my  opinion,  every  little  inlet  or  bay  along  the  coast 
is  due  to  the  same  cause.  In  moving  round  the  sandy 
shore,  the  explorer  has  time  to  muse  on  the  sandstone 
cliffs  of  Dunnet,  now  distinctly  visible  across  the  waters ; 
and  the  dip  of  the  yellow  cliffs  can  be  seen  to  have  the 
same  general  strike  as  the  calcareous,  and  the  other  beds 
of  clay  he  has  just  left. 

"  At  the  eastern  inner  angle  of  Murkle  Bay  the  strata 
are  in  great  confusion — bent,  twisted,  contorted,  and 
dipping  in  various  directions.  Moving  on  a  little 
farther,  they  assume  the  usual  appearance  of  dipping 
away  in  the  direction  of  Dunnet  Head ;  and  here,  for  the 
last  time  in  this  direction,  the  explorer  detects  a  bed  of 
bituminous  calcareous  slates,  full  of  organic  remains. 


118  HAMMERING  TILL  MOONLIGHT.     CHAP.  x. 

They  crop  out  between  two  dissimilar  beds,  and  many 
warty  and  other  bones  are  to  be  found  here."  .... 

Dick  then  proceeds  onwards  to  Dunnet  sands  and 
Dunnet  cliffs,  which  have  already  been  described. 
During  the  same  evening  on  which  he  begins  the  above 
description,  he  proceeds  to  geologise  on  the  west  shore 
of  Thurso.  He  says : — "  Shouldering  an  old  poker,  a  four- 
pound  hammer,  and  with  two  chisels  in  my  pockets,  I 
set  out  for  the  burn  of  Scrabster.  After  a  great  deal  of 
hammering,  I  found  no  end  of  young  Coccosteus.  I  might 
have  filled  a  barrel  with  them,  but  they  were  all  broken. 
What  hammering!  what  sweating!  Coat  off:  got  my 
hands  cut  to  bleeding.  Found  a  very  hard  bituminous 
bed.  It  rings  like  a  piece  of  metal.  What  pokering ! 
Got  three  or  four  fish,  not  much  worth.  Don't  think 
them  new.  Found  a  plant.  Found  scales  of  Holopty- 
chius.  Wrought  on  till  the  moon  shone  clear  in  the 
water  of  the  burn.  Returned  home  at  twenty  minutes 
past  ten." 

The  correspondence  between  Robert  Dick  and  Hugh 
Miller  proceeds.  Dick  tells  his  correspondent  of  all  his 
findings  of  fossils.  Everything  he  collects  is  immediately 
sent  to  the  Witness  office  at  Edinburgh.  Dick  had  many 
wanderings  for  the  purpose  of  finding  the  richest  fossil 
districts  near  Thurso  before  Hugh  Miller's  visit.  Hav- 
ing described  the  sea-shore  to  the  east  of  Thurso;  he 
next  proceeded  to  describe  the  sea-shore  to  the  west  of 
Thurso.  He  begins  his  letter  of  the  4th  of  May  1845 
by  quoting  the  stanza  from  Byron's  Childe  Harold, 
beginning — 


CHAP.  x.  VIEW  FROM  THURSO  BAY.  119 

" '  He  that  has  sailed  upon  the  deep  blue  sea 
Has  viewed  at  times,  I  ween,  a  full  fair  sight.' 

"  Such,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  "  is  Byron's  beautiful  descrip- 
tion of  a  scene  at  sea ;  and  such  has  often  been  my  own 
feeling,  when,  at  evening's  hour,  my  steps  have  measured 
the  beach  that  lies  spread  out  so  temptingly  fair  between 
this  little  town  and  its  beautiful  bay.  For,  'tis  not 
unusual,  in  the  month  of  May,  to  observe,  out  in  the 
Firth,  some  eight  or  ten  large  vessels  with  '  every  white 
sail  set,'  '  curling  the  waves  before  each  dashing  prow.' " 

But  Dick  had  not  gone  down  to  look  at  the  beauti- 
ful bay  and  the  passing  ships,  or  at  Dunnet  Head  and 
Hoy  Head,  with  the  setting  sun  glinting  along  their 
sides,  throwing  out  their  rocky  projections,  and  leaving 
their  hollows  and  gyoes  in  the  shade.  No !  He  had 
gone  down  to  the  coast  "  geologically  bent."  He  wan- 
dered westward  on  the  sand  and  then  on  the  rocks, 
hammer  in  hand,  ready  to  strike  a  blow,  or  any  number 
of  blows,  for  the  honour  of  science. 

"  Passing  on,"  he  says,  "  I  walk  over  a  bed  of  loose 
sand  smoothed  and  levelled  by  the  tide,  and  after  a  time 
I  reach  the  solid  rocks,  of  a  bluish-grey  cast,  and  dip- 
ping northerly,  with  a  little  of  west.  The  first  beds  I 
meet  are  not  decidedly  fossiliferous,  though  a  few  scales 
and  droppings  may  be  found.  A  little  farther  on  I  see 
some  warty  bones,  and  still  farther,  there  is  a  bed 
decidedly  charged  with  organic  remains.  Pieces  of  fish 
jaws,  bones,  and  tail-half  plates  of  Coccosteus,  are  seen 
in  considerable  numbers. 

"  Moving  on,  I  reach  an  opener  space,  strewed  with 


120  AN  OLD  BURYING-GROUND.          CHAP,  x, 

fragments  of  a  dark  blue  flag,  charged,  more  or  less. 
with  organisms.  Some  very  fine  fossil  fish  have  been 
found  there.  I  next  come  in  sight  of  the  human  bury- 
ing-ground  on  the  top  of  the  bank,  as  distinguished  from 
the  fish  burying-ground  on  the  rocks  underneath. 

"  The  family  to  which  the  burying-ground  belonged, 
though  once  numbering  among  the  Caithness  aristocracy, 
have  experienced  a  sad  reverse.  The  last  of  the  race  is 
now  toiling  for  his  bread  in  a  foreign  land.  Yet,  one 
cannot  help  heaving  a  sigh  in  passing,  to  think  that 
through  his  follies  and  imprudence,  the  dust  of  his 
fathers  should  be  exposed  to  the  contempt  of  passers-by. 
The  door  of  their  sepulchre  is  battered  to  pieces,  and  the 
ground  is  overspread  with  dank  nettles  and  hemlocks, 
and  other  abominations. 

"  It  must  surely  have  been  a  refined,  a  poetic  feeling, 
which  prompted  the  founder  of  the  burying-ground  to 
pitch  it  in  such*  *a  spot, — close  by  the  murmuring  sea — 
the  image  of  eternity.  He  thought  to  have  slept  in 
undisturbed  security.  Yet  the  sea  is  already  under- 
mining the  graveyard,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  the 
rock  on  which  the  family  vault  stands  may  itself  be 
washed  away,  and  the  dust  of  the  dead  be  driven  hither 
and  thither  by  the  wasting  and  unfeeling  waves. 

"  A  little  past  the  burying-ground,  and  on  the  beach. 
I  find  a  change  in  the  dip  of  the  strata.  The  beds  dip 
east,  though  almost  immediately  thereafter  they  return 
to  their  former  dip — namely  northerly,  with  a  little  of 
west ;  and  continue  so  until  we  arrive  at  the  Bishop's 
Palace,  where  yellowish,  whitish,  and  striped  beds  of 


CHAP.  x.  THE  BISHOPS  PALACE.  121 

sandstone  prevail.  The  beds  on  which  the  ruined  palace 
stands  are  reddish  and  yellowish  looking,  and  dip  in  the 
same  direction. 

"  The  ruins  of  the  palace  occupy  an  interesting  spot. 


RCINS  OF  BISHOP'S   PALACE  AND   8CRABSTER  ROADS. 

It  must  have  been  selected  by  one  possessed  of  a  true 
relish  for  the  beauties  of  nature.  On  the  south-east  side 
you  observe  a  wide  circular  hollow  of  land,  swelling 
gently  up  to  the  heath-clad  hill  of  Forss.  The  headland, 
running  round  towards  the  north,  breaks  the  force  of 
the  western  storms.  On  the  east  there  is  a  series  of 


122  THE  RUINED  PALACE.  CHAP.  x. 

swelling  uplands.  Looking  seaward  the  prospect  is 
grand.  Towards  the  north,  the  Orkneys  are  seen  in 
the  distance,  with  the  Man  of  Hoy  standing  out  to  sea. 
Nearer,  Dunnet  cliffs  are  observed  boldly  fronting  the 
Pentland  Firth;  and  the  eye  aches  in  its  inability  to 
penetrate  the  mystery  beyond. 

"  I  can  well  imagine  the  warm,  sunny,  summer  even- 
ings of  bygone  days,  when  the  bishop  would  sit  watch- 
ing the  rippling  waters,  or  gazing  at  the  last  beams  of 
the  setting  sun,  going  down  behind  the  world  of  waters 
in  a  blaze  of  crimson  and  gold ! 

"  Sixteen  years  ago,  I  remember  making  an  attempt 
to  explore  the  inner  recesses  of  the  ruined  palace.  I 
entered  the  cave  underneath  with  a  lighted  candle ;  but 
I  found  it  utterly  impracticable  to  make  my  way  without 
pick  and  spade.  There  is  a  low  door,  which  seems 
to  lead  to  subterraneous  chambers ;  but  the  passage  is 
choked  with  rubtish. 

"  The  little  burn  of  Scrabster  runs  round  the  rock, 
entering  the  sea  at  its  north-west  side.  The  water  would 
be  useful  to  the  castle  inmates.  I  have  sometimes  seen 
sailors  ashore  filling  their  barrels  there. 

"  Close  beside  the  burn,  a  ridge  of  clay  occurs,  and 
sweeping  round  Scrabster  Bay  it  rises  in  some  places  to 
about  a  hundred  feet.  It  is  blue  and  full  of  stones  of 
various  sizes.  I  have  often  been  astonished  at  its  appear- 
ance, and  wondered  where  it  could  have  come  from. 
Some  call  it  boulder  clay,  and  say  that  it  is  similar  to 
what  skirts  the  base  of  some  of  the  Alpine  mountains. 
It  may  be  a  Moraine.  It  seems  to  fill  an  irregular 


CHAP.  x.  THE  DEWS  BRIG.  123 

hollow.  The  bare  rocks  are  through  the  soil  on  the  hill- 
top, immediately  behind.  Can  it  really  be  that  those 
hill-tops,  now  so  insignificant,  once  towered  above  the 
clouds,  capped  in  snow,  bound  up  in  ice,  and  that  they 
have  gradually  mouldered  away  down  to  their  present 
elevation  of  a  few  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea. 

"Low  down,  at  the  Coastguard  house,  beneath  a 
weight  of  clay,  the  strata  crop  out,  and  are  at  first 
slightly  charged  with  organisms.  A  little  farther  on  I 
find  beds  charged  with  warty  bones ;  and  the  strata  dip 
northerly.  Then  there  is  a  fault,  the  strata  are  in 
confusion,  and  dip  westerly.  They  then  become  nearly 
horizontal,  and  continue  so  until  the  extreme  end  of 
Holborn  Head  ;  where  I  find  them  slaty,  and  highly 
calcareous,  bituminous,  and  containing  many  remains  of 
fish. 

"  There  is  a  noted  fault  to  be  seen  almost  atop  of  the 
point  of  the  promontory.  The  strata  slope  in  different 
directions.  They  are  bent,  twisted,  contorted,  and  in 
great  confusion.  At  one  place,  they  are  quite  on  end. 
What  a  subterraneous  convulsion  there  must  have  been 
here  at  one  time ! 

"  We  pass  along,  and  walk  over  the  Deil's  Brig.  The 
sea  washes  underneath.  It  is  one  of  the  great  goes,  or 
gyoes,  which  abound  along  the  coast.  In  stormy 
weather,  the  sea  drives  into  it  with  overpowering  force, 
and  sends  clouds  of  spray  far  inland.  The  Brig  clearly 
shows  the  hard  clay-flag  of  which  the  headland  is 
composed. 


124  THE  CLETT. 


"  Then  we  come  to  that  very  singular  rock,  THE 
CLETT.  Who,  in  reading  about  Caithness,  has  not 
heard  of  Thurso  Clett?  In  fact,  it  is  our  great  lion.  The 
Clett  is  an  oblong  rock  of  calcareous  slate  of  about  100 
feet  high.  It  has  been  separated  by  the  action  of  the 
sea  from  the  adjoining  mainland.  It  is  the  resort,  in 
summer,  of  innumerable  sea-birds,  who  breed  on  the 
ledges  of  the  cliffs.  When  sitting  on  end,  in  rows,  they 
have  not  inaptly  been  compared  to  rows  of  bottles  in  an 
apothecary's  shop. 

"  Passing  on,  the  cliffs  begin  to  rise  until  we  reach  a 
monument  of  white  sandstone,  erected  to  the  memory  of 
Captain  M.  A.  Slater,  who,  it  is  said,  either  fell  down  or 
threw  himself  down  the  precipice,  and  was  never  after- 
wards heard  of.* 

"  A  very  little  past  the  monument  we  meet  a  kind  of 
a  ditch,  with  a,,  very  little  water  trickling  over  the  slates 
at  its  bottom.  In  these  slates  are  fish ;  fish  without  end, 
but  very  rotten.  Going  on  a  little  farther,  we  come  to 
a,  spot  of  rocks  washed  bare  by  the  wintry  storms  and 
ihe  dashing  sea-spray.  There  we  find  a  patch  of  calca- 
reous slates  full  of  fish !  The  flags  are  for  the  most  part 
much  decayed ;  and  the  fish  themselves  have  long  been 
dead  and  decayed,  and  their  scales  and  head  bones  had 
lain  scattered  about,  ere  the  limy  mud  and  dust  wrapped 
them  up. 

*  It  is  said  that  the  monument  is  a  sham.  The  horse  on  which 
Captain  Slater  was  mounted,  galloped  back  into  Thurso  without  its 
rider  ;  but  it  is  said  that  Captain  Slater  was  afterwards  seen  in  Aus- 
tralia. Jealousy  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  affair. 


THE  DEIL'S  BRIG  :  HOLBORN  HEAD. 


CHAP.  x.  HOLBORN  HEAD.  125 

"  This  fish  bed  reminds  me  very  much  of  the  fish  bed 
at  Weydale,  a  few  miles  south  of  Thurso.  The  fish  are 
of  the  same  species.  I  remember  very  well  hiring  a 
flagman,  and  toiling  with  him  half  a  day,  and  all  that 
we  gathered  was  two  fossil  fish  out  of  some  hundreds  of 
broken  worthless  stuff. 

"  Beyond  the  ditch  the  cliffs  rise  again,  and  continue 
of  the  same  height — about  190  feet;  and  then  they 
swell  up  suddenly  about  ten  feet  more,  into  a  sort  of 
round  hill.  From  thence  the  cliffs  gradually  fall,  and 
slope  away  down  to  Brims.  Before  arriving  there  we 
find  a  bed  of  calcareous  slates,  of  noted  appearance,  full 
of  the  remains  of  fish,  snouts  of  Diplopterus,  jaws, 
scales,  and  warty  bones.  Westward  of  the  house  of 
Brims,  there  is  the  same  appearance  of  fish  remains 
amongst  bituminous  rocks. 

"  The  strata  west  of  Brims  are  well  worthy  the 
inspection  of  the  geologist,  on  account  of  the  very  extra- 
ordinary position  many  of  them  assume.  Their  appear- 
ance is  singular  in  the  extreme." 

Holborn  Head,  and  the  rocks  beyond,  continued  to  be 
a  favourite  haunt  of  our  geologist.  He  not  only  haunted 
the  top  of  the  cliffs,  but  by  a  difficult  and  dangerous 
path  descended  to  the  rocks  underneath  them.  He 
resolved  that  nothing  should  remain  concealed  where 
the  pick  and  chisel  could  reach  them.  "Determined," 
he  says,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Hugh  Miller,  dated  the 
6th  of  May,  only  two  days  after  the  above  inspection, 
"  to  put  down  nothing  but  what  I  had  seen  with  my 
own  eyes,  I  started  this  evening  at  seven  o'clock ;  and 


126  REGIONS  OF  THE  DEAD.  CHAP.  x. 

walking  double-quick  time,  I  reached  the  extreme  point 
of  Holborn  Head  at  a  little  after  eight.  By  this  time 
the  sun  had  set,  and  I  felt  it  cruel  cold.  But  I  had 
scarcely  set  my  foot  upon  the  bare  slates  ere  I  picked  up 
a.  very  stout  piece  of  fish  bone,  about  seven  inches  in 
length.  I  also  found  a  warty  bone,  a  piece  of  fossil 
wood,  a  scale  of  Holoptychius ;  and  I  left  two  pieces 
sticking  in  the  flags  until  to-morrow,  when,  if  I  can,  I 
will  hammer  them  out.  These  will  be  sent  to  you,  not 
so  much  for  their  value,  as  because  of  their  being  found 
at  the  extreme  point  of  the  promontory.  .  .  .  And  yet  I 
was  told  by  Mr.  Manson  that  nothing  was  to  be  got 
there." 

On  the  12th  of  May  following,  he  proceeds — 

"  '  To  the  regions  of  the  dead 
Long  and  painful  is  the  way ! ' 

"  I  have  thought  that  this  ought  to  be  reversed,  more 
especially  in  the  case  of  poor  geological  bone-hunters ; 
for  it  is  not  when  a  man  sets  out  on  his  journey  '  to  the 
regions  of  the  dead,'  full  of  hope  and  strong  in  spirit, 
that  he  is  inclined  to  feel  the  way  long.  No;  even 
though  he  has  3  pounds  of  iron  chisels  in  his  trousers 
pocket,  a  4-pound  hammer  in  one  hand,  and  a  14-pound 
smiddy  forehammer  in  the  other;  and  his  old  beaver 
hat  filled  with  paper  and  twine.  Away  he  speeds — 

"  '  The  folk  still  thinking  as  before 
That  Gilpin  rode  a  race,' 

Nor  does  he  halt,  nor  lag,  nor  look  behind,  till  fairly 
hammering  at  the  blue  slate. 


HOLBORN  CLIFFS.  127 


"  But  the  matter  is  sadly  altered  when,  after  playing 
for  some  three  hours  at  Blind  Man's  Buff,  he  looks  round 
and  finds  that  the  sun  has  gone  down,  that  a  cold  wind 
is  whistling  along  the  crags,  that  'gloomy  night  is 
gathering  fast,'  and  that  he  finds  he  must  begone  1 
When  he  looks  at  the  result  of  his  toil,  he  is  forced  to 
sigh  at  its  very  meagreness  when  contrasted  with  his 
splendid  opening  dreams.  Then,  with  a  shrug  of  his 
shoulders,  he  trusses  up  his  burden,  whistles  '  o'er  the 
lave  o't,'  speeds  up  the  brow  of  the  hill,  and  sees  before 
him  the  six  or  eight  miles  that  he  has  to  walk  between 
him  and  his  home, — then  it  is  that  he  desponds,  and 
sighs — 

"  '  From  the  regions  of  the  dead 
Long  and  painful  is  the  way.' 

"  As  intimated  in  my  last  palaver,  I  returned  to  Hoi- 
born  Head,  and  after  digging  out  the  two  pieces  of  bone 
left  by  me  on  the  previous  night,  I  explored  a  little 
longer,  and  found  the  pieces  of  very  stout  bones  sketched 
on  the  other  side.  [Six  pieces  of  fossil  bone  are  sketched 
in  pencil — one  is  the  '  tail  half  of  the  Coccosteus,'  two 
are  warty  bones.]  These  are  all  taken  from  the  point 
of  the  promontory.  I  think  they  must  have  belonged 
to  some  very  large  fish,  similar  to  those  which  had  the 
very  thick  skull-caps,  found  at  Thurso  East." 

With  respect  to  the  cliffs  of  Holborn  Head,  he  says — 
"  They  are  rugged  and  fearful-looking  in  many  places. 
They  are  hollowed  out  by  the  winter  tempests.  The 
whole  force  of  the  North  Sea  breaks  in  violently  upon 
the  rocks,  while  a  strong  tide  runs  continually  eithei 


128  GETTING  DOWN  THE  CRAGS.        CHAP.  x. 

east  or  west.  So  that  one  might  almost  prophesy  death 
and  ruin  to  Holhorn  Head.  In  that  case,  the  tide  must 
rise  considerably  higher  in  Thurso,  for  the  Head  has  a 
great  effect  in  turning  aside  the  flood,  and  throwing  it 
back  into  the  open  firth. 

"  Fearful  as  the  crags  seem,  there  is  a  possibility  of 
getting  down  at  one  particular  spot.  I  have  been  down 
there.  I  intend  to  go  down  again.  I  should  be  enrap- 
tured to  find  a  fish  head  in  such  a  place,  or  even  a  piece 
of  jaw." 


CHAPTEE  XL 

HUGH  MILLER  VISITS  DICK. 

ROBERT  DICK,  by  dint  of  continuous  industry,  was  gra- 
dually acquiring  a  notion  of  Caithness  geology.  His 
knowledge  was  for  the  most  part  derived  from  direct 
personal  observation.  He  never  accepted  a  statement 
without  having  verified  it  himself.  He  saw  with  no 
man's  eyes  but  his  own;  he  thought  with  no  man's 
brains  but  his  own.  Thus  what  he  did  know  was  thor- 
oughly exact,  accurate,  and  reliable. 

As  you  proceed  from  letter  to  letter,  in  his  communi- 
cations with  Hugh  Miller,  you  see  him  unlearning  his 
old  views  and  learning  new  ones.  Every  ramble  throws 
some  new  light  on  the  geology  of  Caithness.  He  notes 
down  everything  that  he  sees.  About  the  dip  of  Caithness 
rocks,  his  observations  are  for  the  most  part  at  variance 
with  the  views  of  his  "superiors,"  his  "masters  in 
geology."  Nevertheless,  he  notes  down  his  own  facts, 
and  no  doubt  they  will  by  and  by  be  confirmed  and 
adopted. 

He  was  very  cautious  in  adopting  conclusions.  He 
must  first  be  quite  sure  of  the  premises.  He  found  many 
writers  on  geology  starting  with  a  theory  and  then  mak- 
ing the  so-called  facts  fit  into  the  theory.  "  Here  has 


130  FACTS  VERSUS  THEORY.  CHAP.  xi. 

been  some  one  writing  upon  the  geology  of  Caithness," 
he  said.  "  His  writing  is  very  good,  but  his  premises 
are  incorrect.  He  cannot  have  seen  the  rocks,  except 
from  a  gig,  when  he  passed  along  the  road ;  and  now  he 
drags  them  in  to  elucidate  his  theory.  When  I  want  tc 
know  what  a  rock  is,  I  go  to  it.  I  hammer  it ;  I  dissect 
it.  I  then  know  what  it  really  is.  I  object  to  this 
eternal  theorising.  My  idea  is  that  we  know  very  little 
of  geology,  yet  these  men  have  got  it  dignified  by  the 
name  of  a  science.  The  science  of  geology!  Why, 
don't  they  see  that  there  are  only  a  very  few  exposed 
rocks  which  we  can  study.  It  is  only  a  small  bit  of 
the  crust  of  the  earth  that  we  can  inspect.  What  are 
the  rocks  that  we  can  see,  compared  with  the  immense 
mass  lying  underground,  or  forming  the  ocean  bed, 
which  we  can  never  see  ?  No,  no ;  we  must  just  work 
patiently  on,  colled  facts,  and  in  course  of  time  geology 
may  develop  into  a  science." 

Dick  even  found  that  some  of  the  fossil  fish  and 
fossil  branches  that  he  had  found  in  the  course  of  his 
investigations  were  turned  against  himself.  He  had 
sent  a  fossil  branch,  which  had  been  found  in  a  Caith- 
ness quarry,  to  a  friend  in  the  south,  thinking  it  to  be 
of  value.  He  was  afterwards  surprised  to  find  an 
engraving  of  the  fossil  branch  given  in  a  geological  pub- 
lication, with  an  amount  of  letterpress,  arguing  out  a 
theory  which  Dick  had  expressed  himself  as  decidedly 
opposed  to.  Not  only  was  the  theory  incorrect,  but  the 
fossil  was  misengraved,  having  received  additions  which 
were  not  warranted,  and  illustrated  by  sections  which 


CHAP.  xr.          ORIGIN  OF  FOSSIL  FISHES.  131 

in  his  opinion  were  impossible.  In  short,  it  was  twisted, 
like  many  a  fact,  to  suit  a  theory,  and  Dick  was  in- 
dignant that  a  fossil  furnished  by  himself  should  be 
used  for  such  a  purpose. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Dick's  first  study  in  geology 
consisted  in  observing  the  dip  of  the  strata  round  the 
Thurso  coast,  from  Dunnet  Head  to  the  end  of  the  Hoi- 
born  rocks.  He  did  this  with  great  care,  and  indicated 
the  faults,  disturbances,  and  fossiliferous  rocks,  with 
their  various  dips,  in  the  letter  he  sent  to  Hugh  Miller 
in  April  1845.  He  found  many  of  the  rocks  abounding 
in  dead  fish,  quantities  of  scales,  heads,  bucklers,  and 
fossil  fish,  sometimes  in  great  confusion.  Sometimes  he 
found  them  in  abundance  on  the  top  of  the  highest  rocks 
at  Holborn  Head.  How  came  they  there  ? 

This  led  him  into  a  consideration  of  the  causes  of  the 
abundance  of  dead  fish  in  a  fossil  state  on  the  shores  of 
Caithness.  It  was  clear  that  the  northern  part  of  the 
county,  where  the  fossil  fish  so  abundantly  exist,  had  at 
one  time  been  entirely  under  the  sea.  It  had  formed  part 
of  the  bed  of  the  ocean.  An  upheaval  of  the  bed 
occurred,  when  or  how  was  not  known.  The  multitude  of 
fishes  were  caught  as  in  a  trap.  They  were  smothered 
amidst  thin  clay.  They  died  in  agonies.  Hugh  Miller 
says — "  The  figures  of  the  fossil  fish  are  contorted,  con- 
tracted, curved ;  the  tail  in  many  instances  is  bent  round 
to  the  head,  the  spines  stick  out,  the  fins  are  spread  to 
the  full,  as  in  fishes  that  die  in  convulsions.  The  atti- 
tudes of  all  the  Ichthyolites  on  the  platform  of  death,  are 
attitudes  of  fear,  anger,  and  pain." 


132  CAITHNESS  FLAGSTONES.          CHAP,  xi 

The  clay  formed,  layer  upon  layer,  on  the  fishes,  and 
was  transformed  by  pressure  into  flagstones.  The  pro- 
cess of  depression  and  elevation  may  have  been  repeat- 
edly performed,  but  every  elevation  brought  up  from  the 
sea  bottom  dead  fish  without  end.  In  fact,  the  commer- 
cial value  of  Caithness  flags  consists  in  the  amount  of 
dead  fish  they  contain.  "  Thurso  is  built  of  dead  fish," 
said  Eobert  Dick ;  "  and  the  capitalists  and  labourers 
are  also  maintained  by  the  same  article." 

Sir  Roderick  Murchison  says  of  the  flagstones  of 
Caithness,  "  that  they  are  highly  valuable  for  many  uses, 
and  must  prove  eminently  durable  from  the  nature  of 
their  composition.  Their  well-known  durability  is  attri- 
butable, in  part,  to  the  large  amount  of  bitumen  they 
contain,  which  has  been  produced  by  the  abundance  of 
fishes  which  existed  at  the  time  those  rocks  were  depo- 
sited, the  fossil  remains  of  which  still  abound.  Tar  and 
gas  may  be  distilled  from  them."  Hugh  Miller  also  says 
— "  The  animal  matter  of  the  Caithness  Ichthyolites  is  a 
hard,  black,  insoluble  bitumen,  which  I  have  used  more 
than  once  as  sealing-wax." 

But  the  geological  formation  of  Caithness  was  still 
in  progress.  These  dead  fishes  existed  long  before  the 
appearance  of  man  on  the  earth.  If  we  stretch  our  view 
over,  long  intervals,  it  will  be  found  that,  in  consequence 
of  the  depression  of  one  portion  of  the  earth's  crust, 
and  the  elevation  of  another,  what  has  at  one  time  been 
dry  land  becomes  covered  with  sea ;  and  what  has  at 
one  time  been  sea,  at  another  becomes  dry  land;  and 
that,  partly  in  consequence  of  the  eccentricity  of  the 


GLACIER  ACTION.  133 


earth's  motions,  and  partly  in  consequence  of  the  shift- 
ing distribution  of  land  and  sea,  what  at  one  time  has 
been  tropical,  at  another  becomes  arctic,  and  what  at  one 
time  has  been  arctic,  at  another  becomes  tropical. 

Astronomers  tell  us  that  more  than  200,000  years 
ago,  the  earth  was  so  placed  in  regard  to  the  sun,  that  a 
series  of  physical  changes  was  induced,  which  eventually 
resulted  in  conferring  upon  our  hemisphere  a  most 
intensely  severe  climate.*  All  the  northern  lands  of 
Europe  were  then  covered  with  a  thick  crust  of  ice 
and  snow.  The  climate  of  England  and  Scotland  was 
what  Greenland  is  now. 

Glaciers,  laden  with  boulders,  some  torn  from  the 
rocks  on  which  they  rested,  some  fallen  from  over- 
hanging heights,  flowed  down  the  valleys,  leaving  their 
ice-tracks  along  the  sides  of  the  hills.  When  the 
glaciers  melted,  they  dropped  the  boulders  which  they 
contained,  either  on  the  land,  or  in  the  sea,  far  away 
from  the  place  from  which  they  had  been  reft  from  the 
rocks.  Then  was  laid  down  the  boulder  clay,  con- 
sisting of  an  agglomeration  of  ground-down  rocks  of 
various  kinds,  old  red  sandstone,  chalk,  or  coal,  inter- 
spersed with  boulders,  pebbles,  and  sometimes  shells. 

There  must  have  been  constantly  recurring  alterna- 
tions of  climate,  from  arctic  frost  to  tropical  heat,  though 
separated,  it  might  be,  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years, 
before  the  dry  land  was  prepared  for  the  occupation  of 
man.  Again,  every  bed  of  coal  presumes  an  elevation 
of  the  land,  and  a  subsequent  depression.  Near  New- 

*  Geikie's  Great  Ice  Age,  p.  561. 
7* 


DICK'S  FINDINGS. 


castle,  there  are  numbers  of  these  beds,  some  of  them 
from  eight  to  ten  feet  thick.  These  successive  beds  of 
coal  consist  of  the  remains  of  peat  mosses,  ferns,  jungle, 
cypress  swamps,  and  forest  growths.  They  were  either 
submerged  where  they  grew,  or  were  drifted  into  seas  of 
deposit.  When  compressed  by  the  superincumbent  strata 
of  sandstones,  limestones,  shales,  mudstones,  and  iron- 
stones, they  formed  the  coal  fields  of  every  country. 
Then,  at  last,  the  present  land  and  the  present  sea  took 
their  places,  and  man  entered  on  the  scene. 

Full  of  curiosity,  or  perhaps  full  of  the  desire  for 
knowledge,  Dick  proceeded,  in  course  of  time,  to  look 
into  the  geologic  formations  of  the  ground  on  which  he 
lived.  He  dug  into  the  rocks,  inquired  into  the  nature 
of  the  soil,  and  found  many  things  which  excited  his 
surprise  and  his  wonder.  He  found  many  dead  things 
under  his  feet — dead  foliage,  dead  ferns,  dead  seaweed, 
dead  fish,  the  dead  remnants  of  chaos. 

Such  was  the  subject  on  which  Robert  Dick  was  now 
spending  the  remnants  of  his  spare  time.  He  not  only 
spent  his  days  but  his  nights  in  his  search  for  dead 
objects.  He  himself  was  not  before  the  public,  but  Hugh 
Miller  was.  Hugh  was  the  editor  of  the  Witness  news- 
paper, in  which  he  entered  all  that  he  knew  about  geolo- 
gical matters.  Accordingly  Dick  sent  all  that  he  dis- 
covered during  his  rambles  to  his  friend  at  Edinburgh. 
Here,  for  instance,  is  a  bundle  of  his  findings,  which  he 
sent  to  Hugh  Miller  on  the  21st  of  July  1845  :— 

"  I  send  a  stone,  with  a  fossil  fish  in  it,  from  "Weydale; 
a  stone  from  the  salmon  cruives  in  the  Thurso  river,  with 


CHAP.  xi.       DICK  PUBLICLY  MENTIONED.  135 

a  fish  on  each  side  of  it ;  a  stone  from  the  little  burying- 
ground  of  Pennyland,  with  a  bit  of  fish  on  it ;  a  stone 
from  the  burn  of  Scrabster,  with  a  fish  wanting  the  head 
on  it ;  a  bone  or  two  from  the  extreme  point  of  Holborn 
Head ;  a  fish,  a  stone  or  two  from  the  fish-bed,  Holborn; 
and  some  bits  of  fish  from  Brims.  Some  bones  from 
Thurso  East — one,  two,  three  of  this  form  [giving  a 
drawing],  and  a  fragment  of  a  skull-cover  of  great 
strength,  but  not  so  strong  as  the  monster  plate  I  sent 

you ;  but  the  triangular  knob  thus  /   \  is  of  such  size  as 

fully  to  confirm  you  in  the  faith  of  my  report  of  last 
year.  The  fragment  is  altogether  of  a  massive  appear- 
ance. I  am  much  chagrined  at  my  ill  luck  in  not  find- 
ing a  whole  fish  of  respectable  size.  I  am  not,  however, 
cast  down,  but  may  yet  be  triumphant." 

Hugh  Miller  received  with  gratitude  the  fossil  fish 
sent  him  by  Dick.  He  also  referred  to  them  in  his 
articles  in  the  Witness,  and  mentioned  Dick  by  name, 
as  the  discoverer  of  the  principal  fossil  fish.  Dick  had 
no  desire  to  appear  before  the  public  in  this  or  any  other 
way.  He  was  an  extremely  shy  man.  Some  who  did 
not  really  know  him,  thought  him  morose.  But  lie  was 
nothing  of  the  sort.  He  enjoyed  science  merely  for  its 
own  sake,  and  it  always  gave  him  the  greatest  pleasure 
to  hand  over  his  fossils  to  others  who  could  make  use  of 
them,  and  bring  them  under  the  notice  of  scientific  men. 

Hence,  in  the  letter  to  Hugh  Miller  accompanying 
the  above  bundle  of  fossils,  he  says : — "  Your  letter,  with 
the  10th  and  llth  Geological  Eambles,  came  safely 


136  QUARRYMAN  AT  WEYDALE.        CHAP.  XT. 

to  hand.  That  of  the  llth  arrived  this  morning.*  I 
turned  to  it  without  a  moment's  delay.  I  had  not  read 
very  far  when  I  had  a  notion  of  what  was  coming,  and 
the  perspiration  began  to  rise  profusely  from  my  brow. 
.  .  .  Seriously,  nothing  could  be  better  handled  than 
your  ingenious  mode  of  broaching  the  subject,  noi 
exceed  your  masterly  manner  of  carrying  it  through.  .  . 
Only,  like  a  good  man,  do  not  speak  so  often  about 
me  by  name.  I  am  a  quiet  creature,  and  do  not  like  to 
see  myself  in  print  at  all.  So  leave  it  to  be  understood 
who  found  the  old  bones ;  and  let  them  guess  who  can." 
Dick  again  repeated  his  invitations  to  Hugh  Miller 
to  come  to  Thurso,  and  see  what  he  had  been  doing  on 
Holborn  Head,  in  Thurso  East,  and  at  Dunnet  Head. 
But  in  order  to  explore  the  country  further,  he  went 
inland  to  see  what  had  been  found  in  the  flag  quarries 
at  Weydale  and  Banniskirk.  He  had  been  to  Weydale 
several  times,  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  quarry- 
man.  He  had  made  an  appointment  to  visit  him  on  a 
certain  day,  and,  as  Dick  was  a  most  punctual  man 
and  kept  his  appointments  to  a  minute,  he  accordingly 
made  his  appearance  at  "Weydale. 

"As  I  drew  near  the  place,"  he  says,  "the  auld 
bachelor  came  out,  pipe  in  cheek,  and  sitting  down  on  a 
stone,  he  made  a  motion  for  me  to  come  and  sit  down 
beside  him,  '  I  saw  you  coming,'  he  said,  '  but  I  thocht 
you  wudna  come  the  day,  it  was  so  blawey.'  'Oh,' 
said  I,  '  I  always  keep  my  word,  blawey  or  no.  Did  ye 
tirr  a  bit?'-f*  'No,  man,'  said  he,  'the  grun  was  so 
*  21st  July  1845.  t  Work  a  bit. 


CHAP.  xi.  A  DIPLOPTERUS.  137 

hard  that  feint  a  bit  o'  the  pick  wud  go  through  it. 
The  grun's  like  iron.  But/  he  added,  '  I've  got  a  fish ! ' 
'  Have  ye  ?'  said  I.  '  Yes/  he  said, '  oot  o'  anither  place. 
Ye  can  see  it  in  the  barn.'  And  away  we  went  to  inspect 
the  fish  in  the  barn ;  and  there  it  was,  spread  out  on  the 
clay  floor.  'See!'  said  he.  'O  man/  said  I,  that's 
grand,  it's  a  new  kind'  [Dipterus].  It  had  been  much 
wasted  ere  it  was  buried  up  in  the  mud ;  the  tail  rays 
were  all  scattered;  the  head  plates  were  spread  out; 
but  a  piece  of  the  body  was  standing  up  wonderfully 
full  and  round. 

" '  See/  said  he  again, '  there's  a  head !'  It  was  that 
of  a  Diplopterus — much  broken,  but  of  a  good  size.  '  I 
must  see  the  place  from  which  it  was  taken/  said  I. 
'  Come  away  then.'  So,  shouldering  a  pick  and  spade, 
away  we  set.  About  three  good  stonethrows  from  the 
burn,  we  came  to  what  some  people  had  been  trying  to 
make  a  ditch — rough  and  rude — and  in  the  ditch  was  a 
rock,  and  in  the  rock,  fish  and  abundance  of  loose 
scales.  But  the  fish  are  much  wasted.  We  worked  at 
the  place  an  hour,  but  did  not  get  one  fish  that  would 
bear  carrying  away.  We  saw  plenty  of  broken  Diplo- 
pterus. I  cut  my  hand  and  broke  my  chisel,  and  then 
left  the  spot,  and  went  back  to  the  burn,  where  I  got  a 
few  small  things. 

"  If  you  choose  to  come  here  and  stay  three  or  four 
days  with  me,  you  can  have  a  fair  trial  upon  a  third 
locality  close  by,  which  has  never  yet  been  fairly 
tested.  I  will  make  you  welcome,  to  my  little  house, 
and  you  can  give  Scrabster,  Holborn  Head,  a  trial  also 


138  JOVRNEY  TO  BANNISKIRK.         CHAP.  xr. 

— say  a  day  at  each.  The  Diplopterus  is  abundant  at 
the  Cruives,  and  Dipt/eras  also." 

The  quarrymen  in  the  neighbourhood  had  now 
begun  to  learn  the  value  of  fossils.  The  publication  by 
Hugh  Miller  of  the  specimens  of  the  Holoptychius, 
Dipterus,  Diplopterus,  and  other  fossil  fishes  found  by 
Robert  Dick  near  Thurso,  had  the  effect  of  sending 
many  fossil -hunters  into  the  neighbourhood.  It  was 
holiday  time — the  month  of  August, — and  wherever 
curiosities  are  to  be  found,  there  is  a  rush  to  see  them, 
to  find  them,  and  to  carry  them  home  as  treasures. 
Accordingly,  when  Dick  went  out  fossil -hunting,  he 
found  the  strangers  from  the  south  very  much  in  his 
way.  One  day  in  August,  before  the  arrival  of  Hugh 
Miller,  he  extended  his  investigations  to  Banniskirk. 
It  was  about  eight  miles  from  Thurso,  and  he  had  never 
been  there  before. 

"I  have  been  seventeen  years  in  Thurso,"  he  said 
(13th  August  1845),  "but  never  saw  Banniskirk.  I 
have  been  two  years  a  fossil  man,  but  never  saw 
Banniskirk.  You  were  one  blessed  week  there;  but 
what  were  you  doing  ? 

"  Eleven  o'clock  was  ringing  this  forenoon  when  I  left 
Thurso  for  Banniskirk.  I  went  on  and  on  until  I  reached 
it.  Most  fortunately  I  directed  my  steps  to  a  point  of 
th3  rubbish  which,  in  my  opinion,  had  not  been  touched 
since  the  first  opening  of  the  quarry.  The  day  was  cold 
and  wet,  and  there  I  stood  hammering  away,  as  shower 
after  shower  went  driving  by.  I  was  alike  indifferent 
to  wind  and  weather  for  some  hours. 


CHAP.  xi.     QUARRYMEN  AND  ENGLISH  GOLD.       139 

"  When  I  had  tied  up  my  bundle  I  went  to  the  upper 
end  of  the  quarry — a  good  gunshot  off — where  four  or 
five  men  were  at  work.  Accosting  them,  I  said,  'Is 
there  any  sign  of  fish  with  ye  ? '  '0  no,  boy,'  they  said, 
ye're  on  the  wrong  scent.  But  what  wad  ye  gie  for  a 
score  o'  them ? '  'I  don't  know,'  said  I,  ' what  wad  ye 
seek ?'  'I got  five  shillings  for  one'  said  a  buck-toothed 
man  with  a  long  nose.  'Ay,'  said  I,  'the  siller  has 
been  plenty.'  '  Yes,'  said  another ; '  he  was  an  English- 
man ! '  '  Oho,'  said  I,  '  that's  the  stuff !  Nothing  like 
English  gold !  '  Yes,'  said  he ;  '  away  wi'  yer  scabbit 
Thurso  folk ! ' 

" '  But,'  said  I,  growing  saucy  in  my  turn, — '  they're 
lying  in  hundreds  at  Weydale — in  hundreds  at  Hoi- 
born  Head — in  hundreds  at  Brims — in  hundreds  at 
Thurso  East!'  'Ay,'  said  they,  with  a  girn — TKESH 
HEKKING!'  'Not  so  fast,'  said  I.  'What  then?' 
'  Fossil  bones.'  '  Not  so  good  as  this  ?'  said  they.  'Yes, 
far  better,'  and  then  I  came  away. 

"Dirty,  greedy  vagabonds.  I  knew  them  perfectly 
well.  To  get  a  price  for  a  few  old  bones,  they  have 
thrown  rubbish  on  the  face  of  the  strata.  I  had,  how- 
ever, got  as  many  fossil  fish  as  I  wanted,  no  thanks  to 
them. 

"  I  said  I  had  beat  you — no  harm !  Did  you  meet 
with  any  trace  of  Coccosteus  at  Banniskirk  ?  or  did  you 
meet  with  any  trace  of  a  Holoptychius  ?  I  found  both. 
I  think,  if  you  had  met  with  any  sign  of  either,  you 
would  have  mentioned  it.  The  head  of  the  Holoptychius 
that  I  found,  was  about  three  and  a  half  inches  wide ;  a 


140  DICK  PURSUED.  CHAP.  xi. 

prize  from  Banniskirk!  When  I  was  tying  up  my 
bundle,  a  stone  beside  me  drew  my  attention.  '  A  gill- 
cover!'  said  I.  Lifting  my  hammer  I  gave  it  a  blow. 
Huzza !  Warty !  Coccosteus !  Huzza  again ! 

"  I  had  a  heavy  bundle  home ;  and  about  eight  miles 
to  walk." 

Hugh  Miller  had  not  yet  paid  his  visit.  Dick  was 
eagerly  expecting  him.  He  determined  to  give  Hugh  a 
great  treat  when  he  came.  He  would  have  a  number  of 
fossil  fish  for  him  to  dig  out  with  his  own  hands.  For 
this  purpose  he  went  along  the  shore,  east  and  west. 
One  day  he  crossed  the  stepping-stones  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  and  was  passing  under  Thurso  Castle,  when 
Sir  George  Sinclair  hailed  him.  Dick  was  deaf  that 
day.  He  had  lost  a  whole  afternoon  a  few  days  before, 
by  being  caught  and  involved  in  a  conversation  by  Sir 
George.  Therefore  he  rushed  up  the  cliff  and  disap- 
peared instanter. 

But  he  was  not  yet  at  liberty.  "  One  of  the  salmon- 
fishers,"  he  says,  "  left  his  employment,  and  came 
and  walked  sentry  over  me  on  the  brae  head.  This 
was  annoying,  but  I  pushed  on.  Then  some  boys 
fishing  cuddins  left  their  sport  and  dogged  me,  tramp- 
ing almost  on  my  tail.  This  was  horrible.  When  I 
threw  a  stone  aside,  they  impudently  lifted  it  and  looked 
at  it.  Wherever  I  went,  they  went  also.  I  saw  the 
snout  of  a  Dipterus ;  then  two  in  succession  of  the  snouts 
of  Diplopterus ;  then  a  broken  skull-cap,  standing  out 
for  about  nine  or  ten  inches,  but  it  is  broken, — for  some 
stupid  fool  had  given  it  a  passing  blow — not  knowing 


CHAP.  xi.        PRIZES  FOR  HUGH  MILLER.  141 

what  it  was.  I  saw  it  and  quaked,  for  the  boys  were 
still  behind  me.  I  did  not  betray  myself,  by  look  or 
by  sign.  Then  I  got  angry,  and  ran  away  at  my  utmost 


"  Next  day  was  very  wet,  but  as  I  was  eager  to  know 
if  my  bone  was  safe,  I  put  up  my  umbrella,  and  walked 
over.  As  I  neared  my  prize,  I  ventured  to  reconnoitre. 
Thief-like,  I  looked  round  in  every  direction,  and  then 
moved  forward,  and  found  it  quite  safe.  ...  I  can  now 
say  confidently  that  you  will  have  the  pleasure  of  dig- 
ging out  the  remains  of  this  Holop  with  your  own  hands 
at  Thurso  East.  I  am  very  glad ! 

"  I  will  next  go  to  Holborn  Head,  pass  Slater's 
monument,  and  with  a  spade  turn  aside  a  piece  of  the 
clay  and  turf,  that  you  may  have  the  pleasure  of  striking 
a  passing  blow,  and  get  a  fossil  fish  there,  also  with  your 
own  hands. 

"  I  was  at  Weydale  on  the  9th,  and  managed  to  '  tirr 
a  bit.'  The  remains  of  the  Diplopterus  are  there  in 
abundance ;  but  they  are  very  much  knocked  about — 
heads,  scales,  gill-covers,  bits  of  tails,  and  such  like.  I 
only  brought  off  one  moderately  passable  specimen  for 
you. 

"  I  expect  that  you  will  strive  to  drop  me  a  note,  as 
to  what  time  I  may  expect  you ;  so  that  I  can  have  my 
work  snugged,  and  all  in  order.  I  shall  be  most  happy 
to  see  you,  and  we  shall  have  a  Glorious  Day ! ' 

Hugh  Miller  at  last  paid  his  visit  to  Robert  Dick. 
They  had  been  corresponding  for  a  long  time,  but  had 
never  yet  met.  Their  meeting  was  full  of  cordiality. 


142  MILLER  VISITS  DICK.  CHAP.  xi. 

Robert  gave  up  his  bed  to  Hugh,  and  he  was  to  stay 
there  as  long  as  he  liked.  But  his  visit  was  to  be 
very  short.  He  had  very  little  spare  time  at  his  dis- 
posal. The  Witness  must  be  kept  up  to  the  mark ;  and 
like  many  other  newspaper  editors,  he  thought  that  if  he 
remained  long  away,  the  world  would  come  to  an  end. 
Then,  there  was  his  new  book  to  write,  the  Asterolepis  of 
Stromness.  Hugh  Miller's  first  visit  to  Robert  Dick  was 
therefore  of  only  a  few  day's  duration. 

The  weather  was  fine,  and  most  of  their  time  was 
spent  out  of  doors.  They  walked  along  the  east  shore,  and 
along  the  west  shore.  First  they  went  with  hammer 
and  chisel  to  Thurso  East,  to  dig  out  the  Holoptychius, 
the  head  of  which  Dick  had  noted  only  'a  few  days 
ago.  Dick  pointed  out  the  bed  from  which  he  had 
taken  the  gigantic  fossil  fish  the  year  before.  After  this 
work  had  been  done,  the  brother  geologists  proceeded 
eastward,  Dick  pointing  out  the  scales  and  teeth,  the 
tuberculated  plates,  and  the  coprolites  of  the  fossil 
fishes.  Hugh  Miller  afterwards  gave  a  sketch  of  the 
coast,  of  Dunnet  Head  on  one  hand,  and  Holborn  Head 
on  the  other,  with  the  Orkneys  "  rising  dim  and  blue 
over  the  foam-mottled  currents  of  the  Pentland  Firth." 
We  have  already  given  Dick's  sketch  of  the  same  view ; 
and  we  prefer  it,  as  it  was  done  from  the  quick.* 

But  we  quote  a  passage  from  Hugh  Miller's  descrip- 
tion,— a  bit  of  nature  painted  by  a  poet.  "  We  are  still 
within  an  hour's  walk  of  Thurso ;  but  in  that  brief  hour 

*  For  Hugh  Miller's  description,  see  The  Oruise  of  the  Betsy,  or  A 
Summer  Eamble  among  the  Hebrides,  pp.  181-6.  Ed.  1873. 


CHAP.  xi.       HUGH  MILLER'S  DESCRIPTION. 


143 


how  many  marvels  have  we  witnessed !  how  vast  an 
amount  of  the  vital  mechanisms  of  a  perished  creation 
have  we  not  passed  over!  Our  walk  has  been  along 
ranges  of  sepulchres,  greatly  more  wonderful  than  those 
of  Thebes  or  Petrea,  and  a  thousand  times  more  ancient. 


DUNNET  SANDS. 


There  is  no  lack  of  life  along  the  shores  of  the  little 
solitary  bay.  The  shriek  of  the  sparrowhawk  mingles 
from  the  cliffs  with  the  hoarse  deep  croak  of  the  raven  , 
the  cormorant,  on  some  wave- encircled  ledge,  hangs  out 
his  dark  wing  to  the  breeze ;  the  spotted  diver,  plying 
his  vocation  on  the  shallows  beyond,  dives  and  then 
appears,  and  dives  and  appears  again,  and  we  see  the 
glitter  of  scales  from  his  beak ;  and  far  away  in  the  offing 
the  sunhght  falls  on  a  scull  of  sea-gulls,  that  flutter 


144  VISIT  TO  HOLBORN  HEAD.         CHAP.  xi. 

upward,  downwards,  and  athwart,  now  in  the  sea,  now  in 
the  air,  thick  as  midges  over  some  forest  brook  in  an 
evening  of  midsummer." 

The  geologists  passed  on  towards  Dunnet  Bay. 
They  crossed  Dunnet  sands,  and  at  length  reached  the 
tall  sandstone  precipices  of  Dunnet  Head,  with  their 
broad  decaying  fronts  of  red  and  yellow.  They  had 
reached  the  upper  boundary  of  the  Lower  red  formation, 
and  found  it  bordered  by  a  desert,  and  void  of  all  trace 
of  life.  They  plied  hammer  and  chisel,  but  found  not  a 
scale,  not  a  plate,  nor  even  the  stain  of  an  imperfect 
fucoid. 

On  the  following  day  the  brother  geologists  wandered 
along  the  shore  of  Thurso  "West, — Dick  pointing  out  the 
boulder  clay  between  the  Bishop's  Castle  and  Scrabster 
Harbour.  They  ascended  Holborn  Head,  went  along 
the  precipices  to  the  Clett,  after  which  Hugh  Miller 
chiselled  out  with  his  own  hands  the  fossil  fish  that 
Eobert  Dick  had  set  apart  for  him.  He  did  not  cut  his 
hands  as  Dick  had  done,  for  Hugh  was  an  accomplished 
mason  before  he  became  a  geologist.  There  was  one 
particular  sight  that  struck  Hugh  very  much  while  stand- 
ing on  the  top  of  the  rocks  at  Holborn  Head,  and  looking 
down  with  Dick  into  the  deep  sea-green  water,  underlying 
the  lofty  cliff  called  "  Slater's  Leap."  Hugh  Miller 
afterwards  described  it  splendidly  in  his  Lectures  on 
Geology.  He  says  : — 

"  Perhaps  the  most  striking  scenic  peculiarities  of  the 
Old  Eed  Sandstone  are  to  be  found  in  its  rock-pieces. 
The  Old  Man  of  Hoy,  with  its  rural  rampart  of  rock- 


CHAP.  xr.     HUGH  MILLER'S  DESCRIPTION.  145 

pieces,  not  unfurnished  with  turret  and  tower,  and  wide 
yawning  portals  that  rise  a  thousand  feet  over  the  waves ; 
the  tall  stacks  of  Duncansby,  Canisbay,  ornately  Gothic 
in  their  style  of  ornament,  with  the  dizzy  chasms  of  the 
neighbouring  headland,  in  which  the  tides  of  the  Pentland 
Firth  for  ever  eddy  and  toil,  and  the  surf  for  ever 
roars ;  and  the  strangely  fractured  precipices  of  Holborn 
Head,  where,  through  dark  crevice  and  giddy  chasm,  the 
gleam  of  the  sun  may  be  seen  reflected  far  below  on  the 
green  depths  of  the  sea,  and  venerable  and  grey,  like 
some  vast  cathedral,  a  dissevered  fragment  of  the  coast 
descried  rising  beyond, — are  all  rock  scenes  of  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone. 

"  When  I  last  stood  on  the  heights  of  Holborn  there 
was  a  heavy  surf  toiling  far  below  along  the  base  of  the 
overhanging  wall  of  cliff  which  lines  the  coast,  and  deep 
under  my  feet  I  could  hear  a  muffled  roaring  amid  the 
long  corridor-like  caves  into  which  the  headland  is 
hollowed,  and  which,  opening  to  the  light  and  air  far 
inland  by  narrow  vents  and  chasms,  send  up  at  such 
seasons,  high  over  the  blighted  sward,  clouds  of  impal- 
pable spray,  that  resemble  the  smoke  of  great  chimneys. 
As  I  peered  into  one  of  these  profound  gulphs,  and 
dimly  marked,  hundreds  of  feet  below,  the  upward  dash 
of  the  foam,  grey  in  the  gloom, — as  I  looked,  and  ex- 
perienced with  the  gaze  that  mingled  emotion  natural 
amid  such  scenes,  which  Burke  so  well  analyses  as  a 
consciousness  of  great  expansiveness  and  dimension, 
associated  with  a  sense  of  danger, — my  eye  caught  on 
the  verge  of  the  precipice  the  outline  of  part  of  an  old 


146     REFLECTIONS  ON  HOLBORN  HEAD.    CHAP.  xi. 

reptile  fish  traced  on  the  rock.  It  was  the  cranial 
buckler  of  one  of  the  hugest  ganoids  of  the  Old  Ked 
Sandstone,  the  Asterolepis.  And  there  it  lay,  as  it  had 
been  deposited,  far  back  in  the  bypast  eternity,  at  the 
bottom  of  a  muddy  sea.  But  the  mud  existed  now  as  a 
dense  grey  rock,  hard  as  iron,  and  what  had  been  the 
bottom  of  a  palaeozoic  sea  had  become  the  edge  of  a 
dizzy  precipice,  elevated  more  than  a  hundred  yards 
over  the  surf.  The  world  must  have  been  a  very  differ- 
ent world,  I  said,  when  that  creature  lived,  from  what 
it  is  now.  There  could  have  been  no  such  precipices 
then;  a  few  flat  islands  comprised,  in  all  probability, 
the  whole  dry  land  of  the  globe  ;  and  that  emotion 
of  which  I  had  just  been  compassed,  is  it  not  something 
new  in  creation  also  ?  The  deep  gloom  of  these  perilous 
gulphs — these  incessant  roarings — these  dizzy  precipices 
— the  sublime  roll  of  these  huge  waves — are  they  not 
associated  in  my  mind  with  a  certain  idea  of  danger — a 
feeling  of  incipient  terror,  which,  in  all  God's  creation, 
man,  and  man  only,  is  organised  to  experience  ?  Is  it 
not  an  emotion  which  neither  the  inferior  animals  on 
the  one  hand,  nor  the  higher  spiritual  existences  on  the 
other,  can  in  the  least  feel — an  emotion  dependent  on 
the  union  of  a  living  soul  with  a  fragile  body  of  clay, 
easily  broken  ?"* 

While  at  Thurso,  Miller  fired  his  friend's  mind  with 
the  injustice  done  to  the  poor  remnant  of  the  Highlanders 
who  still  remain  in  the  far  north.  Many  years  before, 
the  Celts  had  been  driven  out  of  their  homes,  such  as 

*  Hugh  Miller  s  Lectures  on  Geology,  pp.  199,  200.    Ed.  1869. 


ROCKS  AT  HOLBORN  HEAD  :    SLATER'S   MONUMENT. 


CHAP.  xi.      EXPATRIATED  HIGHLANDERS.  147 

they  were,  to  make  room  for  sheep,  and  afterwards  for 
deer.  This  was  during  the  time  that  Sir  John  Sinclair 
was  so  much  bent  upon  introducing  the  Cheviot  breed 
of  sheep  into  Scotland  The  Highlanders  were  thought 
to  be  idle,  and  they  were  accordingly  driven  away,  or 
forced  to  emigrate.  It  was  thought  to  be  "for  their 
good." 

Yet  the  poor  folks  did  not  think  it  for  their  good 
to  leave  their  homes  amongst  the  hills  in  which  they 
had  been  born.  But  the  law  was  against  them.  The 
chiefs  insisted  on  their  pound  of  flesh,  and  the  High- 
landers were  expelled,  and  emigrated  in  all  directions. 
If  they  did  not  leave  after  their  notices  had  expired, 
their  houses  were  pulled  down,  and  sometimes  they 
were  burnt  down,  leaving  only  blackened  ruins.  One 
old  paralytic  woman  was  actually  burnt  in  her  bed. 

In  1795,  Sir  John  Sinclair  raised  a  regiment,  the 
Caithness  Highlanders,  consisting  of  1000  stalwart 
men.  No  such  regiment  could  be  raised  now.  The 
Highlanders  are  now  in  Canada,  and  sheep  supply  their 
places.  Emigration  still  continued  to  go  on.  In  1841 
Dick  wrote  to  his  sister :  "  Emigration  to  America  is 
fast  thinning  the  moors  of  this  cold  bare  country ;  and 
soon,  very  soon,  it  will  be  bare  of  population  with  a 
vengeance.  Two  ships  have  already  sailed.  A  third 
and  a  fourth  are  expected  to  sail  this  season.  Many 
hamlets  have  been  pulled  down,  and  those  that  have 
not  been  pulled  down  are  to  let!"  The  flag  works  at 
Thurso,  and  of  Mr.  Traill  of  Castletown,  gave  employ- 
ment to  many  of  the  expatriated  clansmen ;  but  still, 


148  HUGH  MILLERS  LAMENT.          CHAP,  xi 

there  were  thousands  preparing  to  set  out  for  Canada 
and  America.* 

The  trouble  was  renewed  in  another  way  when  the 
Free  Churchmen  dissented  from  the  Established  Church. 
They  could  not  find  sites  for  their  ch'apels,  and  sometimes 
they  gathered  together  on  the  verge  of  a  loch,  where  the 
minister  could  preach  to  them  from  a  boat.  They  also 
assembled  in  the  open  air,  along  a  hill-side,  or  in  a  valley 
surrounded  by  rocks,  where  the  minister  dispensed  to 
them  the  Word  of  God  and  the  Holy  Sacrament. 

Hugh  Miller  was  editor  of  the  Witness,  an  outspoken 
paper,  the  organ  of  the  Free  Church.  Hugh  was  a  great 
power  in  those  days.  He  was  one  of  the  boldest  writers 
of  his  time.  His  paper  spread  far  and  wide  the  cruelty 
and  injustice  of  the  Highland  proprietors.  Here  is  one 
of  his  descriptions,  which  he  wrote  while  on  his  way  to 
meet  Eobert  Dick  at  Thurso : — 

"  I  have  just  returned  from  Helmsdale,"  he  said, 
"  where  I  have  been  hearing  a  sermon  in  the  open  air 
with  the  poor  Highlanders.  ...  I  thought  their  Gaelic 
singing,  so  plaintive  at  all  times,  even  more  melancholy 

*  On  the  28th  August,  1846,  an  Act  was  passed  enabling  a  loan  of 
two  millions  to  be  advanced  to  the  landed  proprietors  for  the  drainage 
and  improvement  of  their  estates.  The  loan  was  soon  exhausted. 
The  Highland  lairds  got  the  lion's  share.  One  of  them,  Macleod  of 
Macleod,  asked  for  an  incredible  sum,  so  that  it  became  necessary  to 
limit  the  maximum  amount  of  the  loan  to  individuals,  to  £5000.  By  the 
Act  13  and  14  Viet.,  cap.  91,  a  further  sum  of  two  millions  was  granted 
for  draining  purposes  ;  but  it  was  found  that  a  quarter  of  a  million  of 
the  money  had  been  spent,  not  in  draining  the  soil  of  North  Britain, 
but  in  clearing  out  the  Highland  population  from  theii  miserable  huts, 
and  transporting  them  to  the  British  Colonies  ! 


CHAP.  xi.  DONALD'S  FLITT1N !  149 

than  usual.  It  rose  from  the  green  hill-side  like  a  wail 
of  suffering  and  complaint.  Poor  people !  There  stretched 
inland,  in  the  background,  a  long  deep  strath,  with  a 
river  winding  through  it.  It  had  once  been  inhabited 
for  twenty  miles  from  the  sea ;  but  the  inhabitants  were 
all  removed  to  make  way  for  sheep  ;  and  it  is  now  a  desert, 
with  no  other  marks  of  men  save  the  green  square 
patches  still  bearing  the  mark  of  the  plough,  that  lie 
along  the  water-side,  and  the  ruined  cottages,  some  of 
them  not  unscathed  by  fire,  with  which  these  are  studded. 
.  .  .  The  people  had  a  look  of  suffering  and  subdued 
sadness  about  them  that  harmonised  but  too  well  with 
the  melancholy  tones  of  their  psalms.  There  is,  it  is 
said,  a  very  intense  feeling  about  them.  '  We  were 
ruined  and  made  beggars  before,'  they  say, '  and  now 
they  have  taken  the  gospel  from  us.'" 

And  again,  at  Loch  Brora,  he  says : — "  The  Loch 
stretches  out  in  front  for  miles,  its  undulating  and  wind- 
ing shores  tufted  with  birch,  and  here  and  there  mottled 
with  small  green  spots  that,  ere  the  poor  Highlanders 
had  been  driven  from  home,  kept  them  in  oats  and  here. 
...  I  doubt  not  that  the  thoughts  of  them  live,  set  in 
sorrow,  in  hearts  beyond  the  Atlantic." 

When  Hugh  Miller  had  left  Thurso  for  Edinburgh, 
Robert  Dick  took  his  pen  in  hand,  and  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing stanzas : — 

DONALD'S  FLITTIN  ! 
Eh,  Donald,  man,  they've  served  ye  sair, 

Yeer  Hieland  chiefs  an'  a', 
They've  brought  their  sheep,  an'  iiowt,  aii'  deer, 

And  ye  maun  gang  awa  ! 


150  DONALD'S  FLITTIN !  ci 

Ye  focht  for  them,  ye  bled  for  them, 

Sae  lang's  a  sword  ye'd  draw, 
An'  though  ye  got  but  little  for't, 

Now  ye  maun  gang  awa' ! 

Puir  Donald,  man,  where  is  he  gaun  ? 

His  wife  and  bairnies  twa  ? 
"  Oh,  fient  care  I,"  the  laird,  said  he, 

"  So  that  they  gang  awa' ! " 

The  wife  sat  by  her  cauld  hearth-stane, 

She  couldna  thole  her  fa' ; 
She  moaned  and  sighed,  and  groaned  and  grat 

She  wadna  gang  awa' ! 

The  licht  was  set  to  theek  and  roof, 

The  fire  ran  up  the  wa'  ! 
Alas  !  the  Hieland  mother  now 

Was  forced  to  gang  awa' ! 

Got  owre  the  cot,  upon  a  stane 

She  sat,  wi'  bairuies  twa  ; 
Her  heart  was  brak,  she  could  but  dee ; 

She  couldna  gang  awa' ! 

He  couldna  use  his  dirk  the  noo, 

The  laird  was  right  in  law  ; 
Sae  Donald  gave  up  house  and  haine, 

And  syne  he  gaed  awa' ! 

Across  the  seas  he  dreams  o'  hame, 

Far  off  in  Canada  ; 
But  grim  and  bitter  Donald  thinks 

Of  when  he  gaed  awa'  1 


CHAPTER  XIL 

DEATH  OF  DICK'S  FATHER— THE  BOULDER 
CLAY. 

IT  will  be  remembered  that  Thomas  Dick,  supervisor, 
loft  Thurso  in  1834,  shortly  after  his  son  Robert  had 
begun  business  as  a  baker.  Mr.  Dick  was  appointed  to 
the  office  of  Collector  of  Customs  at  Haddington.  He 
did  his  duty  there  in  a  quiet,  unostentatious  manner, 
and  gained  the  respect  of  everybody  who  knew  him. 
After  his  term  of  service  had  expired,  he  removed  to 
Dovecot,  Tullibody,  where  he  ended  his  days  in  peace 
and  quiet. 

Robert  Dick  continued  to  keep  up  a  correspondence 
with  his  father,  though  none  of  his  letters  have  been 
preserved.  The  last  letter  of  his  father  (22d  April  1846) 
informed  Robert  of  his  last  illness.  "My  complaint," 
he  said,  "  is  in  the  heart.  I  am  sometimes  alarmingly 
ill.  At  other  times,  though  very  weak,  I  am  able  to  be 
up.  .  .  .  There  is  no  prospect  of  my  recovery.  I  have 
been  preparing  for  the  last  change,  and  have  laid  my 
hope  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  .  .  .  Dear  Robert,  pray 
for  me.  May  the  blessing  of  God  attend  you  through 
this  life,  and  afterwards  receive  you  into  glory." 

This  was  his  .father's  last  blessing.     He  died  five 


152  DICK'S  LETTER  OF  COMFORT.      CHAP.  xn. 

weeks  after.  His  son  preserved  the  letter.  He  writes 
upon  it,  "  I  have  laid  it  amongst  my  mother's  hair." 

Eobert  was  not  able  to  attend  the  funeral.  He  was 
too  poor  for  that.  The  journey  was  long  and  expensive, 
and  there  were  no  railways  in  Caithness  at  that  time. 
Besides,  he  did  all  his  work  with  his  own  hands.  He 
had  neither  journeyman  nor  apprentice.  His  only  helper 
was  Annie  Mackay,  his  servant. 

His  sister  Jane,  however,  went  from  Haddington  to 
Tullibody,  to  be  present  with  the  family  at  the  time  of 
Mr.  Dick's  funeral.  After  her  return  home — for  she  was 
then  married — he  thus  wrote  to  her : — "  I  have  thought 
that  it  may  perhaps  lighten  the  distress  which  you  suffer 
from  the  decease  of  our  father,  if  I  should  write  you  a 
few  lines, — not  that  a  flow  of  words  is  the  best  .source  of 
comfort  in  a  case  such  as  this.  Eesignation  to  the  will 
of  God  will  avail  much  more.  I  hope  you  will  see  it  to 
be  your  duty  to  bow  in  quiet  and  patient  submission, 
looking  forward  with  the  eye  of  Faith  to  that  better 
world,  where,  after  a  few  years,  you  will  meet  your 
father  again.  Your  mother  is  also  there.  Those  who 
remain  behind  must  toil  on,  and  abide  their  time, 
neither  murmuring  nor  desponding  at  the  ways  of  the 
Supreme  Disposer  of  all  events,  whether  prosperous  or 
adverse. 

"These  events  create  sad  blanks.  The  mind  for  a 
time  will  be  hankering  after  what  is  gone.  But  new 
affections  spring  up  and  entwine  themselves  round  the 
soul,  hiding  if  not  healing  the  wounds.  Time  will  roll 
on,  and  then  we  shall  be  here  no  more.  This  is  all  that 


CHAP.  xii.        MR.  AIKMAN,  TULLIDODY.  153 

has  been  and  will  be.  One  generation  cometh,  and 
another  goeth.  The  Framer  of  all  things  alone  is  sub- 
ject to  no  change." 

Eobert  Dick  also  kept  up  his  correspondence  with 
his  old  master,  Aikman,  at  Tullibody.  In  the  year  fol- 
lowing his  father's  death,  Aikman  told  him  that  he  was 
about  to  retire  from  business, — "that  he  had  not  yet 
advertised  the  shop  and  bakehouse,  but  intended  doing 
so.  It  would  be  a  good  opening  for  an  active  man,  as 
he  was  now  baking  about  20  bolls  of  wheat  every  week, 
with  three  men  and  a  boy." 

This  was  doubtless  intended  as  a  hint  to  his  cor- 
respondent to  buy  the  business,  and  thus  enter  into  a 
thriving  trade.  But  Dick  had  no  money  to  spare  for 
the  purpose.  His  business  at  Thurso  was  only  paying 
expenses.  He  did  not  save  money.  What  he  could 
spare  from  his  ordinary  wants,  he  spent  on  books. 

Competition  was  also  beginning  to  tell  upon  him. 
Although  there  were  only  two  bakers  in  Thurso  at  the 
time  that  he  commenced  business,  there  were  now 
several.  Every  new  baker  served  to  diminish  his  trade. 
No  increased  exertion  could  make  up  for  the  loss.  The 
town  was  small,  and  the  people's  wants  were  few.  When 
the  bakers  amounted  to  six,  Dick  said  "  it  was  like  half- 
a-dozen  dogs  worrying  over  a  very  little  bone." 

Dick's  business  was  also  to  a  considerable  extent 
diminished  by  his  not  going  to  "  the  Kirk."  When  that 
is  known  of  a  man  in  a  small  town  in  Scotland,  it  goes 
very  much  against  him.  The  "  fear  o'  the  folk  "  is  very 
great  there.  Conformity  is  insisted  on.  A  man  must 


154  THE  DISRUPTION.  CHAP.  xn. 

be  what  other  people  seem  to  be,  or  he  is  looked  upon 
as  a  sort  of  reprobate. 

We  have  been  told  why  Dick  abstained  from  going 
to  church.  Miss  Dick,  his  half-sister,  says  that  the 
singing  caused  him  giddiness,  and  that  he  had  some  feel- 
ing in  his  head  which  prevented  him  sitting  in  church. 
Another  says  that  he  considered  the  sermons  which  he 
heard  to  be  only  "  cauld  kail  het  again ; "  *  and  that  he 
could  study  the  Bible  and  read  his  sermons  just  as  well 
at  home.  Indeed,  his  library  was  full  of  religious  works. 
He  had  seven  Bibles  and  a  Latin  Testament,  with  vari- 
ous commentaries  on  the  Scriptures.  His  library  included 
a  set  of  Bible  maps,  and  the  works  of  Josephus,  Mosheim, 
Locke,  Kitto,  Hervey,  Wardlaw,  and  others. 

Dick  had  been  a  diligent  attender  of  the  Established 
Church  until  the  Disruption  in  1843.  He  had  a  wonder- 
ful memory,  a  large  vein  of  humour,  and  even  a  good 
deal  of  mimicry.  He  could,  upon  occasion,  give  a  head 
or  two  of  the  discourses ;  and  for  that  matter,  a  whole 
sermon  of  several  of  the  ministers  of  the  town  and 
neighbourhood,  with  the  gesture,  and  accent,  and  pecu- 
liarities of  each,  to  perfection.  His  old  servant  used  to 
say,  that  if  she  wanted  a  sermon  she  had  not  far  to  go  to 
get  one.  "  Tae  hear  my  maister  sometimes,"  she  would 
say,  "  you  wud  think  you  were  hearing  Mr.  Cook  of  Eeay 
or  Mr.  Munro  of  Halkirk  preaching  frae  the  tent  on  the 
Thursday  o'  the  Sacrament." 

But  we  have  received  another  account,  from  a  verit- 
able person,  as  to  the  reasons  why  Dick  ceased  to  attend 
*  Cold  soup  re-warmed. 


CHAP.  xii.         THE  LOQUACIOUS  BARBER.  155 

the  kirk  on  Sunday.  When  the  Disruption  occurred, 
almost  all  the  congregation  went  out  with  Mr.  Taylor, 
and  set  up  a  church  of  their  own.  But  Eobert  Dick, 
who  cared  very  little  for  religious  politics,  or  even  for 
parliamentary  politics,  remained  where  he  was.  "  1  am 
very  well  satisfied,"  he  said,  "with  the  church  of  my 
fathers."  In  fact,  he  "  stuck  by  the  waas."  *  It  is  even 
said  that  at  this  time,  for  want  of  leading  men  in  the 
church,  it  was  proposed  to  make  Eobert  Dick  an  elder. 
But  a  circumstance  shortly  after  occurred  which  had  the 
effect  of  sending  him  away  altogether. 

It  seems  that  one  day  Dick  met  in  the  street  a  man 
named  Geddie,  a  barber  and  shoemaker  in  Thurso.  The 
man  was  loquacious  and  locomotive.  "Ah!"  said 
Geddie, "  that  was  a  fine  sermon  o'  the  minister's  yester 
day."  "  Yes,"  said  Dick,  "  but  he  was  perhaps  a  wen 
thocht  indebted  to  Blair's  Sermons  and  Hervey's  Medi 
tations"  "  Ay,  was  he ? "  said  the  barber.  Away  the 
little  busybody  went,  and  spread  the  report  among  the 
tattle-mongers  of  the  place.  The  barber's  shop  is  always 
the  centre  of  gossip.  The  report  about  Dick  and  the 
minister  soon  came  to  be  known.  Of  course,  it  reached 
the  minister's  ears. 

Dick  was  at  that  time  accustomed,  being  an  early 
riser,  to  get  up  on  fine  Sunday  mornings  and  take  a  walk 
along  the  sea-shore,  with  the  magnificent  prospect  of 
Dunnet  Head  on  one  side  and  Holborn  Head  on  the  other, 
with  the  Orkney  Islands  in  the  distance ;  and  a  glorious 

*  A  common  saying  when  the  members  of  the  Established  dim  S 
refused  to  go  out  with  the  Free  Kirkers.  They  stuck  by  the  walls 


156  .  WHY  DICK  LEFT  THE  KIRK.      CHAP,  xn, 

walk  it  must  have  been  on  an  early  summer  morning. 
Dick  got  home  by  breakfast  time,  and  then  he  prepared 
to  go  to  church.  But  one  day  he  got  a  sermon  which 
made  his  ears  tingle.  It  was  upon  the  awful  crime  of 
Sabbath-breaking — upon  going  about  on  the  Sabbath 
day,  and  wandering  in  pursuit  of  "science,  falsely  so 
called." 

Dick  could  not  mistake  the  application  of  the  sermon. 
He  felt  that  it  was  at  him  the  minister  was  preaching. 
If  it  was  not  intended  for  him — as  we  have  been  assured 
— at -all  events  he  put  the  cap  on.  "  Well,"  he  said,  "  I'll 
never  more  be  preached  at.  Eeligion  is  not  The  Kirk : 
neither  is  it  in  the  preaching  of  one  minister  or  another. 
I'll  stay  at  home,  and  do  my  religious  services  myself." 

The  person  who  gave  us  the  above  information  was 
one  of  Eobert  Dick's  intimate  friends.  He  says  Dick  was 
a  thoroughly  religious  man,  though  he  ceased  to  attend 
the  Established  Church.  He  was  invariably  kind, 
benevolent,  and  helpful.  And  perhaps  he  entertained 
deeper  thoughts  about  religion  than  anybody  in  the 
parish,  not  even  excepting  the  parish  minister  himself. 

Dick  himself  told  the  same  story  to  Mr.  Peach.  He 
said  that  having  been  shut  up  in  the  bakehouse  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  week,  he  thought  it  was  for  the 
benefit  of  his  health  that  he  should  take  an  early 
Sunday  morning's  walk ;  and  that  it  was  an  interference 
with  the  liberty  of  the  subject  to  preach  at  him  in  that 
way.  Mr.  Peach  further  says  that  he  always  kept  a 
solitary  service  in  his  own  house,  reading  the  Bible,  and 
the  somTinentaries  thereon. 


CHAP.  xrr.         DICK'S  SOLITARY  SERVICE.  157 

One  Sunday  morning  Mr.  Peaeh  called  in  upon  Dick, 
having  walked  over  from  Castletown  for  the  purpose.* 
He  found  Dick  reading  the  Bible,  with  Sharpe's  transla- 
tion of  the  New  Testament  from  the  Greek  of  Gries- 
bach,  and  comparing  one  with  the  other.  "Ah!"  said 
Dick,  on  seeing  Mr.  Peach  coming  in,  "  you  never  had 
the  Shorter  Catechism  knocked  into  your  head  as  I  had 
during  my  youth."  After  further  conversation,  he  said, 
"  After  all  the  translations  of  the  Bible  that  have  been 
made,  there  is  none  like  the  old  translation.  It  has  the 
right  ring  about  it.  And  then,  it  is  so  connected  with 
all  the  associations  of  our  early  home  life." 

The  people  of  Thurso,  however,  could  never  under- 
stand Dick.  They  saw  him  going  out  at  all  times  with 
his  hammer  and  chisels,  and  bringing  home  loads  of 
stones.  What  had  he  been  doing  ?  Had  he,  like  Hugh 
Miller,  been  "  seekin'  siller  in  the  stanes "  ?  or  had  he 
been  digging  holes  in  the  ground  to  bury  the  gold  he 
had  made  by  his  trade  ?-f-  In  these  respects  the  people 
of  Thurso  were  altogether  at  sea. 

Dick  went  on  with  his  geological  investigations.  All 
his  treasures  were  sent  to  Hugh  Miller.  He  kept  dupli- 
cates for  himself,  and  by  degrees  collected  a  rich 
repository  of  fossils.  He  stored  them  in  his  upper  room, 
where  he  also  kept  his  best  books.  To  help  Hugh 

*  One  of  Mr.  Peach's  duties  at  that  time  was  to  travel  round  the 
coast  in  search  of  shipwrecks,  and  also  to  help  the  shipwrecked  crews. 

t  This  statement  was  actually  made  by  a  Thurso  person,  now  living 
In  London,  who  left  the  place  long  ago,  before  Dick  had  achieved  anj 
local  reputation,  except  that  of  an  eccentric  character. 


158  THE  BOULDER  CLA  Y.  CHAP.  XIL 

Miller,  he  began  his  researches  into  the  boulder  clay*  of 
Caithness.  "  I  had  seen  the  boulder  clay,"  says  Hugh 
Miller,  "  characteristically  developed  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Thurso, — but,  during  a  rather  hurried  visit,  had 
lacked  time  to  examine  it.  The  omission  mattered  the 
less,  however,  as  my  friend  Robert  Dick  is  resident  in 
the  locality ;  and  there  are  few  men  who  examine  more 
carefully  or  more  perseveringly  than  he,  or  who  can 
enjoy  with  higher  relish  the  sweets  of  scientific  research. 
I  wrote  to  him  regarding  Professor  Forbes's  decision  on 
the  boulder  clay  of  Wick  and  its  shells ;  urging  him  to 
ascertain  whether  the  boulder  clay  of  Thurso  had  not 
its  shells  also.  And  almost  by  return  of  post  I  received 
from  him,  in  reply,  a  little  packet  of  comminuted  shells, 
dug  out  of  a  deposit  of  the  boulder  clay,  laid  open  by 
the  river  Thurso,  a  full  mile  from  the  sea,  and  from 
eighty  to  a  hundred  feet  above  its  level.  He  had 
detected  minute  fragments  of  shell  in  the  clay  about 
twelve  months  before;  .  .  .  but  his  dread  of  being 
deceived  by  mere  surface  shells,  carried  inland  by  sea- 
birds  for  food,  prevented  him  from  following  up  the  dis- 
covery." j- 

But  now  that  Hugh  Miller  inquired  about  the 
existence  of  sea-shells  in  the  boulder  clay,  Dick  pro- 
2eeded  to  follow  up  his  investigations  with  the  keenest 

*  Clay  of  the  Glacial  or  Drift  epoch,  usually  mixed  with  large  stonea 
or  boulders.  The  boulders  have  been  dropped  in  deep  water  from  floating 
ice,  and  have  settled  in  the  clayey  silt.  The  boulder  clay  is  widely 
spread  throughout  Great  Britain. 

f  Hugh  Miller's  "  Rambles  of  a  Geologist,"  in  Cruise  of  Ike  Betsy, 
pp.  311-12.  Ed.  1873. 


THURSO  RIVER.  159 


interest.  He  visited  every  locality  in  Caithness  where 
boulder  clay  existed.  He  went  as  far  as  John  o'  Groat's 
and  Freswick  in  one  direction ;  and  to  Dunbeath,  at  the 
southern  limits  of  the  county,  in  the  other.  He  did  the 
most  of  his  journeys  at  night ;  sometimes  walking  in  the 
dark,  at  other  times  in  bright  moonlight.  He  seems  Jo 
have  been  intensely  interested  in  all  that  he  did.  Every- 
thing was  to  him  new  and  wonderful.  His  delight  was 
often  like  that  of  a  thoughtful  child,  in  seeing  further 
into  the  mysteries  of  a  piece  of  fine  mechanism. 

"It  appears  to  me,"  he  said  in  a  letter  to  Hugh 
Miller  (1st  September  1848),  "that  the  best  way  of 
answering  your  queries,  will  be  to  relate  in  a  plain  and 
simple  way  the  various  truths  which  have  dawned  upon 
my  astonished  mind,  during  my  rambles  of  the  last  few 
weeks. 

"  Few  are  acquainted  with  the  peculiar  features  of 
Thurso  river.  Few  are  aware  that,  in  many  places,  as  it 
nears  the  sea,  it  has  scooped  out  its  course  deep  in  the 
blue  boulder  clay.  Near  the  town,  on  the  west  or  left 
bank,  a  bed  of  this  blue  clay  is  seen  within  a  stone's  cast 
of  the  bridge.  On  the  east  you  see  it  at  Mill  Bank ;  and 
on  both  sides,  after  that,  an  immense  mass  runs  on, 
almost  continuously,  four  miles  inland,  until  at  Todholes 
it  becomes  low,  and  on  a  level  with  the  surrounding 
fields.  Throughout  its  whole  extent  it  almost  invariably 
presents  the  same  characteristic  marks — pieces  of  blue 
stones,  granite,  gneiss,  and  such  like. 

"  Not  long  since,  the  Thurso  East  Salmon  Fishing 
Company  ran  a  dyke  or  wall  across  the  river ;  and  ID 


THURSO  RIVER. 


THURSO  RIVER:   FROM  THE  BRIDGE. 


consequence  of  the  openings  left  at  the  south-west  end, 
the  waters  of  the  river,  when  the  rains  fell  and  the 
floods  rose,  rushed  with  great  impetuosity  and  violence 
on  the  end  of  a  bank  of  blue  boulder  clay,  undermining 
and  bringing  down  large  pieces  of  it.  After  one  of  these 
slippings  I  found  the  first  fragments  of  shell.  A  piece 
of  stout  Cyprina  was  found  sticking  in  the  clay ;  and 
various  shell  fragments,  with  a  considerable  sprinkling 
of  pieces  like  grains  of  oatmeal  or  pinheads. 

"  At  another  part  of  the  river,  a  large  piece  of  boulder 
clay  had  fallen,  near  Juniper  Bank  House ;  and  here  I 
detected  fragments  of  shell,  and  that  fragment  of  Dent 


CIIAI'.   XII. 


FRAGMENTS  OF  SHELLS.  1C1 


alium  which  I  sent  you.  The  exposed  portion  of  the 
boulder  clay  is  here  eighty  feet  in  height  above  the 
river-level ;  and  the  river  here  may  be  about  twelve 
feet  above  the  sea-level. 

"  On  turning  to  Brown's  Elements  of  Fossil  Conchology, 
I  find  a  figure  of  Dentalium ;  but  in  the  letterpress 
description  of  it,  I  do  not  find  any  mention  of  its  ever 
having  been  found  in  the  blue  boulder  clay. 

"  On  a  future  evening  I  examined  the  blue  boulder 
clay  at  Scrabster  along  the  bay.  I  detected  fragments 
of  shell  here  again,  but  not  so  plentiful  as  up  the  river." 

In  a  future  letter  he  says : — "  On  the  river-side,  right 
beneath  the  House  of  Geise,  there  is  a  rather  high 
exposed  section  of  the  blue  stony  clay ;  and  here  again 
I  found  shell  fragments.  I  had  a  good  piece  to  walk — 
through  grass,  heather,  bracken,  asphodel,  and  rushes — 
before  I  met  with  another  slope ;  and  here  also,  again 
and  again,  I  met  with  shell  fragments. 

"  A  fine  section  presenting  itself  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  river,  I  stripped  and  waded  through  the  river. 
Here  again,  my  now  familiar  acquaintances  presented 
themselves ;  and  here — what  I  had  not  met  with  before 
— I  found  a  piece  of  chalk  flint.  The  flint  was  sticking 
in  the  clay. 

"  I  was  now  at  ease  regarding  the  fact  of  the  shells, 
but  was  rather  puzzled  with  the  flint.  I  sounded  my 
savants,  as  to  their  acquaintance  with  this  unlooked-for 
fairy.  I  showed  it  to  them,  and  asked  them  if  they  had 
seen  such  a  thing  up  the  country ;  when  they  both — 
the  old  one  and  the  young  one — answered  'Yes.'  They 


162  MORE  MARINE  SHELLS.  CHAP,  xn, 

had  found  them  when  digging,  and  the  old  people  told 
them  that  fire  was  in  them,  and  that  they  were  com- 
manded in  all  haste  to  bury  them  again,  for  fear  lest  the 
cattle  should  get  a  shot ! 

"  Another  thing  may  be  added.  I  know  that  farmers 
hereabout  use  seaweed  as  manure,  and  that  shells  of 
Fusus,  Littorina,  Purpura,  Patella,  etc.,  find  their  way  up 
the  country  along  with  the  tangles;  and  that  cockles 
and  periwinkles  are  scattered  everywhere.  I  have  even 
found  them  far  inland,  and  away  from  cultivated  land. 
The  sea-mews,  when  hard  pressed  in  winter,  eat  turnips, 
sea-shells,  whelks,  and  Purpura  lapillus ;  and  flying  far 
and  near,  disgorge  the  shells  in  a  half-digested  state. 
Therefore,  I  should  not  attach  any  importance  to  marine 
shells  on  the  surface  of  the  most  solitary  and  unfrequented 
moor  in  the  county.  But  when  I  find  marine  shells 
from  twenty  to  sixty  feet  deep  in  the  boulder  clay,  the 
case  is  completely  different." 

On  another  evening,  while  searching  with  his  pick 
among  the  boulder  clay  along  the  river  side,  he  met 
with  an  almost  entire  Turritella*  amidst  many  other 
pieces  of  shell.  He  had  been  a  shell -collector  for 
fourteen  years,  but  had  never  met  with  the  smallest 
fragment  of  a  Turritella  until  the  previous  spring,  when 
he  found  a  damaged  fragment  near  Castlehill,  Dunnet 
sands.  "You  may  therefore,"  he  says,  "judge  of  my 
joy  in  finding  one  in  the  boulder  clay.  They  are 

*  The  living  Turritellae  inhabit  deepish  sea  water,  ranging  from  one 
to  three  hundred  fathoms.  They  are  known  as  screw-shells,  from  the 
shell  being  elongated,  many-whorled,  and  spirally  striated. 


CHAP.  xii.  GLACIAL  ACTION.  163 

abundant,  I  know,  in  the  British  seas,  but  somehow, 
owing  to  the  set  of  the  currents,  they  are  never  thrown 
on  Thurso  shores." 

On  the  following  evening,  he  again  set  out  to  ex- 
amine the  blue  clay,  and  found  a  fine  section  at  Thurdis- 
toft.  A  large  mass  of  clay  and  stones  had  fallen  down 
the  bank  The  stones  from  the  blue  clay  differed  from 
those  of  the  red.  He  had  before  been  at  Weydale,  up 
the  country,  and  at  the  quarries  on  the  hill  of  Forss,  to 
detect  glacial  action  on  the  surface  of  the  rocks.  In 
both  cases  he  failed.  But  here,  among  these  fallen 
stones,  he  for  the  first  time  detected  signs  of  glacial 
action  in  four  separate  instances. 

"  I  now,"  he  says, "  put  off  my  shoes,  and,  despite  the 
'  water  kelpies,'  took  the  ford  and  pushed  on  to  a  fine 
section  on  the  east  side.  I  again  found  shell  fragments. 
My  pleasure  was  great.  I  pushed  on,  and  next  found 
a  very  high  section  opposite  the  Bleachfield,  on  the  east 
side.  I  found  shell  fragments  here  too.  My  pleasure 
was  doubled  and  trebled.  ...  I  was  joined  by  two  boys, 
who  thought  it  capital  sport !" 

Dick  continued  to  walk  early  in  the  morning  and  late 
at  night  in  search  of  his  marine  shells.  One  morning 
he  found  an  entirely  whole  valve  of  Venus  casina.  He 
found  at  one  place  on  the  river-bank  a  black  band  or 
belt  running  diagonally  in  a  waving  manner  across  the 
boulder  clay.  Above  it,  the  clay  was  reddish ;  below,  it 
was  blue.  On  taking  part  of  the  black  belt  into  his 
hand  and  rubbing  it,  it  felt  like  fine  clay  and  fine  sand 
intermixed.  "  Am  I  to  infer,"  he  said,  "  that  the  wavy 


164  CAITHNESS  COVERED  BY  SEA.     CHAP.  xu. 

band  arose  from  the  sea  ebbing  and  flowing  alternately 
over  the  ordinary  boulder  clay  beneath  it  ?  And  then 
the  reddish  clay,  so  different  from  the  clay  beneath  the 
black  belt.  Just  as  if  the  abrading  or  grinding  forces 
had  ceased  for  a  time,  and  then  set  to  work  again." 

He  was  soon  able,. by  his  unintermitting  exertions,  to 
determine  whether  the  sea  had  once  washed  over  the 
county  of  Caithness. 

"  In  these  days  of  hasty  revolutions,"  he  says,  "  my 
opinions  since  yesterday  have  changed.  I  am  now 
enabled  to  answer  the  question  which  I  put  to  you  as 
to  whether  there  was  a  sea  here  before  the  deposition 
of  the  boulder  clay. 

"  This  morning,  on  clearing  away  the  clay  from  my 
shell  crumbs  from  Harpsdale,  I  found  a  piece  of  the 
Common  Mussel  and  a  piece  of  the  Eock  Whelk — Pur- 
pura  lapillus." 

There  was  no  doubt  about  it.  Not  only  had  the  sea 
covered  Caithness,  but  ponderous  ice-rafts  had  gone 
grating  along  the  mountain  valleys,  grinding  the  rocks 
into  clay,  and  dropping  the  boulders  which  they  contained 
along  the  sea-bottom  as  they  sailed  along.  Wherever 
he  went  Dick  found  shells  among  the  boulder  clay — 
Cyprina,  Venus,  Turritella  terebra,  Mactra,  and  several 
species  of  the  genus  Tellina, 

One  day,  towards  the  end  of  September  1848,  Dick 
went  to  Harpsdale,  about  two  miles  up  the  Thurso  river. 
"  At  Harpsdale,"  he  says,  "  in  the  boulder  clay,  marine 
shell  fragments  are  to  be  had  in  abundance.  /  lingered 
by  this  delightful  section  for  about  an  hour"  He  speaks 


CHAP.  xii.  THE  GLACIAL  THEORY.  1C5 

of  the  boulder  clay  as  if  it  was  a  lover  he  was  lingering 
for.  He  went  still  higher  up  the  river  that  day  to 
Dale  House — crossing  the  river  from  time  to  time, 
startling  the  wild  ducks,  and  inspecting  the  boulder  clay 
in  all  its  windings. 

Dick  found  fourteen  shells  of  the  existing  races  which 
he  had  extracted  from  the  boulder  clay,  and  he  had  no 
doubt  that  this  number  might  have  been  doubled.  He 
says — "  A  list  of  these  shells  is  necessary,  not  only  to 
mark  my  present  success,  but  also  to  stimulate  me  to 
further  efforts."  He  accordingly  subjoined  a  list  of  the 
shells  he  had  found,  and  sent  it  to  Hugh  Miller.  "  Thin 
shell  valves,"  he  said,  "  such  as  Tellina,  have  been  found 
entire.  Pieces  of  Cyprina  are  by  far  the  most  abundant. 
But  I  suspect  that  it  will  not  do  to  say  that  it  was 
owing  to  their  superior  strength — their  strong  construc- 
tion— that  they  are  found  so  very  abundant.  Mactra 
and  Tellina  have  received  slight  damage ;  small  young 
Crassina  (a  month  old  ?)  have  withstood  the  fearful 
shock  of  mountain  waves,  of  dashing  icebergs  grinding 
and  pounding,  whirling  about  and  reeling  like  playthings 
— seas  charged  with  mud,  and  stones  of  stupendous 
weight ;  all  these  have  been  tossing  hither  and  thither, 
ebbing  and  flowing,  and  the  earth  reeling ;  and  yet,  a 
diminutive  little  thing  like  this  now  lying  before  me  has 
been  preserved!  Amazing!  I  have  met  with  many 
stones  in  the  boulder  clay  grooved  and  scratched  and 
rubbed  in  the  strangest  way  imaginable.  For  the  pre- 
sence of  these  stones  where  they  now  are,  I  think  the 
glacial  theory  is  the  most  likely. 


166 


DUNCANSBY  STACKS. 


"  I  have  found  gneiss,  light  blue  kind  of  grauwacke, 
oolite,  and  oolite  conglomerate,  in  the  clay.  I  know  of 
no  rocks  in  situ  to  the  west  similar  to  these.  The  blue 
clay  and  dark  clay  is  undoubtedly  derived  from  the 
ordinary  rocks  of  the  county.  It  is  found  in  various 
degrees  of  purity,  but  is  in  general  one  confused  jumble, 
and  as  hard  rammed  as  if  a  giant  had  used  one  of  the 
Stacks  of  Duncansby  as  a  paving  hammer." 


STACKS   OF  DUNCANSBY. 


CHAPTEE  XIIL 

DICK'S  SEARCHINGS  AMONGST  THE 
BOULDER  CLAY. 

DICK  tested  the  statements  of  other  geologists,  no  matter 
how  distinguished,  by  his  own  observations.  Thus,  he 
found  that  Sir  Charles  Lyell  had  stated,  in  his  Elements 
of  Geology,  that  very  few  organic  remains  had  been 
found  in  the  boulder  clay,  and  especially  in  the  till, 
throughout  Scotland. 

"  Now,"  says  Dick  to  Hugh  Miller,  "  you  see  the 
results  of  my  observations.  Marine  shells  have  been 
found  in  nearly  all  the  sections  of  boulder  clay  that  I 
have  met  with.  But  I  thought  it  better,  instead  of 
further  searching  the  clay  near  Thurso,  to  try  another 
direction.  I  accordingly  determined  to  travel  to  Fres- 
wick  Bay,  on  the  east  side  of  the  county,  and  trace  up 
the  burn  there." 

This  journey  from  Thurso  to  Freswick  was  only  one 
of  the  many  instances  of  Dick's  enthusiastic  deter- 
mination in  the  cause  of  science.  The  distance  was 
twenty-four  miles.  It  took  him  six  hours  of  unflinch- 
ing walking  to  reach  the  scene  of  his  operations.  It 
was  October,  and  the  weather  was  growing  cold.  Dick 
went  across  the  Broad  Linns  extending  from  Barwick  to 


168  MOONLIGHT  AT  CANISBAY.      CHAP,  xm, 

Mey  and  Canisbay,  a  long  sea-exposed  road.  From  near 
Canisbay  church  he  saw  the  moon  overhead,  and  the 
Skerry  lights  shimmering  in  the  distance  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Pentland  Firth. 

The  man  who  walks  by  moonlight  travels  among 
enchantments.  Everything  he  sees  is  different  from 
what  it  is  in  daylight.  Roadside  knolls  are  mountains 
along  the  horizon ;  the  little  cottages  by  the  roadside  are 
palatial ;  and  the  distant  sea  is  full  of  glory.  We  tell 
the  story  of  Dick's  journey  to  Freswick  in  his  own  words. 
They  are  full  of  interest : — 

"  It  is  a  sad  drawback  to  my  long  rambles,"  he  says, 
"  that  I  am  under  the  necessity  of  returning  home  by 
four  o'clock  in  the  same  day.  The  distance  to  Freswick 
is  twenty-four  miles.  It  took  me  six  hours  to  walk 
there,  six  hours  to  walk  back,  leaving  about  three  hours 
for  investigation  on  the  spot, — thus  making  about  fifteen 
hours  in  all. 

"  To  accomplish  this  I  started  at  midnight.  I  passed 
over  the  town's  bridge  at  a  quarter  to  twelve,  under  the 
favour  of  as  lovely  a  moon  as  ever  blessed  an  unthank- 
ful world.  Though  I  walked  alone,  I  walked  cheerily. 

"  About  a  quarter  to  six  in  the  morning  I  found 
myself  gazing  up  at  the  droll  windows  of  the  old  castle 
of  Freswick,  while  daylight  and  moonlight  were  yet 
struggling  for  the  mastery. 

"  It  was  too  dim,  too  queer  a  light  to  enable  me  to 
scrutinise  the  boulder  clay  sections,  so  I  passed  over  the 
burn  and  along  the  shore,  on  the  top  of  a  high  ridge  of 
sand  and  recent  shells,  blown  up,  I  suppose,  by  stormy 


CHAP.   XIII. 


FRESWICK  BURN. 


169 


•winds — at  least  100  feet  over  the  sea-leveL  I  looked 
round  and  round  the  little  bay,  and  thought  I  could  dis- 
cern, on  the  Duncansby  side,  a  terrace  about  thirty  or 
forty  feet  above  the  present  sea-leveL  It  was  the  first 
terrace  I  had  seen.  There  are  no  terraces  at  Thurso.  If 
they  ever  existed,  the  encroachments  of  the  sea  have 
obliterated  them. 


CK  CASTLE   AND   HEADLAND. 


'  The  daylight  was  now  good.  It  had  obliterated  the 
light  of  the  moon.  At  six  o'clock  I  turned  into  the  burn, 
of  Freswick,  close  under  the  castle ;  and  had  not  pro- 
ceeded above  a  gunshot,  when  I  found  a  low  section  of 
blue  clay,  thickly  charged  with  recent  marine  fragments, 
chiefly  Cyprina. 

"  I  passed  up  the  burn,  from  section  to  section,  and 
extracted  shells  out  of  them  all — 111  some  instances  entire 


170  WADING  THE  BURN. 


univalves.  In  the  first  clay  section  I  examined  I  found 
many  rolled  pieces  of  what  seemed  chalk ;  it  is  either 
chalk,  or  very  pure  petrified  shell-marl.  I  also  found  at 
another  place  chalk  flints ! 

"As  I  went  up  the  burn,  I  found  the  sections  of 
boulder  clay  growing  higher  and  higher,  up  to  thirty 
feet  in  height.  I  found  them  get  fuller  of  stones.  It 
had  also  a  reddish  belt — a  band  of  sand  and  clay  inter- 
mixed, running  through  it  horizontally.  The  marine 
shells  exceeded  in  numbers  my  fondest  expectations. 

"  I  reached  the  bridge  carrying  the  public  road  over 
the  burn.  Though  the  bridge  is  only  about  fifteen 
minutes'  walk  from  the  sea,  it  took  me  three  hours  to 
reach  it,  and  there  I  found  that  my  time  was  exhausted. 
I  had  been  so  busily  employed  in  extracting  marine 
shells  from  the  clay. 

"  "Wishing  to  take  the  loop  out  of  the  road,  I  struck 
across  the  moor.  I  came  to  the  burn  again,  and  found 
section  after  section  crowded  with  shell  crumbs  thicker 
than  the  spots  on  the  leopard.  Atop  of  the  sections,  a 
stratum  of  peat,  and  over  all  heather,  knee  deep.  What 
a  reward  for  my  six  hours'  travel !  What  a  paradise  for 
the  geologist ! 

"  I  splashed  through  the  burn,  first  to  one  side,  then 
to  the  other;  till  in  an  agony  I  ultimately  ran  away 
from  the  temptation.  I  found  it  was  half-past  ten 
o'clock !  So  away  I  went  post-haste ! " 

Shortly  after  his  return,  Dick  sent  to  Hugh  Miller  a 
list  of  the  twenty -four  marine  shells  (giving  their 
various  names)  which  he  had  already  found  in  the 


CHAP.  xin.       REPORT  BY  HUGH  MILLER.  171 

boulder  clay  of  Caithness.  Hugh  Miller  had  said 
that  he  "had  never  found  in  the  boulder  clay  the 
slightest  trace  of  an  organism  that  could  be  held  to 
belong  to  itself,"  and  he  "became  somewhat  sceptical 
regarding  the  very  existence  of  boulder  fossils.  I  must 
now  state,  however,"  he  says,  "  that  my  scepticism  has 
thoroughly  given  way ;  and  that,  slowly  yielding  to  the 
force  of  positive  evidence,  I  have  become  an  assured 
believer  in  the  comminuted  recent  shells  of  the  boulder 
clay,  as  in  the  Belemnites  of  the  Oolite  and  Lias,  or 
the  ganoid  Ichthyolites  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone."* 
Hugh  Miller  then  refers  to  the  numerous  marine  shells 
found  by  Dick  on  the  banks  of  the  Thurso  river,  and 
in  the- boulder  clay  along  the  burn  at  Freswick. 

Dick  went  on  with  his  observations.  On  the  27th 
October  1848,  he  thus  began  his  letter  to  Hugh 
Miller:— 

"The  whole  affair  is  settled.  Scepticism  may  go 
sneak  with  the  moles  and  the  bats,  into  holes  and 
corners.  It  was  no  mud  eruption — no  temporary  flood 
of  ocean  brine — that  laid  down  the  blue  clay  and 
marine  shells  in  Freswick  Burn.  No!  It  was  the 
ocean  itself,  wide  and  broad  as  poor  auld  Scotland, 
when  the  proudest  pinnacles  of  Dunnet  Head  lay  far 
beneath  its  billows. 

"  In  my  last  note  to  you,  I  said  that  I  must  go  and 
see  the  eastern  side  of  Dunnet  Head,  chafed  by  the 
boisterous  waves  of  the  rude  Pentland  Firth.  Monday, 

•  "  Rambles  of  a  Geologist,"  in  Cruise  of  the  Betsy,  pp.  311-15.   Ed.  1873 


172  JOURNEY  TO  DUNNET  CLIFFS.     CHAP.  xin. 

Tuesday,  Wednesday,  and  Thursday,  went  by — cold, 
wet,  and  listless.  But  I  had  hopes  of  Friday.  I  rose  at 
half-past  two  o'clock,  worked  till  eight,  set  out  at  half- 
past  eight  for  Dunnet  cliffs,  and  was  home  again  at  half- 
past  three  in  the  afternoon.  Try  that,  gentlemen-geolo- 
gists ;  try  that,  if  ye  can ! 

" '  But  what  got  ye  ? '  1  hear  you  say.  '  What  got  ye  ?' 
Well,  I  will  tell  you  every  word  about  it ;  and,  believe 
me,  unless  I  had  the  opportunity  of  telling  it  to  you,  I 
would  never  have  gone  a  footstep  in  search  of  auld  warld 
shells. 

"Well!  on  arriving  at  the  eastern  side  of  Dunnet 
cliffs,  I  made  direct  for  a  precipitous  cliff  at  least  150 
feet  high ;  where,  some  years  ago,  I  sat  on  a  big  bouldei 
of  sandstone,  making  my  breakfast  on  cold  rolls  and 
cheese.  In  the  present  instance,  I  wound  along  the 
foot  of  these  breakneck  rocks,  which,  unless  the  tide  had 
been  out,  I  would  not  have  been  able  to  do, — for  the 
tide  comes  close  in  under  the  cliff. 

"  I  clambered  over  the  fallen  stones,  dashed  by  white 
spray,  which  went  clean  over  me  like  a  shower-bath. 
Winding  along,  creeping  my  way,  I  could  not  help 
admiring  the  multitudes  of  LiUorina  rudis  which 
besprinkled  the  stones.  I  was  as  much  a  child  as  ever. 
I  filled  my  vest  pocket — simply  because  they  were 
bonnie. 

"  I  soon  found  that  I  was  about  to  be  disappointed  as 
regards  the  first  half  of  the  serious  work  that  I  had  come 
in  quest  of.  The  precipitous  cliffs  of  red  sandstone  to 
Hie  west  of  the  little  haven  of  Brough  are  gradually 


CHAP.  xin.      EAST  SIDE  OF  DUNNET  HEAD. 


173 


mouldering,  and  as  they 
moulder  the  earthy  mat- 
ter falls  down;  but  meet- 
ing with  few  ledges  of 
rock  to  arrest  it,  the 
whole  is  swept  away  by 
the  sea. 

"Here  and  there, 
as  I  went  on,  I  found 
patches  of  it,  forming  a 
talus  at  the  foot  of  the 
cliffs,  with  green  turf, 
bedecked  with  withered 
wild  flowers.  I  found 
that  the  sea,  at  high 
tides,  had  cut 
IT.,  small  sec- 
tions 


DUJJHET  CLIFFS  :    EASTERN  8IDK. 

9 


174  B ROUGH  HAVEN. 


out  of  the  end  of  the  slopes.  I  examined  these,  and 
found  shell  crumbs,  but  they  were  not  the  genuine  thing. 
I  found,  along  with  the  crumbs,  entire  shells  of  Helix, 
Pupa,  Clausilia,  etc.  This  stamped  these  sandslips  as 
quite  modern  affairs. 

"  Then  I  went  on  to  the  cottage  built  beside  the  small, 
neat,  landing-place  on  the  sea-shore,  at  Brough  Haven. 
The  braes  above  here  are  at  least  eighty  feet  high ;  and 
a  fine  landslip  had,  not  very  long  ago,  taken  place ;  but 
alas !  the  Government  folks,  anxious  to  have  everything 
tidy,  had  driven  piles  of  wood  into  the  ground,  and  laid 
fresh  divots*  over  the  whole  of  it.  Had  they  only  known 
that  I  was  coming  to  see  the  place,  they  would  doubtless 
have  left  it  bare  and  raw ! 

"  Never  mind !  In  spite  of  them,  I  found  a  few  small 
landslips,  and  in  the  raw  face  of  them  I  found,  what 
surprised  me,  my  old  friend  the  blue  boulder  clay,  filled 
with  pieces  of  Cyprina !  I  gathered  a  handful,  and 
passed  on  to  a  precipitous  cliff  of  blue  boulder  clay,  right 
above  the  cottages  on  the  shore ;  and  digging  steps  for 
my  feet  up  the  clay,  I  found  Cyprina  and  shell  crumbs 
of  the  sea.  On  the  very  top  of  the  brae,  just  a  little  back, 
the  Government  men  have  built  a  very  handsome 
cottage.^ 

"  A  very  little  to  the  west  of  this  cottage  there  is  a 
small  burn.  The  burn  has  cut  its  way  down  through 

*  Plats  of  grass. 

f  It  is  at  the  little  haven  of  Brough  that  the  supplies  are  landed 
for  the  men  at  the  lighthouse  situated  on  the  northern  end  of  Dunnet 
Head. 


ROCKS  AT  BROUGH. 


CHAP.  xni.      THE  EDGE  OF  THE  PRECIPICE.          175 

the  boulder  clay.  I  went  into  the  ravine,  and  stood 
looking  round  me.  No  sight  could  give  me  so  much 
pleasure  and  surprise.  I  found,  on  walking  along  the 
little  rill,  that  there  was  a  tiny  cascade  about  eight  or 
nine  feet  deep,  down  which  the  mossy  water  leapt  dash- 
ingly over  a  perpendicular  wall  of  real,  blue,  stony, 
boulder  clay ! 

"  I  advanced  to  the  brink  of  the  waterfall,  and  there 
again  I  stood,  and  looked,  and  wondered !  Never  was 
mortal  so  enchanted.  Boulder  clay  on  each  side,  all 
fretted  with  '  barley  mill '  fragments  of  shells,  pieces  of 
Cyprina,  and  blue  stones,  pebbly  fragments,  standing 
half  out,  half  in,  as  thick  as  locusts.  And  the  wide  sea 
immeasurably  far  away ! 

"I  looked  down,  and  saw  distinctly  shells,  commi- 
nuted shells,  studding  the  clay  at  the  foot  of  the  water- 
fall, and  the  steep  sides  of  a  section  beyond  it,  to  the 
very  edge  of  the  precipice.  I  wished  to  jump  down, 
but,  like  the  cautious  puddock,  I  reflected  '  how  was  I 
to  get  up  again  ?'  The  sides  of  the  small  chasm  were  as 
perpendicular  as  a  wall,  and  nearly  as  hard.  I  tried  my 
hammer  and  old  knife  on  the  hard  clay  beside  me,  and 
it  put  me  to  a  swither. 

"  Yet  I  must  get  down ;  and  at  length  I  determined  tc 
try.  Observing  that  the  bank  or  section  of  boulder  clay, 
nearly  at  the  very  edge  of  the  precipice,  on  the  east 
side,  was  a  little  lower  than  the  rest,  I  resolved  to  go 
down  there.  I  thought  that,  by  digging  steps  for  my 
feet,  I  should  doubtless  get  up  again. 

"  It  was  a  venture,  let  me  tell  you.    One  false  step,  and 


176         AMONGST  THE  BOULDER  CLAY.    CHAP.  xm. 

down  I  should  have  gone  over  the  precipitous  wall  of  red 
sandstone — down,  down,  to  the  sea-washed  rocks  below. 
But  not  so  fast !  I  am  not  the  man  to  break  my  neck 
for  auld-warld  shells.  No  !  So,  laying  firm  hold  of  the 
grass,  I  deposited  my  legs  downwards,  quietly  over  each 
other,  and  then  slid  softly  down  on  my  hunkers  ! — Now  ! 

"  I  walked  up  to  the  foot  of  the  little  cascade,  and 
stood,  and  looked,  and  better  looked.  The  boulder  cliff 
or  brae  on  the  west  side,  was  about  fifteen  or  twenty 
feet  high,  and  rested  on  polished  red  sandstone.  It  was 
thickly  charged  with  stone  fragments,  not  of  red  sand- 
stone, mind  you, — not  one  crumb ;  but  dark,  bituminous, 
claystone  fragments,  of  small  size,  generally  about  the 
size  of  the  heads  of  harrow  teeth,  or  of  old  nails  in 
cathedral  doors.  I  found  many  'barley  mill'  shell 
crumbs, — all  small,  not  one  large  piece,  and  all  of 
Cyprina. 

"  My  dear  friend  Turritella  was  not  there  at  alL  I 
examined  the  pieces  of  stone  to  see  if  I  could  find  groov- 
ing or  scratching;  but  though  they  were  all  well  polished, 
1  detected  no  decided  grooving.  One  or  two  of  the 
largest  and  broadest  stones  had  fine  scratchings,  but  not 
at  all  so  deep,  or  so  continuous,  as  on  the  big  stones  I 
found  at  Thurdystoft,  on  the  Thurso  river. 

"I  brought  away  a  piece  of  the  bituminous  clays, 
and  one  stone,  well  polished,  with  a  hollow  depression 
on  one  side.  I  took  a  few  of  the  shell  crumbs,  but  not 
all.  I  purposely  left  a  few  for  the  CRITICS  !  or  the  next 
gentleman  who  may  venture  there. 

"  There  are  moments  when  a  real  heartfelt  pleasure 


CHAP.  xiii.     THE  PARADISE  OF  A  GEOLOGIST.     177 

amply  repays  us  poor  mortals  for  years  of  sorrow.  And 
such  a  moment  was  mine  now.  There  I  stood  with 
evidences  of  Old  World  convulsions  and  changes 
environed  round  about  me  on  every  side.  And  yet  there 
was  a  living  cascade,  merrily  piping  away  the  sunny 
hours  at  my  feet,  the  crystal  drops  bedecking  my  clay- 
soiled  boots.  Columbus  had  never  cast  anchor  here. 
No  philosopher  had  ever  entered  this  paradise.  It  was 
all  a  new  world.  To  me  for  the  moment  it  was  The 
World.  And  I  triumphed  in  the  felt  conviction  that  a 
humble  individual  like  myself  had,  under  Providence, 
'  done  the  State  some  service ;'  for  the  evidence  that  it 
brings  to  bear  on  geological  science  is  not  to  be  gainsaid. 

"Not  many  yards  inland  from  this  fine  section  of 
boulder  clay,  resting  on  cliffs  of  red  sandstone  on  the 
east  side  of  Dunnet  Cliffs,  high  over  the  Pentland  Firth, 
— not  many  yards  inland  there  lies,  over  this  clay,  a 
black  peat  moss,  which,  judging  from  examinations 
made  in  it,  is  at  least  seven  or  eight  feet  thick.  How 
old  is  that  black  moss  ?  Hundreds,  thousands  of  years  ? 
Yet  what  is  that  to  the  time  that  has  elapsed  since  the 
icebergs  went  thundering  over  Dunnet  Head  ?  Then 
the  sea,  the  wide  sea,  floated  and  stormed  over  all. 

"  Yes !  there  are  thousands  and  millions  of  grey 
lichened  sandstone  boulders  scattered  over  the  moory 
top  of  Dunnet.  There  are  boulders  of  grey  granite  too ! 
Ay,  and  there  are  boulders  of  gneiss  and  of  clayslate. 

"  But,  in  the  midst  of  these  reflections,  I  forget  that 
I  am  down  in  a  breakneck  ravine,  and  that  it  is 
necessary  that  I  should  contrive  to  get  up  again.  Well ! 


178  JOURNEY  TO  HARPSDALE.       CHAT.  xm. 

I  went  to  the  lowest  part  of  the  section,  and  digging 
*teps  for  my  feet,  I  clambered  up  until  I  reached  the 
green  turf;  and  laying  hold  of  it  with  my  hands  I  pulled 
myself  up  with  all  my  strength.  .  .  .  And  then  I  went 
homewards,  full  of  delight  at  my  morning's  work." 

Dick  was  not  yet  satisfied.  He  must  investigate  the 
whole  subject  thoroughly.  He  was  no  featherbed 
philosopher.  He  was  up  in  the  morning  early ;  did  his 
work, — kneaded,  worked  the  dough  into  loaves,  put 
the  whole  into  the  oven,  waited  until  it  was  baked,  drew 
it  out,  and  then  was  away  on  some  fresh  expedition. 

At  the  beginning  of  November  he  went  to  Harps- 
dale,  about  eleven  miles  from  Thurso.  The  weather 
was  now  cold  and  wet.  It  rained  heavily  during  the 
whole  day.  He  found  in  the  black  band,  above  described 
a  belt  of  fine  sea  sand,  white  and  pure,  dipping  east.  It 
contained  sea  shells  and  shell  crumbs  ;  clays  of  various 
colours,  black,  blue,  green,  and  grey ;  boulders  of  red 
granite;  small  red  granite  pebbles;  pieces  of  quartz, 
gneiss,  greenstone,  and  grauwacke ;  chalk  and  chalk 
flints  ;  Portskerra  conglomerate ;  Caithness  flagstones, 
some  of  them  well  rubbed,  grooved  by  ice, — all  in  the 
boulder  clay ! 

He  was  not  yet  satisfied  with  his  first  visit  to  Freswick. 
He  determined  to  make  another,  though  it  was  so  late 
in  the  year.  He  was  for  some  time  deterred  by  the 
stormy  weather.  It  was  blowing  from  the  north,  with 
rain,  sleet,  and  snow  alternately.  But  no  sooner  did  a 
pause  occur  than,  equipped  with  stern  resolution,  he 
took  the  road.  To  show  his  determination,  we  quote  hia 


CHAP.  xni.    ANOTHER  JOURNEY  TO  FRESWICK.    179 

own  words,  which  are  not  only  full  of  life  but  of 
eloquence.  They  are  taken  from  his  letter  to  Hugh 
Miller,  dated  the  13th  November  1848  :— 

"  The  nights  are  much  longer  now,  and  of  course  the 
days  are  much  shortened.  I  knew  that  I  could  not 
discern  a  piece  of  shell  from  a  piece  of  stone  before 
eight  o'clock;  and  I  did  not  wish  to  stand  shivering 
there  waiting  for  the  sun. 

"  '  Up,  sluggards  !  up  ! ' 

"  At  half-past  two  o'clock  I  got  my  parritch  ready, 
gulped  it  down,  and  sallied  forth. 

"It  is  a  cold  damp  morning.  Black  clouds  are 
wheeling  and  circling  along  the  sky.  The  moon  is 
somewhere  above,  but  I  see  it  not.  Her  light  is  shorn. 
But,  for  the  little  light  she  sheds,  I  am  thankful.  It  is  a 
long,  long,  lonely  road  to  Freswick ;  but  though  alone  I 
have  no  fears. 

" '  Ghaist  nor  bogle  shalt  thou  fear ; 
Thou'rt  to  Heaven  and  Science  dear  ! ' 

"  I  am  not  sure,  not  exactly  sure,  whether  the  deduc- 
tions of  scientific  men  are  always  such  as  to  merit  the 
approbation  of  Heaven.  Man  at  best  is  but  an  erring, 
groping,  half-blind  animal.  His  reason  is  often  at  fault. 
But  hark !  the  sleepless  one  gives  warning.  One,  two, 
three  o'clock,  and  now  across  the  bridge,  and  now  along 
the  road, — encompassed  on  either  side  with  cultivated 
fields,  once  stubborn  blue  boulder  clay,  and  even  yet, 
after  hundreds  of  years  of  dibbling  and  dibbling,  drilling 
and  digging,  it  is  still  a  rough  soil. 


180 


BOULDER  STONES. 


"  On  now,  opposite  the  Cairn  of  Murkle,  is  a  green 
mound  on  the  left  hand,  where  lies  a  large  boulder  of 
Portskerra  conglomerate.  It  is  about  a  hundred  feet 
above  the  sea-level.  There  is  another  of  the  same  stuff 
on  the  shore  at  Cleardane.  At  East  Murkle  there  lies 
one  of  the  largest  boulder  stones  I  have  seen  in  Caithness. 
Twenty  years  ago  it  lay  there  amid  heather  and  long 


CASTLEHILL  HOUSE. 


grass.  The  field  is  ploughed  now,  and  we  have  stubble 
instead  of  heath,  but  the  stone  is  the  same.  It  lies 
about  300  feet  above  sea-mark,  and  when  the  ice  and 
the  flood  brought  it  there,  very  little  of  Dunnet  Head 
was  dry. 

"  The  village  of  Castletown  stands  on  the  boulder  clay, 
and  there  is  blue  boulder  clay  in  the  bottom  of  the  bay 
beyond.  It  can  be  seen  right  off  Castlehill  harbour.  .  . 
At  the  south-west  angle  of  Dunnet  Sands,  beside  the 


CHAP.  xiii.         WILD  BULLS  OF  DUNNET.  181 

House  of  Castlehill,  the  blue  bituminous  flagstone  crops 
out,  charged  with  broken  fossil  fish.  The  strata  dip  at 
low  angles — nearly  flat.  Crossing  the  sands,  with  a 
group  of  dunes  or  sandhills  on  our  right,  we  arrive  at 
Dunnet,  at  the  north-east  angle  of  the  bay.  .  .  .  The 
blue  slate  at  Brough,  and  on  to  Ham,  dips  very  suddenly. 
Indeed,  all  the  way  to  Barrogill,  one  would  think  that 
the  bottom  of  the  Pentland  Firth  had  fallen  in;  the 
strata  are  all  on  end. 

"  It  is  a  dull,  cold,  dreary  morning.  Strange  stories 
are  told  of  wild  men  and  wild  bulls  to  be  encountered 
amid  the  grassy  links  of  Dunnet ;  but  with  a  fearless 
step  we  go  on  our  way  in  hope,  remarking  that  surely 
the  ocean  was  once  farther  inland  than  where  we  are 
treading.  We  are  now  across  the  links  without  any 
harm  or  appearance  of  evil.  By  and  by  we  have  Loch 
Haellan  on  our  right,  and  we  hear  the  '  quack,  quack '  of 
ducks  and  the  startled  cry  of  the  snipe.  The  word  is  still 
'  On !'  Up  the  hill,  along  the  hill,  and  down  the  hill ; 
and  now  we  are  fairly  moving  across  the  Moss  of  Mey. 

"  The  clouds  have  now  dispersed.  Shall  we  look  at 
the  Aurora,  or  shut  our  eyes  on  Mars,  on  Venus,  or 
Jupiter,  or  the  Moon ;  for  they  all  peep  out  and  bid  us 
good  morning!  Yonder  are  the  twin  lights  of  the 
Skerries.  The  wind  has  died  away ;  the  sky  is  serene, 
and  the  voice  of  the  sea  murmurs  plaintively  along  the 
shore.  Oh !  'tis  worth  all  the  trouble,  all  the  toil,  all  the 
fatigue,  to  have  the  opportunity  of  lifting  up  one's  eyes 
and  contemplating  the  beauty,  the  grandeur,  the  sublimity 

of  such  a  scene  as  this. 

9* 


182  MOONLIGHT  AND  DA  YLIGHT.       CHAP.  xm. 

"Daylight  is  a  sure  thing.  Moonlight  is  good,  but 
you  never  feel  certain  where  you  are.  There  is  always 
a  hazy  uncertainty  about  it.  You  may  strain  your  eye- 
balls as  you  will,  but  you  can  never  get  a  hold  of  it. 
But  you  lay  hold  of  daylight  at  once.  You  always 
know  where  you  are,  even  when  the  most  imperfect 
glimmer  breaks  through  the  sky.  Does  not  this  tell 
emphatically  that  Man  is  the  creature  of  the  Day  ? 

"  How  lovely  looked  Stroma  Isle  across  the  waters  ! 
And  all  the  various  islands  far  and  near  lying  encompassed 
by  the  sea  without  a  wave,  placid  as  a  lake.  Below  me 
lay  John  o'  Groat's.  Not  without  reason  did  De  Groot 
choose  his  habitation.  I  admire  his  sagacity.  Old  John 
must  have  been  a  true  poet. 

"Most  of  the  existing  maps  are  very  faulty.  The 
one,  the  two,  before  me  are  eminently  so.  Never  mind ! 
The  road  strikes  off  to  Freswick.  We  wander  over  a 
moss ;  the  land  rises ;  and  then  we  wind  along  the 
Wart  Hill  * 

"  The  last  time  I  walked  along  this  road  I  observed 
what  I  thought  looked  liked  boulder  clay,  but  the  moon- 
light prevented  my  observing  it  closely.  To-day  I  had 
daylight.  I  found  that  much  red  sandstone  debris  lay 
thick  on  this  side  of  the  Wart  Hill.  By  and  by  I  came 
to  a  stream  of  water  pouring  in  a  torrent  over  the  hill 
I  went  off  the  road  into  the  chasm  made  by  the  water, 

*  When  going  from  Wick  to  John  o'  Groat's  the  author  was  driven 
along  the  side  of  Wart  Hill.  The  driver  said  :  "  It  used  to  be  called 
the  Hill  of  Curses.  It  was  a  Fairies'  Hill.  But  the  fairies  have  all 
gone  away  now." 


THE  SKERRY  LIGHTS,  PENTLAND   FIRTH  :    FROM   CANISBAY. 


CHAP.  xiir.  IVART  HILL.  183 


and  found   the   underlying   strata  Hood-red 

Most  likely  it  was  a  continuation  of  Duncansby  Head 

— '  square,  red,  and  ugly ;'  so  Maculloch  says. 

"  But  what  took  me  into  the  chasm  was  to  examine 
the  debris  lying  over  the  rock.  I  found  it  nine  or  ten 
feet  thick.  In  its  upper  portion  it  seemed  a  mixture  of 
blue  clay  and  red  sand,  and  the  upper  portions  were 
very  distinctly  stratified.  The  lower  portion  was  red, 
like  the  sandstone  on  which  they  lay.  I  found  no 
shells,  nor  shell  crumbs.  The  stuff  contained  many 
fragments  of  rubbed  sandstones.  There  were  a  few 
pieces  of  quartz  and  granite.  ...  A  flood  of  water  un- 
doubtedly brought  this  red  debris  to  the  south  side  of 
Wart  Hill.  Has  Duncansby  Head  felt  the  'plaguey 
knocks '  of  icebergs  too  ? 

"  Walking  on  a  little  farther,  I  stood  on  the  little 
bridge  over  the  Freswick  burn,  with  the  fine  sections  I 
have  come  in  search  of,  in  all  their  glory.  The  burn 
was  in  flood,  rushing  down  towards  the  sea.  It  washed 
the  base  of  the  section.  There  was  no  mode  of  getting 
near  it,  but  through  the  water. 

" '  Darest  thou,  Cassias,  now 
Leap  in  with  me  into  this  angry  flood, 
And  swim  to  yonder  point  1 ' 

Na !  na !  like  the  Duke  o'  Buccleuch,  we  can  neither 
'  flee  nor  soom ! '  and  as  for  sinking,  like  Csesar,  I  find  it 
good  stiff  clay  at  the  bottom,  and  just  hurdie  deep.  So 
in  I  go,  and  wade  along  the  base  of  the  section,  though 
indeed  the  rush  of  the  snow  water  was  very  cold  at  first  ] 
and  now  '  we  get  auld  stanes  in  store.' 


184 


FRESWICK  BURN. 


CHAP.  xnr. 


"  Well,  I  found  a  considerable  variety  of  stones  in  the 
clay  section ;  and  they  were  all  rubbed,  or  grooved,  or 
scratched.  I  found  pieces  of  flint,  .and  rubbed  pieces  of 
chalk.  I  found  granite,  quartz,  greenstone,  and  the 


BOULDER  CLAY  AT  FRESWICK. 

ordinary  clay  slate  of  the  county.  I  saw  very  large 
boulders.  Broken  shells  were  very  abundant.  I  found 
a  small  fragment  of  broken  Belemnite !  *  I  am  quite 
sure  of  it.  It  is  a  piece  split  down  the  middle,  exhibit- 
ing a  vertical  section  and  two  end  sections.  I  give  you 
a  sketch  of  it  [a  drawing  given].  Now,  surely  this  is  a 

*  An  Oolitic  fossil,  apparently  the  internal  bone  or  shell  of  extinct 
naked  Cephalopods  allied  to  the  squid  and  cuttlefish. 


CHAP.  xin.        EXAMINES  BOULDER  CLAY.  185 

most  important  fact ;  and  it  is  elicited  and  brought  to 
light  through  your  own  request  to  me  to  make  these 
examinations. 

"  Look  at  the  map.  There  is  a  long  stretch  of  country 
between  Harpsdale  and  Freswick,  and  yet  both  contain 
fossils  of  the  Oolite,  chalk  and  flint,  and  a  great  variety 
of  stones  common  to  both.  Nor  must  you  suppose  that 
a  hundredth  part  has  yet  been  found.  No,  no  !  What 
avails  a  hasty  journey  of  mine  ?  Comparatively  nothing. 

"  I  looked  for  my  big  bone  of  the  first  journey,  in- 
tending to  send  it  up  to  Edinburgh.  But  it  was  gone, 
as  I  half  expected  it  to  be.  It  has  been  swept  into  a 
deep  pool,  perhaps  carried  out  to  sea.  To  the  best  of  my 
skill  this  section  is  stratified,  and  is  a  mixture  of  blue 
and  red  boulder  clay,  with  the  red  predominating. 

"  After  satisfying  my  curiosity  at  this  section  (from 
twenty  to  twenty-four  feet  in  height),  I  left  it  and  went  to 
examine  the  strata  and  section  at  the  small  bridge.  I 
found  that  the  strata,  when  wet,  looked  blood-red ;  and 
the  clay  resting  on  it  dark  blue.  The  rest  of  the  section 
seemed  to  be  a  mixture  of  red  and  blue  boulder  clay, 
containing  broken  shells.  I  have  a  piece  of  the  clay  and 
the  strata  in  contact,  for  the  purpose  of  sending  to  you 
at  Edinburgh. 

"  Observing  a  small  stream  joining  the  main  burn, 
I  turned  into  it ;  and  found  that  here  too,  blue  boulder 
clay  lay  thicker  than  the  stream  had  yet  cut  down  to. 
Shells  of  Cyprina  and  Turritella  were  very  abundant. 
T  traced  the  stream  up  until  it  seemed  to  terminate  in  a 
shallow  ditch.  Eecrossing,  in  a  direct  line,  to  the  burn 


186 


FRESWICK  BRIDGE. 


that  I  had  left,  I  paused  on  one  of  the  rising  mounds  of 
boulder  clay — heath-clad  and  fern-decked — and  looked 
around  me.  I  endeavoured  to  grasp,  at  one  glance,  the 
extent  and  the  amount  of  the  formation.  It  was  too 
much.  The  organic  remains  that  the  mass  contained  are 
immense.  Arithmetic  is  powerful ;  but  it  fails  here :  it 
can  give  no  idea  of  the  tons  of  clay,  boulders,  stones,  and 


shells,  that  have  been  deposited  throughout  the  extent  of 
country  that  lies  between  here  and  Dunnet  Bay ! " 

In  a  future  letter  to  Hugh  Miller,  Dick  gives  the 
conclusion  of  his  journey  to  Freswick.  He  begins  : — 

"  The  whole  universe  is  set  to  music !  It  is  har- 
monious. There  is,  in  truth,  no  jarring,  no  discord! 
None  whatever !  And  when  man  thinks  that  he  dis- 
covers a  want  of  harmony,  the  fault  is  in  himself.  It 


CHAP.  xin.         CAITHNESS  SUBMERGED.  187 

is  he  that  is  out  of  tune,  and  not  Nature — not  the 
Creator  of  the  universe. 

"Here  is  a  magnificent  amphitheatre  of  heather! 
One  must  turn  round,  and  again  round,  to  take  in  the 
beauty  of  the  whole.  What  a  marvellous  extent  of 
boulder  clay  formation !  I  crossed  and  recrossed  the 
heath-adorned  mounds,  and  I  saw  that  the  stony  clay 
was  not  confined  to  a  mere  central  strip  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  Mossy  Burn.  It  extends  to  a  great  distance  on 
either  side  of  it.  Marking  the  scenery  very  attentively,  I 
could  come  to  no  other  conclusion,  than  that  when  the  clay 
on  which  I  stood  was  laid  down,  the  whole  of  the  country 
was  occupied  by  a  sea,  wave  tumbling  upon  wave ! 

"  It  could  not  have  been  any  trivial  outburst  of  the 
sea, — no  rising  wave  from  Dunnet  Bay.  For  the  clay 
copes  the  red  sandstone  debris,  on  the  side  of  Wart 
Hill, — at  an  elevation  of  a  hundred  feet  higher  than  the 
surface  of  the  beds  alongside  the  bum.  It  seems  to  me 
impossible  that  a  rush  of  water,  sweeping  down  such  a 
declivity,  could  go  so  far  out  of  its  course,  and  climb  a 
hillside.  And  then,  when  I  reflected  that  Dunnet  Head 
has  its  boulder  stones, — that  there  is  a  blue  stony  clay  in 
deep  water  in  Dunnet  Bay, — and  that  on  the  hillside 
above  East  Murkle,  there  is  a  granite  boulder,  many  tons 
in  weight,  some  three  or  four  hundred  feet  above  the  sea- 
level, — it  seemed  like  mockery  to  speak  of  an  eruption, 
or  outburst,  or  rise  of  the  sea  wave,  producing  these  things. 
No !  The  sea  then  submerged  the  whole  land,  on  the  east 
and  on  the  west,  on  the  north  and  on  the  south.  The  sea 
then  held  dominion  over  all.  Its  sway  was  supreme. 


188          HO W  LITTLE  CAN  BE  KNOWN.     CHAP.  XIIL 

"  It  is  just  possible  for  a  human  being  to  dig  into 
these  sections  of  boulder  clay,  and  think  nothing  about 
them.  He  is  contented  to  find  clay,  stones,  shells,  and 
sea-sand,  far  inland.  He  never  agitates  his  noddle 
about  them.  There  they  are !  It's  '  all  right ! '  What 
is  it  to  him  how  these  things  came  there ! 

"  And  even  when  he  begins  to  reflect — when  he  tries 
to  ascertain  how  shells,  and  sand,  and  clay  are  found  so 
far  inland,  how  far  does  he  get,  and  where  does  he  end  ? 
After  inquiring,  and  thinking,  and  guessing  about  these 
wonders, — he  finds  he  is  no  nearer  the  truth  than  when 
he  began : 

*' '  Well  did'st  thou  say,  Athena's  wisest  son, 
The  most  we  know  is,  nothing  can  be  known.' 

"And  yet,  despite  the  wisdom  of  the  Greek,  Dr. 
Beattie  holds  that  our  Creator  has  permitted  us  to  know 
just  a  very  little ;  and  the  sagacious  Dr.  Paley  affirms 
that  what  we  do  not  know,  need  not  disturb  our  belief 
in  what  we  do  know.  Though  Berkeley  will  have  it 
that  we  cannot  be  sure  of  anything — that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  matter  or  material  bodies, — yet  ordinary 
people  do  not  usually  run  their  head  against  a  post, 
under  the  idea  that  all  that  they  see  is  an  illusion. 

"  Here,  for  instance,  in  Caithness,  are  vast  accumula- 
tions of  what  we  call  Clay.  On  examination,  we  find  it 
composed  of  many  different  ingredients.  We  perceive 
it  to  be  a  body, — unique,  distinct,  and  totally  different, 
as  a  whole,  from  every  other.  Creation  holds  nothing 
similar.  Slate  rocks,  ground  down,  seem  its  main  con- 
stituent, mixed  with  sand.  Here  and  there  we  find 


CHAP.  xni.         HISTORY  OF  A  BOULDER.  189 

'  fine  braw  troggin  frae  the  banks  o'  Dee,'  or  from  the 
plains  of  Sweden,  in  the  shape  of  chalk  and  flint. 
There,  detached  fragments  of  Morven,  and  the  moun- 
tains of  Sutherland !  Yonder,  broken  Belemnites  from 
the  Hebrides !  There,  red  sandstone  fragments  from 
Dunnet  Head  or  Duncansby !  Shells  raked  up  from 
the  bottom  of  the  ocean  !  Lime  encrusted  with  pebbles 
from  sea  caves!  Boiled  corallines  and  fresh  water 
marl!  In  fact,  a  hundred  years  of  scrutiny  will  not 
exhaust  its  wonders.  These  are  the  facts,  which  tell  of 
some  great  catastrophe  in  the  illusory  world's  history ! 

"  What  is  that  History  ?  What  is  the  History  of  even 
one  of  its  rolled  pebbles  ?*  or  of  its  white  or  blue  stones  ? 
No  one  can  tell.  And  yet,  if  we  glance  at  them  for  a 
moment,  one  or  two  little  truths  can  be  learnt : 

"  First ; — those  white  or  blue  stones  were  once  soft, 
and  formed  part  of  a  much  larger  mass. 

"  Second; — they  were  detached  from  their  parent  beds, 
and  tossed  to  and  fro,  and  thus  became  irregularly  rounded, 

"  Third ; — they  then  enjoyed  a  period  of  repose,  during 
which  some  of  them  became  tinged  with  oxide  of  iron. 

*  Hugh  Miller,  referring  to  Dick's  observations  among  the  boulder 
clay,  says — "Would  that  they  could  write  their  own  histories  !  The 
autobiography  of  a  single  boulder,  with  notes  on  the  various  floras 
which  had  sprung  up  around  it,  and  the  various  classes  of  birds,  beasts, 
and  insects,  by  which  it  had  been  visited,  would  be  worth  nine-tenths 
of  all  the  autobiographies  ever  published,  and  a  moiety  of  the  remainder 
to  boot."  Since  the  appearance  of  Hugh  Miller's  works,  Mr.  Archibald 
Geikie,  of. the  Geological  Survey,  has,  to  a  certain  extent,  carried  out 
his  views,  and  published  a  very  interesting  book,  entitled  The  Story  of 
a  Boulder.  London,  1858. 


190  TIME'S  INSTRUMENTS.  CHAP.  xm. 

"Fourth; — they  were  once  more  in  motion.  The 
abrading  time  came.  The  stupendous  catastrophe  oc- 
curred, which  drove  them  along  to  a  new  abode,  and 
during  this  period  they  suffered  a  diminution  of  their 
surface. 

"  Is  it  necessary  to  say  more  ?  I  state  facts.  Let 
others  theorise. 

"Many  persons  attribute  the  changes  which  have 
occurred  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  to  Time.  But  what  is 
Time  without  his  instruments  ?  Kain,  frost,  hail,  snow, 
ice — these  are  his  instruments.  With  these  he  rends 
and  brings  down  the  mighty  rocks — even  the  eternal 
hills.  The  Sea  also  is  his — one  of  his  most  efficient 
workers. 

"  A  mighty  mass  of  water  must  once  have  covered 
the  Sutherland  mountains,  and  rolled  down  from  them 
ponderous  boulders,  tossing  them  about  like  playthings, 
and  throwing  them  far  and  near  over  Caithness.  Thus, 
a  great  boulder  from  Morven  lies  at  Weydale,  not  far 
from  Thurso.  Another  lies  at  Slater's  obelisk,  on 
Holborn  Head.  In  short,  I  cannot  tell  how  many  more 
there  are. 

"  But  one  thing  seems  evident.  The  boulder  stones 
owe  their  removal  to  the  same  causes  which  laid  down 
the  blue  boulder  clay.  They  lie  on  its  surface ;  some  of 
them  are  embedded  in  its  uppermost  tier;  others  are 
near  the  bottom. 

"  But  a  truce !  I  am  still  standing  by  the  Freswick 
Burn,  and  must  trace  it  up  before  I  set  out  homewards. 
Well,  I  trace  up  the  burn.  I  pass  section  after  section, 


HOMEWARDS.  191 


finding  more  broken  shells  than  I  can  gather.  There 
are  numerous  rolled  white  pebbles.  Within  a  bowshot 
I  could  have  filled  a  cart  with  them.  And  every  one 
now  in  the  burn  was  once  in  the  boulder  clay.  I 
traced  up  the  burn  until  it  ended  in  a  marsh,  at  the 
foot  of  a  gently  rising  eminence.  I  reached  the  south 
end  of  Loch  Scister,  and  then  passed  homewards. 

"  I  hope  to  make  four  other  journeys  to  different  parts 
of  the  county ;  but  I  do  not  intend  to  weary  you  with 
such  long  palavers," 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  ICEBERG  PERIOD. 

ROBERT  DICK  continued,  during  the  winter  of  1848-9, 
to  investigate  the  boulder  clay  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Thurso,  and  to  communicate  the  results  to  his  friend 
Hugh  Miller  at  Edinburgh.  He  became  more  and  more 
convinced  of  the  action  of  icebergs  in  grinding  down  the 
strata  of  the  various  rocks  into  clay  and  till.  He  found 
bits  of  Morven  mountain  scattered  over  the  county,  and 
the  largest  stones  were  the  deepest  grooved. 

Towards  the  end  of  December  1848,  Dick  writes  to 
Miller — "Perhaps  you  are  wondering  at  my  silence, 
though  I  have  not  been  inattentive  to  the  business  in 
hand.  Dogs,  you  know,  when  closest  in  pursuit,  give 
little  mouth.  I  have  been  as  active  as  the  very  :vet 
weather  would  permit,  and  owing  to  the  shortness  of  the 
days  I  have  been  obliged  for  the  most  part  to  confine 
my  explorations  to  this  neighbourhood.  Yesterday 
evening,  however,  I  returned  from  the  last  grand 
boulder  clay  expedition  of  this  season — perhaps,  with 
me,  the  last  for  ever !" 

This  expedition  was  to  Dunbeath,  almost  due  south 
of  Thurso,  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Caithness.  Dick  set 
out  a  little  after  twelve  o'clock  at  midnight.  He  walked 


CHAP.  xiv.         JOURNEY  TO  DUNBEATH. 


193 


along  the  public  road, — by  Sordal,  Banniskirk,  Spittle- 
hill,  and  Achavannich,  on  to  Dunbeath.  The  distance 
was  twenty-eight  miles.  He  walked  alone,  on  foot,  and 
in  the  dark.  It  was  a  long,  lone,  dreary  walk. 

As  the  light  began  to  dawn  he  saw  Loch  Stemster  on 
one  side  of  the  road,  and  Loch  Eangag  on  the  other. 


DO.-BEATH  t    EAST  COAST 


Then  he  crossed  the  foot  of  Ben  Cheilt,  over  the  road 
made  through  the  energy  of  Sir  John  Sinclair.  This 
was  the  dividing  ridge  between  the  east  and  the  west 
coasts.  Out  of  this  ridge  various  streams  begin  to  flow, 
which  run  down  into  the  North  Sea.  On  searching 
about,  he  found  that  the  granitic  debris  was  not  confined 
to  the  hollow  places,  but  lay  at  a  considerable  elevation 
amongst  the  moors,  if  ii  did  not  lie  beneath  the  whole 


194  DUNBEATH  WATER. 


of  them.     The  sea  must  once  have  stood  over  the  whole 
of  these  elevations. 

Anxious  to  make  the  most  of  the  limited  time  at  his 
disposal,  Dick  passed  up  Dunbeath  Water,  while  daylight 
was  but  a  mere  glimmer,  picking  his  way  among  the 
boulders  as  he  best  could.  Keeping  on  the  right  hand  of 
the  burn,  he  came  to  a  magnificent  cliff  of  dark  boulder 
clay  containing  marine  shells.  "  I  stood,"  he  says,  "  in 
amazement  at  the  scene,  in  the  dim  light  of  the  morning. 
I  would  willingly  have  sat  down  on  a  stone  and  waited 
the  coming  of  the  day.  But  the  whole  breadth  of  the 
county  lay  before  me,  with  mires  and  moors  unutterable. 
To  linger  here  might  be  fatal,  should  darkness  overtake 
me.  I  might  never  be  able  to  struggle  out  of  these 
horrible  moors.  So  'On,  on'  was  the  watchword ! 

"  But  observing  many  white  specks  of,  I  could  not 
tell  distinctly  what, — 'I  darklins  grapit;'  and  you  will 
hear  with  interest,  that  the  first  object  I  got  between  my 
finger  and  thumb  was  a  specimen  of  Turritella  terebra  ! 
That  shell  is  now  on  its  way  to  you  by  post. 

"  I  passed  on,  and  found  that  there  was  much  of  the 
dark  clay  in  this  spot,  and  of  great  height.  Stopping  at 
another  section  I  picked  out  another  specimen  of  Turri- 
tella, a  broken  hinge  of  Lutraria,  broken  Mactra, 
Cyprina,  and  other  shells.  By  this  time  it  was  nine 
o'clock;  and  as  the  daylight  was  good  I  saw  almost 
every  variety  of  granite — red  sandstone,  and  abundance 
of  old  red  conglomerate. 

"  To  wait  and  stoop,  and  minutely  scrutinize,  was  out 
of  the  question.  I  moved  on  from  section  to  section, 


CHAP.  xiv.          MISERY  OF  THE  MOORS.  195 

admiring  as  I  passed.  I  saw  cliffs  of  pulverised  granite 
resting  on  blue  boulder  clay;  and  blue  boulder  clay 
resting  on  pulverised  red  granite.  The  latter  was  very 
fine,  and  far  more  abundant  than  the  blue.  Section 
after  section  stood  up  sheer  as  a  wall,  and  the  red  was 
blazing  like  a  harvest  moon. 

"  In  two  places  I  saw  traces  of  stratification.  I  saw 
blue  boulder  clay  containing  marine  shells  a  long  way 
up  the  burn.  .  .  .  The  bare  boulders  are  very  large. 
The  granite  de'bris  is  amazingly  abundant.  But  why 
should  I  linger  thus  ?  Away  to  the  source  of  the  burn. 
Away  to  the  moors ! 

"And  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  truly  miserable, 
nothing  can  be  conceived  more  dreary  than  those  wide- 
stretching  heaths  in  a  cold  mid- winter  day.  The  gay 
cotton-grass  flaunts  no  more,  with  its  white  pendent 
heads  rustling  in  the  breeze.  The  heather  bells  are  dead. 
Nor  bird  nor  insect  is  there.  Even  the  hardy  club  moss 
has  acquired  a  sallow  hue ;  and  save  the  wimple  of  some 
merry  tinkling  rill,  all  is  lonely  and  melancholy. 

"  Away  through  the  moors ;  and  again  through  the 
moors!  And  such  moors!  Hop,  step,  and  jump  is 
holiday  diversion  compared  to  passing  over  these  rude 
hummocks.  One's  frame  trembles  with  the  concussion. 
Try  it  on  the  hummocks !  Try  to  pick  your  way  by 
wading  through  the  pools  of  water.  Try  and  get  round 
and  between  them.  It  is  all  the  same.  You  sigh  in 
hopeless  agony.  You  get  bemired  to  the  knees,  and 
long  for  a  clear  pool  of  water  where  you  may  have  a 
satisfactory  washing. 


196  A  REVEREND-LOOKING  MAN.     CHAP.  xiv. 

"  Loch  More !  who  has  not  heard  of  the  loch  ? 
Yonder  it  is,  tossing  lightly  its  cold  blue  waves.  I  see 
the  lofty  two-arched  bridge  crossing  the  river  that  flows 
out  of  it  to  join  the  Thurso  on  its  way  to  the  sea. 
Acharynie  lies  yonder.  An  auld  carle  is  moving  over 
the  hill,  keeping  fast  by  the  track  road,  and  that  road 
shall  be  mine  too  by  and  by. 

"  But  after  leaving  the  moor,  and  seeing  a  farm-house 
near  at  hand,  I  stepped  aside  to  ask  the  nearest  way.  I 
reached  the  barn-door,  and  found  an  old  reverend-looking 
man  threshing  bere. 

"'Please,'  said  I,  'how  far  is  it  to  Dalemore,  and 
which  is  the  best  road  ?'  '  Eh  ?  Are  ye  gaun  to  Dale- 
more?'  'Yes.'  'And  where  cam  ye  frae?'  'Dun- 
beath.'  '  Did  ye  come  frae  Dunbeath  the  day  ? 
'Yes.'  'An'  where  are  ye  gaun  tae?'  'Thurso.' 
'  Are  ye  gaun  to  Thurso  ? '  *  Yes.'  '  And  did  ye  wide 
the  river?'  'Yes.'  'An'  are  ye  gaun  to  wide  it 
again  ? '  '  Please  tell  me  the  best  road  to  Dalemore.' 
'  Hae  ye  snuff  ? '  '  No,  I  am  sorry  I  have  no  snuff.' 
'  Oo  ay  !  Haud  doon  the  strath ;  doon  by  the  river  ; 
strecht  doon ! '  '  How  many  miles  is  it  to  Dalemore  ? ' 
'  Four  miles  ;  ay,  just  four  miles. '  " 

"  Candid  man !  Oh,  the  want  of  sneeshin !  No 
magic  like  a  snuff-box  to  get  to  the  heart  of  a  Hieland- 
man ! 

"  I  think  it  is  old  Daniel  Defoe  who  lays  it  down  as 
a  truth,  that  a  man  should  never  act  contrary  to  his 
judgment  and  his  conviction  as  to  what  is  right,  more 
especially  if  he  has  a  mysterious  misgiving  about  the 


CHAP.  xiv.  LOCH  MORE.  197 

matter  in  hand,  for  which  he  cannot  account.  And  yet 
how  often  men  do  so,  and  how  often  they  find  reason  to 
repent ! 

"  The  ill  thief  blaw  yon  carle  south, 
An'  never  snuff  be  near  his  drouth  ; 
He  tauld  mysel'  by  word  o'  mouth, 

The  strath  was  better  ; 
I  lippened  to  the  loon  in  trouth, 

And  was  his  debtor. 

"  I  went  down  the  strath  by  the  river  side — '  strecht 
doon,' — in  direct  opposition  to  my  better  judgment. 
Philosophically  musing  in  mud  and  mire,  I  could  see 
that  Loch  More  was  once  much  larger  than  it  is  now. 
The  river  is  fast  filling  it  up  with  siliceous  sand,  clay, 
and  peat  mud.  I  walked  over  a  very  large  piece  of 
alluvium,  wrested  slowly  and  in  detail  from  the  bed  of 
Loch  More  by  the  stream  flowing  into  it.  Loch  More  * 
will  one  day  become  Loch  Little,  and  finally  disappear. 
Such  are  the  changes  taking  place  on  the  earth  under 
our  very  eyes ! 

"  I  had  nearly  rounded  the  loch,  and  was  congratulat- 
ing myself  on  my  expeditious  dispatch,  when  all  at  once 
I  was  startled  by  a  deep  broad  stream  emptying  itself 
into  the  loch !  To  cross  it  was  impossible  ;  to  turn  back 
was  maddening.  Oh,  the  reverend-looking  man  thresh- 
ing bere  !  '  Oh,  the  confounded  scoundrel ! '  said  I  loud 
out.  But  '  forgive  us  our  debts,'  I  added,  and  let  us 
begin  anew. 

"  I  turned  back,  and  had  to  walk  and  jump  over 

*  More  or  Molir,  Gaelic  for  big  or  large. 
10 


198  TAKEN  FOR  AN  EXCISEMAN.       CHAP.  xiv. 

moor,  mire,  and  pool.  I  went  in  a  retrograde  line  up 
nearly  to  the  carle's  house  before  I  found  a  spot  shallow 
enough  to  wade  through,  which  I  did. 

"  With  many  musings  on  the  desperate  deceit  of  the 
human  heart,  I  had  some  very  hard  work  in  getting 
through  a  very  bad  moor,  utterly  unable  to  account  for 
the  trick  played  upon  me.  At  last  I  thought  I  had  hit 
it.  '  He  took  me,'  said  I,  ' for  an  exciseman  I ' 

"  With  thankfulness  I  struck  the  Thurso  river  a  little 
above  Acharynie.  It  is  accounted  fifteen  miles  from 
Acharynie  to  Thurso,  and,  having  a  level  road,  the 
journey  might  be  said  to  be  at  an  end. 

"  The  granitic  debris  lies  in  great  thickness  over  all 
the  country  there.  I  saw  deep  sections  of  it  by  the 
river-side  far  above  Acharynie.  The  chasm  or  valley  in 
which  the  river  winds  is  of  considerable  depth,  exhibit- 
ing many  fine  sections  of  granitic  debris. 

"  A  little  past  the  old  church  I  saw  two  fine  sections 
of  blue  boulder  clay.  But  they  were  not  for  my  exami- 
nation at  present.  The  old  carle  had  done  for  me.  My 
time  was  gone.  I  had  settled  in  my  mind  a  visit  both 
to  Dallmore  and  Cattack.  But  I  must  push  on.  I  was 
obliged  to  rest  content  with  seeing  them  afar  off. 

"  In  this,  my  last  grand  boulder  clay  expedition  of 
the  year,  I  have  accomplished  a  feat  in  pursuit  of 
rotten  shells,  which  perhaps  not  many  men  would  have 
willingly  undertaken.  I  have  walked  more  than  fifty 
miles  without  once  sitting  down.  Then  next  morning 
at  five  o'clock,  I  rose  to  my  daily  work  as  if  nothing 
unusual  had  happened. 


CHAP.  xiv.      FORMATION  OF  CAITHNESS.  199 

"  The  historian  says  of  the  Eoman  Emperor  Hadrian 
that,  'careless  of  the  difference  of  seasons  and  of 
climates,  he  marched  on  foot  and  bareheaded  over  the 
snows  of  Caledonia  and  the  sultry  plains  of  Upper 
Egypt.'  Pshaw!  There  are  thousands  of  Scotsmen, 
even  in  these  effeminate  times,  that  would  scorn  to  yield 
a  hairsbreadth  to  the  Eoman  Hadrian,  even  in  the  best 
days  that  he  ever  saw." 

Dick  enclosed  in  his  letter  to  Hugh  Miller,  describ- 
ing the  above  expedition,  an  extinct  shell,  Fusus  Hey- 
woodii,  a  fossil  of  the  English  Crag  ;  "  though,"  he  said, 
"  Captain  Brown  does  not  figure  it  in  his  quarto  volume 
of  Recent  Shells"  In  his  next  letter  Dick  says — " I  am 
half  in  doubt  whether  you  would  not  consider  me 
crazed  in  my  last.  Stultus  ego.  But  these  journeys 
are  quite  exhilarating.  To  those  who  live  by  their 
labour,  '  every  inch  a  man '  is  a  great  deal.  I  am  sorry 
to  hear  that  you  are  so  weakly.  You  sit  too  much  at 
your  desk." 

Dick  goes  on  communicating  his  thoughts  to  Hugh 
Miller  about  the  formation  of  Caithness.  "  No  deluge 
of  water,"  he  said,  "  could,  in  my  opinion,  have  ground 
down  granite  rocks  to  the  consistency  of  clay.  Nothing 
so  likely  to  produce  what  we  now  see  around  us  as  a 
shallow  sea,  alternately  freezing  and  thawing,  and 
hampered  with  icebergs.  What  is  to  become  of  the 
Mosaic  deluge  ?  My  '  supernatural '  is  truth.  ...  I  had 
already  fallen  in  with  the  notion  of  a  westerly  current 
across  Caithness.  I  have  seen  much  to  confirm  that 
view.  Keay  Bay,  Strath  Halladale,  and  Shebster  Valley 


200  JOURNEY  TO  ACHARYN1E.        CHAP.  xiv. 


were,  in  my  opinion,  grand  inlets  to  the  sea — long,  long 
after  the  hills  of  Caithness  were  up  and  out  of  it." 

Although  Pick  had  been  misled  by  the"  reverend- 
looking  carle,  and  prevented  seeing  the  sections  of 
boulder  clay  at  Acharynie,  Dallmore,  and  Cattack,  on 
his  return  from  Dunbeath,  he  nevertheless  resolved  to 
return  for  the  purpose  of  inspecting  them.  He  set  out 
on  the  18th  January.  The  weather  was  severe.  Snow 
covered  the  ground,  but  it  was  hard  under  foot.  "  It  is 
a  glorious  thing,"  he  said,  "to  feel  the  keen  bracing 
January  winds  blowing  against  your  cheek,  while  the 
heart  beats  undaunted  hi  your  bosom." 

He  set  out  from  Thurso  about  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  arrived  at  Acharynie  a  little  after  eight, 
just  as  the  day  was  breaking,  bright  and  radiant.  In  the 
course  of  his  search  he  found  the  usual  sea-shells  in  the 
boulder  clay  of  Acharynie — broken  fragments  of  Turri- 
tella  terebra,  Cypriua,  and  the  like.  As  he  passed  down 
the  river  Thurso,  he  came  to  an  interesting  object — 

"  As  I  went  down  the  river-side,"  he  says,  "  I  found 
that  the  granite  had  at  some  period  forced  its  way 
through  the  clay  slate;  and  the  slate  seems  hardened 
and  turned  in  different  directions.  The  river  now 
assumes  a  different  appearance  ;  it  goes  tumbling  and 
plunging  along.  The  bottom  was  rocky.  By  and  by 
I  came  to  a  place  where  a  small  wooden  bridge  is  thrown 
across,  presenting  quite  an  enticing  scene  for  lovers  of 
the  picturesque.  The  place  is  also  well  worthy  of  the 
attention  of  the  geologist.  The  granite  is  here  piled  in 
rude  shapeless  masses ;  and  along  the  side  of  one  mass. 


CHAP.  xiv.  IGNEOUS  ROCKS.  201 

the  footpath  leading  to  the  bridge  has  been  cut.  The 
wandering  geologist  approaches,  and  just  as  he  is  about 
to  step  on  to  the  bridge,  to  look  down  upon  the  raging 
torrent  below,  his  attention  is  arrested  by  the  interesting 
phenomenon  of  the  primary  or  igneous  rock  lying  in  con- 
tact with  the  slate  or  secondary  rock.  The  molten 
matter  seems  to  have  forced  its  way  up  through  the 
clay  slate,  bending  it  as  easily  as  the  potter  does  his 
clay ;  and  the  heat  has  fused  it  into  mica  slate. 

"  Not  only  are  the  strata  in  contact  with  the  granite 
altered  to  gneiss  and  mica  slate,  but  about  the  centre  of 
the  mass  a  piece  of  black  mica  is  seen,  with  a  vein  of 
different-coloured  granite  leading  to  and  beside  it, — 
suggesting  the  idea  that  this  black  mica  had  at  one 
period  been  a  piece  of  ordinary  schist,  which  had  got 
entangled  in  the  molten  matter  as  it  rose,  and  thus 
assumed  the  appearance  which  it  now  exhibits.  I  broke 
a  piece  right  out  of  it,  and  will  find  an  opportunity  of 
sending  it  to  you.  I  also  took  a  piece  of  red  granite  for 
you,  and  a  piece  of  gneiss.  The  gneiss  is  most  interest- 
ing in  situ :  it  is  bent  into  a  beautiful  curve.  Such  and 
such  is  the  fact,  if  the  metamorphic  theory  be  the  correct 
one ;  indeed,  the  metamorphic  men  could  hardly  find  a 
better  argument  than  in  this  case. 

"  After  the  river  passes  this  bridge  its  channel  becomes 
rugged  in  the  extreme.  Then  you  come  to  Dirlot  Castle 
— a  picturesque  ruin  on  a  granitic  rock,  about  thirty  feet 
over  the  river's  channel — a  very  romantic  spot  !"* 

*  Some  of  the  scenes  through  which  the  river  Thurso  passes,  especi- 
ally in  the  upper  pails  of  the  parish  of  Halkirk,  are  full  of  romantic 


DIRLOT  CASTLE. 


RUINS   OF   DIRLOT   CASTLE. 

On  this  occasion  Dick  was  forced  to  return  home 
before  he  could  examine  the  boulder  clay  at  Dallmore 
and  Cattack.  A  fortnight  later  he  paid  his  intended 
visit.  He  explored  the  boulder  clay — found  marine 


beauty.  The  view  near  Dirlot  is  particularly  striking.  Here  the  banks 
on  each  side  are  steep,  and  richly  clothed  with  brushwood.  Dirlot 
Castle  is  the  oldest  in  the  county.  It  stands  in  ruins  on  the  summit  of 
a  precipitous  rock.  It  is  said  at  one  time  to  have  been  surrounded  by 
the  river,  and  accessible  only  by  a  drawbridge.  At  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  it  was  inhabited  by  a  chief  of  the  name  of  Suther- 
land ;  and  local  traditions  state  that  it  was  often  the  scene  of  revelry 
and  slaughter.  The  castle  afterwards  became  the  possession  of  the 
Mackays.  The  Gunns  and  the  Mackays  were  the  great  clans  of  the 
north  of  Sutherland  and  south  of  Caithness,  and  fought  many  ferocious 
battles  in  the  district.  The  Gunns  were  of  Scandinavian  origin. 


CHAP.  xiv.          OOLITIC  CONGLOMERATE.  203 

shells ;  chalk  flints ;  a  piece  of  petrified  greenish  marl, 
with  a  small  organism  on  its  surface.  He  was  occupied 
a  long  day  in  exploring  the  clay,  but  the  result  was 
comparatively  nil. 

"  As  I  was  going  along  by  the  side  of  the  stream," 
said  he,  "a  large  boulder  of  oolitic  conglomerate  pre- 
sented itself  to  my  delighted  vision.  It  had  evidently 
been  washed  out  of  the  clay  by  the  slow  undermining  of 
a  mossy  rill,  and  there  it  lay,  all  unnoticed,  telling  its 
own  pathetic  tale  to  the  gnats  and  midges  which  were 
dancing  over  it. 

"  I  had  uniformly  met  with  pieces  of  oolitic  strata  in 
these  cliffs  of  boulder  clay,  but  this  piece  far  exceeded 
all  that  I  had  previously  encountered.  It  was  like  a  large 
snowball,  such  as  boys  roll  together  in  winter.  It  con- 
tained a  great  abundance  of  broken  shells,  and  broken 
Belemnites  not  a  few.  I  hammered  at  it  a  long  time 
until  fairly  wearied.  Then  I  left  it,  and  in  a  section  ot 
boulder  clay  beside  it  I  found  broken  shells  of  Cyprina, 
and  one  stout  Turritella  terebra" 

He  next  went  across  the  county  to  Strathbeg  Water. 
"  There  are  conical  mounds,"  he  says,  "  of  granitic  debris 
all  along  its  south  side.  I  ascended  to  the  top  of  one 
of  them,  and  looked  along  the  Strath.  As  far  as  I  could 
see,  the  mounds  stretched  almost  continuously,  like  the 
ruins  of  some  ancient  Eoman  dyke;  and  they  spoke 
emphatically  of  contending  seas  in  times  long  gone  by. 

"I  waded  Strathbeg  "Water  knee-deep,  thinking  of 
poor  Mungo  Park  fording  the  tributaries  of  the  Niger 
in  the  deserts  of  Africa.  Ah !  true.  But  then  it  wa* 


204  ANOTHER  LONG  JOURNEY.        CHAP.  xiv. 

not  to  find  decayed  shells.  No!  But  to  please  Sir 
Joseph  Banks  and  the  African  Association.  And  then 
there  were  the  golden-roofed  houses  of  Timbuctoo !" 

Dick  had  many  more  excursions  to  make  before  he 
could  satisfy  himself  as  to  the  extensive  existence  of  the 
boulder  clay  throughout  Caithness.  For  instance,  in 
March  1849,  he  made  a  long  ramble  between  Dunnet 
Bay  on  the  one  side  of  the  county  and  Sinclair  Bay  on 
the  other.  The  weather  at  that  time  was  horrible — 
frost,  snow,  snow-drift,  wind,  rain,  and  sleet.  Then  his 
journey  of  forty  miles  had  for  the  most  part  to  be  made 
through  lonely  moors  and  marshes,  where  the  wanderer 
sank  up  to  his  knees  at  almost  every  step.  He  was  wet 
to  the  skin  all  the  way.  And  all  to  find  the  relative 
extent  of  the  boulder  clay ! 

He  rose  at  midnight  and  did  his  morning's  work. 
The  bread  was  all  ready  for  sale  when  he  set  out  at  four 
o'clock.  He  first  made  for  Castleton,  tramped  across 
the  sands  at  Dunnet,  and  steered  south-east  for  Sinclair 
Bay,  with  rain,  snow,  or  sleet  accompanying  him  the 
whole  way.  He  passed  many  boulders  of  the  old  red 
conglomerate.  He  passed  along  the  verge  of  four  lakes, 
the  moss  and  heather  beside  them  all  saturated  with 
water — elush,  slush,  slush !  At  length  his  ears  were 
greeted  by  the  sounds  of  old  ocean  thundering  along 
the  beach  of  Sinclair  Bay,  with  Noss  Head  in  the  dis- 
tance. 

Every  step  of  the  road  was  full  of  observation. 
Dick  noted  the  evidences  of  the  sea  having  at  one  time 
been  dashing  its  waves  far  inland.  He  saw  the  remains 


SINCLAIR  BA  Y. 


205 


of  an  old  sea-beach  far  up  the  shore.  It  took  him  ten 
minutes  to  walk  from  there  to  high-water  mark  on  the 
present  sea-beach.  He  concluded  that  the  sea  once 
covered  all  the  land  between  Dunnet  Bay  and  Sinclair 
Bay,  and  that  it  was  gradually  retiring  from  the  land. 


BINOLAIB    l:\V    ASP    NnSS    HEAD. 


He  set  out  on  his  homeward  journey  by  "Wester 
Loch.  The  shores  of  the  loch  weie  composed  of  marsh, 
peat,  sour  grass,  and  mire.  As  he  approached,  he 
startled  the  sea-birds  which  frequented  it.  There  were 
sea-mews,  sea-ducks,  wild  geese,  and  wild  swans.  He 
counted  thirty-six  ducks  rise  in  rapid  succession.  At 
the  head  of  the  loch  he  found  a  travelled  stone — a  mass 
of  grey  granite  several  tons  in  weight — moored  just 
within  the  dry  laud.  Two  large  boulders  of  the  same 
mat  -rial  lay  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  water, 
lu* 


206  WALK  THROUGH  THE  MOORS.     CHAP.  xiv. 

On  he  went,  observing  many  high  braes  of  undoubted 
boulder  clay,  though  covered  with  grass  and  heath.  He 
observed  also  sections  of  granitic  debris  similar  in  every 
respect  to  those  he  had  seen  at  Dirlot  and  Dallmore. 
And  then  he  came  upon  a  mass  of  blue  boulder  clay 
filled  with  marine  shells — Cyprina,  Crassina,  and  Turri- 
tella  terebra.  "  At  this  moment,"  he  says,  "  I  cannot 
tell  how  I  felt.  Here,  at  last,  was  abundant  reward  for 
my  day's  journey. 

"  On  I  went,  hoping  that  my  luck  was  in  the 
ascendant.  But  no.  The  soil  along  the  bottom  of  the 
Bower  valley  is  wholly  sandy  alluvium.  I  was  500 
years  too  late !  The  river  has  done  for  this  locality 
what  Thurso  river  is  busily  doing  for  the  boulder  clay, 
namely,  tumbling  and  rolling  it  about  from  side  to  side, 
sweeping  it  away,  and  laying  down  alluvium  in  its  place, 
till  at  length,  imprisoned  in  its  own  toils,  it  rolls  away, 
a  sleepy,  despised,  obscure  thing. 

"  On  and  on.  Floods  have  been  here,  and  see  !  here 
on  the  river  banks  is  something  new — shells  of  the 
Alosmodon  margaritiferus  lying  open,  and  the  dead 
animal  in  them.  And  see !  pieces  of  broken  Cyprina 
from  the  boulder  clay  lying  cheek -by -jowl.  Do  you  ask 
me  how  I  knew  them  to  be  from  the  boulder  clay? 
Simply  by  the  family  likeness.  There  is  no  mistaking 
one's  old  friends. 

"  On  and  on,  through  marsh  and  mire,  ankle-deep, 
and  deeper.  On  to  the  confluence  of  the  water  of 
"Wester.  Boulder  clay  and  shell  fragments  are  found 
all  the  way.  I  traced  up  the  river  of  Bower  until  it  was 


CHAP.  xiv.  MARINE  SHELLS.  207 

only  a  stride  across.  Shortly  after  I  entered  the  Bower- 
madden  road  from  Castletown  to  Wick.  I  went  on  to 
Castletown,  and  saw  that  there  was  a  continuing  hollow 
by  Duran  Loch  on  to  the  very  south  corner  of  Dunnet 
Bay. 

"  Eaise  the  sea  a  hundred  feet  at  Dunnet  Bay  and  a 
hundred  feet  at  Sinclair  Bay,  and,  in  my  opinion,  their 
waters  would  unite.  The  evidence  of  marine  shells  is 
also  nearly  continuous  from  Dunbeath  to  Thurso.  The 
evidence  of  marine  shells  is  also  continuous  from  Fres- 
wick  up  as  far  as  Brabster  mire.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
during  the  boulder  clay  epoch  the  whole  of  Caithness 
was  under  the  sea." 

Dick  continues  to  send  Hugh  Miller  various  fossils 
found  during  his  journeys.  On  the  22d  of  March  he 
sends  a  fish  jaw  (of  the  Asterolepis),  with  an  excellent 
drawing  of  it,  carefully  done.  The  drawing  afterwards 
appeared  in  Hugh  Miller's  Footprints  of  the  Creator. 
Three  months  later  Dick  tells  him  that  he  has  found 
a  hyoid  bone  of  the  Diplopterus,  "another  victory 
over  the  unknown."  He  made  numerous  excursions  for 
the  purpose  of  enabling  Miller  to  illustrate  the  Pleisto- 
cene formation.  He  went  to  Harpsdale  in  the  south,  to 
Freswick  in  the  east  (starting  at  midnight),  and  to  Ben 
Shurery  in  the  west.  The  Ben  consists  of  granite  and 
granitic  gneiss,  but  near  the  top  of  the  hill  he  found  two 
boulders  of  red  conglomerate,  of  vast  size. 

"  No  Oolitic  or  Liassic  strata,  in  my  opinion,  exist  ia 
Caithness,  so  you  must  account  for  the  great  abundance 
of  fragmentary  strangers  in  some  other  manner.  How 


208  VIEW  FROM  BEN  SHURERY.       CHA*.  xiv. 


mysterious  the  whole  becomes !  How  much  are  we  still 
in  the  dark !  However,  thank  heaven,  the  FISH  were, 
before  the  mountains  of  Shurery,  Braalnabin,  or  Dorery 
had  any  existence  !  Were  I  to  tell  some  people  this, 
they  would  not  believe  me." 

"  The  view  from  the  mountain  top,"  he  adds, "  is  very 
grand.  And  though  the  wind  blew  rather  cold  for  one 
bathed  in  sweat,  I  tried  to  look  abroad.  To  the  north 
the  Orkneys  and  all  the  intervening  lands  lay  tabled 
before  me.  Turning  round  to  the  south-east,  Morveii 
towered  aloft,  wreathed  in  snow.  From  the  little  loch 
underneath  me,  stretched  a  low  wide  country  covered 
with  brown  heather  and  dotted  with  lochs." 

Another  of  Dick's  rambles  was  an  extraordinary  one. 
He  walked  from  Thurso  to  Strath  Halladale  in  Suther- 
landshire,  then  up  the  dale  and  round  to  Thurso  by  the 
Dorery  Hills,  a  night's  walk  of  more  than  sixty  miles. 
Here  is  his  own  account : — 

"I  left  Thurso,"  he  says,  "at  eight  o'clock  in  the 
evening ;  went  on  to  Eeay ;  from  Reay  to  Portskerra ; 
then  ten  miles  up  the  deep  Strath  Halladale ;  then  to 
Eumsdale;  then  turned  down  to  Loch  Shurery;  then 
over  the  top  of  Dorery  mountain,  down  on  Braalnabin ; 
rounded  the  loch  of  Calder,  and  along  the  public  road 
to  Thurso  again, — a  delightful  amount  of  labour  cer- 
tainly. 

"  I  travelled  all  night  alone,  simply  to  test  the  fact 
of  the  sea  finding  its  way  over  Caithness,  and  covering 
the  lands  towards  the  sea. 

"  At  midnight,  twenty  minutes  to  one,  I  was  standing 


STRATH   HALLADALE. 


STRA  TH  HALLADALE.  209 


by  the  finger-post,  at  the  lower  end  of  Strath  Halladalek 
reading  the  directions  to  weary  travellers ;  but  the  un- 
grateful Highlanders  had  so  pelted  it  with  stones,  that, 
save  the  word  Trantlebeg,  the  finger-post  gave  me  no 
information  whatever. 

"  It  was  a  lovely  night.  The  scene  was  most  im- 
pressive. The  full  moon  shone  clear  on  all  around  me. 
Not  a  zephyr  was  astir.  The  drowsy  sheep  slumbered" 
on  the  hills.  The  sea  scarcely  broke  along  the  shore. 
The  river  ran  clear  and  sparkling,  but  without  a  mur- 
mur. The  silence  that  enveloped  the  granite  peaks 
was  sublime  and  solemn.  My  heart  beat  happily. 
'  My  vera  een '  were  enriched ;  for  all  my  musings,  all 
my  expectations,  were  more  than  realised. 

"  There  is  a  good  hard  road  up  the  strath,  and  it 
winds  along  the  river  side.  The  granitic  debris  lies 
thick  on  the  hill-sides,  and  boulders  by  the  million. 
Above  all,  the  bottom  of  the  valley  lies  delightfully 
low.  The  bed  of  the  river,  where  it  enters  the  sea,  is 
scarcely,  if  at  all,  above  high-water  level.  For  many 
miles  up  the  strath  the  water  scarcely  runs.  Now, 
there  is  a  deep  pool,  hemmed  in  with  rolled  pebbles, 
over  which  the  stream  straggles.  It  runs  on  a  little, 
and  then  there  is  a  pool  again. 

"  A  considerable  number  of  black  cottages  still  grace 
the  sides  of  this  valley,  of  a  better  cast  than  the  com- 
mon run  of  cottages  in  Caithness.  But  this  strath,  by 
the  way,  is  in  Sutherland. 

"  About  nine  miles  up,  1  found  the  full  reward  of 
my  labours  in  the  fact  that  there  was  no  impediment, 


210  LOCH  HAELLAN.  CHAP.  xiv. 

but  indeed  every  facility  for  the  sea  entering  the  country 
and  drowning  Caithness,  were  there  only  some  upheav- 
ing agency  to  hitch  it  up  some  100  feet  or  so.  It  was 
simply  to  test  this,  that  had  brought  me  thus  far.  The 
road  winds  up  among  the  hills — hollow,  all  hollow  : 


MOUTH  OF  STRATH  HALLADALE  RIVER. 


hence,  I  suppose,  the  name  Strath  Hollowdale,  or 
Halkdale— half  Highland  and  half  Norse.  The  strath 
was,  in  my  opinion,  once  an  outlet  of  the  sea,  just  as 
Loch  Tongue  and  Loch  Erriboll  are  now." 

His  sixth  exploratory  ramble  was  one  of  the  most 
interesting  of  all.  He  set  out  a  little  before  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and  went  towards  Loch  Haellan,  about 
ten  miles  east  of  Thurso.  He  observed  how  small  an 


CHAP.  xiv.  HA  VEN  OF  ME  Y.  211 

elevation  of  the  sea,  or  a  depression  of  the  land,  was 
sufficient  to  enable  the  land  to  be  covered  with  water, 
and  unite  Dunnet  Bay  with  the  Pentland  Firth. 

He  went  north  to  the  Burn  of  Ratter,  and  found  the 
boulder  clay  thickly  charged  with  marine  shells  He 
next  went  in  the  direction  of  Barrogill  Castle,  on  towards 
the  sea,  to  the  Haven  of  Mey,  where  he  found  a  bed  of 
boulder  clay  60  feet  thick,  charged  from  top  to  bottom 
with  marine  shells. 

"  Here  then,"  said  he, "  is  the  grand  key  to  the  whole 
mystery !  When  the  sea  stood  sixty  feet  high  at 
Barrogill  and  its  vicinity,  the  whole  of  the  eastern  parts 
of  the  county,  round  to  Wick,  were  drowned ! " 

"  Where  the  Burn  of  Ratter  enters  the  sea,  the  coast 
ia  very  low,  and  there  is  a  continuous  valley  on  to  Loch 
Scister. 

"  The  bitterest  opponent  of  geological  deductions  could 
hardly  fail  to  be  converted  by  an  examination  of  the 
boulder  clay  precipices  at  the  Haven  of  Mey.  He 
would  find  that  the  boulder  clay  was  a  distinct  forma- 
tion— a  generic  production, — differing  entirely  from 
every  other  thing  on  the  earth's  surface.  It  is  not  a 
conglomerate.  It  would  never,  though  consolidated, 
form  a  bed  of  rock  similar  to  conglomerate.  It  is  not  a 
production  of  the  Mosaic  Deluge.  It  is  not,  strictly 
speaking,  a  production  of  the  sea.  It  is  not  the  sweep- 
ings of  a  sea-shore.  No !  nothing  of  the  kind.  No 
Mosaic  Deluge  could  have  produced  those  beds  of  dark, 
bituminous,  sandy,  tenacious,  stony  clay.  No  ocean 
waves  alone,  by  the  friction  of  ten  thousand  years  on 


212  BOULDER  PRECIPICES.  CHAP.  xiv. 

rocky  strata,  could  have  done  it.  No !  Tens  and  hundreds 
of  millions  of  steam-mills,  grinding  stones  night  and  day 
for  a  thousand  years,  could  not  have  done  it.  No  sea 
casts  up  anything  like  it.  It  is  a  distinct  generic  pro- 
duction, fairly  entitled  to  a  place  by  itself.  An  observer 
at  Barrogill  could  not  fail  to  see  all  this.  He  could 
not  fail  to  see  that  the  shore  beneath,  and  along  the  foot 
of  these  clay  cliffs,  contained  a  bed  of  sand,  broken 
shells,  and  rolled  fragments  of  stones ;  and  yet  this  bed 
is  entirely  different. 

"Along  the  shore,  in  some  places,  there  is  a  newer 
formation  than  the  boulder  precipices  atop — a  forma- 
tion laid  down  at  the  foot  of  the  cliffs,  at  unusually  high 
tides.  It  is  thickly  charged  with  broken  shells,  in  some 
places  nearly  consolidated  to  stone ;  yet  this  formation 
is  much  newer.  It  is,  in  comparison  with  the  other,  a 
thing  of  yesterday.  The  deep  ditches  dug  through  the 
Moss  of  Mey  exhibit  no  section  similar  to  the  genuine 
boulder  clay.  They  are  too  marly.  These  low-lying 
grounds  seem  to  have  been,  for  a  long  period — ere  the 
peat  grew  over  them — overspread  with  shallow  pools 
and  lochs  of  fresh  water,  in  which  Limnsea  and  Cyclas 
had  lived,  multiplied,  and  died,  by  millions — leaving 
their  empty  dwellings  to  crumble  down  and  mix  with 
the  sands  over  which  they  had  crawled.  Apt  emblem 
of  man  '  in  his  best  estate ' !  Surely  we  all  walk  in  tho 
same  vain  show. 

"  A  beautiful  illustration  of  this  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
littl^loch  of  Mey.  It  is  a  very  shallow  pool  of  fresh 
water,  nearly  flat,  but  deepening  a  little  towards  its 


CHAP.  xiv.  THE  CADDIS-WORM.  21S 

lower  end,  where  a  stream  goes  off  to  drive  the  mill  of 
Mey.  Its  eastern  shore  was  strewn  with  sand,  and  not 
long  ago,  the  mimic  waves  had  dashed  across  it,  leaving, 
in  the  circles  of  its  upper  reaches,  straws,  sticks,  aiid 
bits  of  peat.  Stooping  down  on  my  knees  to  scrutinise 
the  sands,  I  was  surprised  to  find  innumerable  multi- 
tudes of  Limnsea  and  Cyclas, — the  whole  mingled  with 
the  Old  Houses  of  a  small  Caddis-worm.*  The  sight 
was  impressive.  Here  was  a  miniature  representation 
of  geologic  fact.  Thousands  of  organic  existences  sud- 
denly terminating  their  little  span  of  life,  through  no 
fault  of  their  own,  but  by  the  seeming  accident  of  a 
sudden  shower!" 

*  Caddi#-worm.  or  Cure-twrm, 


CHAPTEE  XV. 

END  OF  CORRESPONDENCE  WITH 
HUGH  MILLER. 

HUGH  MILLER  corresponded  regularly  with  Eobert  Dick 
during  the  preparation  of  his  later  works  on  geology.  He 
sent  him  the  proof  sheets  of  his  forthcoming  books  for  the 
purpose  of  having  Dick's  corrections.  Even  as  regards  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone — Miller's  first  geological  work — Dick 
furnished  him  with  many  additions  and  corrections.  For 
instance,  he  sent  him  the  first  specimen  of  the  gigantic 
Holoptychius  found  under  the  lower  beds  of  the  Old 
Eed  Sandstone,  which  enabled  Hugh  Miller  to  correct 
the  theory  set  forth  in  the  two  previous  editions  of  his 
book.*  Dick  also  enabled  Hugh  Miller  to  determine 
positively  that  Dipterus  and  Polyphractus  were  one  and 
the  same  fish.-f-  Dick  also  furnished  his  friend  with 
numerous  specimens  of  the  Diplopterus,  Osteolepis,  and 
Asterolepis,  accompanied  by  drawings  of  these  fossil 
fishes.  When  sending  them,  Dick  said,  "  I  am  far  from 
attaching  any  value  to  these  drawings.  To  me  labour 
is  its  own  reward.  You  can  cut  and  carve  out  of  them 
as  you  please." 

*  See  Miller's  Old  Red  Sandstone.     Note  to  the  third  edition,  ;tad 
note  to  p.  176.     Ed.  1875. 

t  Letter  to  Charles  Peach,  12th  August  1859. 


CHAP.  xv.          HELP  TO  HUGH  MILLER.  215 

Hugh  Miller's  Footprints  of  the  Creator  was  published 
in  1849,  and  here  also  we  find  numerous  indications  of 
the  assistance  which  he  had  received  from  Eobert  Dick. 
Professor  Agassiz,  in  his  preface  to  the  last  edition  of 
the  hook,  says,  "Many  points  respecting  this  curious 
fossil  (the  Asterolepis  or  Star-scale)  remained  to  be 
determined ;  and  it  was  fortunate  for  science  that  Mr. 
Miller  was  enabled  to  accomplish  this  object  by  means 
of  a  variety  of  excellent  specimens  which  he  had 
received  from  Eobert  Dick."  "The  remains  of  an 
Asterolepis  found  by  Mr.  Dick  at  Thurso  indicate  a 
length  of  from  twelve  feet  five  to  thirteen  feet  eight 
inches.  ...  A  specimen  of  Asterolepis  discovered  by 
Mr.  Dick  among  the  Thurso  rocks,  and  sent  to  Mr. 
Miller,  exhibited  the  singular  phenomenon  of  a  quantity 
of  thick  tar  lying  beneath  it,  which  stuck  to  the  fingers 
when  lifting  the  pieces  of  rock.  What  had  been  once 
the  nerves,  muscles,  and  blood  of  this  ancient  ganoid, 
still  lay  under  its  bones.  The  animal  juices  of  the  fish 
had  preserved  its  remains  by  the  pervading  bitumen, 
greatly  more  conservative  in  its  effects  than  the  oil  and 
gum  of  an  Egyptian  undertaker."* 

The  first  cranium  of  the  Asterolepis  figured  by  Hugh 
Miller  was  imperfect.  Eobert  Dick  furnished  him  with 
a  perfect  one.  There  was  a  gap  in  the  print  which 
struck  Professor  Sedgwick  as  being  unnatural.  He  said 
it  was  "  not  of  the  proper  finish."  But  after  Dick  had 
furnished  his  specimen  with  the  keystone-shaped  plate 
in  its  proper  place,  Miller  says  he  referred  the  professor 

*  Hugh  Miller's  Footprints  of  the  Creator,  p.  xxvii.    Ed.  1876. 


216  DICK'S  GEOLOGICAL  FINDINGS.     CHAP.  xv. 

to  the  geologist  at  Thurso  "  as  the  true  authority  for 
determining  how  nature  had  given  the  last  finish  to  the 
cranial  buckler  of  the  Asterolepis.  '  Ay,'  he  exclaimed, 
as  he  eagerly  knelt  down  to  examine  the  specimen,  and 
passed  his  fingers  over  the  keystone-like  plate, — 'Ay, 
this  is  a  finish  of  the  right  kind!  This  will  do!'"* 
Dick  also  furnished  Mr.  Miller  with  a  well-defined  jaw 
of  the  Asterolepis,  and  with  a  drawing  of  a  section  of  its 
tooth,  which  appeared  among  the  illustrations  of  the 
book. 

Dick  found  for  Mr.  Miller — apropos  of  a  conversation 
which  the  latter  had  with  Professor  Owen — a  specimen 
of  the  Diplopterus,  which  fully  confirmed  the  professor's 
views  as  to  the  prolongation  of  the  brain  of  that  fish. 
In  fact,  there  was  scarcely  a  subject  on  which  Hugh 
Miller  wanted  further  information,  but  Eobert  Dick  was 
ready  to  supply  it.  It  was  a  delight  to  him  to  labour 
night  and  day  for  the  benefit  of  his  friend,  and  also  for 
the  benefit  of  science.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  Hugh 
Miller  he  says — "Your  letter  found  me  asleep,  knee- 
deep  in  fern  howes.  But  now  I  am  awake,  and  busy 
night  and  day." 

Hugh  Miller,  on  his  part,  was  ready  to  acknowledge 
the  obligations  which  he  owed  to  his  friend.  At  a  lecture 
delivered  by  him  before  the  Physical  Society  of 
Edinburgh  "  On  a  Suite  of  Fossils,  illustrative  of  the 
relations  of  the  Earlier  Ganoids,"  he  said,  "There  are 
several  rare  and  a  few  unique  fossils  on  the  latter,  illus- 
trative of  various  points  in  the  structure  of  the  first 
•  Hugh  Miller's  Footprints  of  the  Creator,  pp.  73,  325.  Ed.  1876, 


CHAP.  xv.     CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  MILLER.      217 

ganoids,  to  which  I  can  only  refer  the  members  of  the 
Society  as  worthy  of  their  examination.  They  are  in 
part  the  fruits  of  a  leisure  fortnight  spent  this  autumn 
among  the  rocks  of  Thurso ;  but  in  still  greater  part  I 
owe  them  to  the  kindness  of  my  indefatigable  friend 
Mr.  Robert  Dick,  of  whom  I  may  well  say  that  lie,  has 
robbed  himself  to  do  me  service" 

The  same  lecture  is  full  of  the  obligations  which  he 
owed  to  Eobert  Dick.  He  pointed  to  the  Homocanthus 
arcuatus,  which,  though  found  in  Russia,  had  only 
recently  been  discovered  in  Scotland  by  his  friend.  To 
him  also  he  owed  the  Hbplacanthus  marginalia,  another 
Russian  placoid  of  the  Old  Red.  There  was  also  a 
magnificent  specimen  of  the  Asterolepis,  which  had 
enabled  him  to  determine  the  place  and  form  of  a  thickly- 
tubercled,  well-marked  place  on  the  middle  of  the  palate. 
This  also  had  been  sent  to  him  by  Robert  Dick.* 

In  sending  this  fine  specimen  to  Hugh  Miller,  Dick 
says — "  I  give  it  you  most  cheerfully.  Your  kindness 
deserves  it.  To  any  other  I  would  not  have  parted 
with  it."  At  the  same  time  he  sends  him  the  jaw  of  a 
fossil  fish,  showing  the  outer  row  of  teeth.  "  Looking 
at  them  with  the  glass,"  he  says,  "they  show  a  very 
beautiful  star-like  arrangement  of  the  channel  through 
which  nourishment  flowed  to  the  tooth." 

Dick  continued  to  correspond  regularly  with  Hugh 

Miller.     He   spoke  to  him  very  freely.     He   thought 

that  he  was  sometimes  twisting  geological  facts  to  suit 

a  religious  theory.     Dick  thought  very  little  of  "  authori- 

*  Hugh  Miller's  Footprints  of  the  Creator,  pp.  334,  341.     Ed.  1876. 


218  GEOLOGY  TESTED  BY  FACTS.        CHAP.  xv. 

ties,"  but  he  greatly  valued  facts — tested  and  re-tested. 
"  It  is  not,"  he  said,  "  by  driving  along  the  public  roads ; 
strolling  along  the  sea-shore ;  taking  a  distant  view  of 
Morven  through  a  spy-glass,  that  the  depth  of  the 
Caithness  schists  is  to  be  ascertained.  No !  The  very 
fact  that  the  schists  dip  in  almost  every  direction  might 
have  led  '  authorities '  to  suspect  that  the  granite  was 
not  confined  to  primary  hill  a  •  but,  like  the  stately  oak, 
sent  out  its  branching  roots  far  and  wide.  You,  Mr. 
Miller,  rule  solely  by  '  authorities.'  Your  humble 
servant  has  often  found  them  sleeping,  and  has  no 
reverence  for  them." 

Indeed,  Dick  had  no  hesitation  in  correcting  the  very 
highest  authorities.  "  Nothing,"  he  said  to  Miller  (26th 
September  1850), "  is  more  at  fault  than  the  idea  sought 
to  be  established  by  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison's  section  in 
the  front  of  your  volume  on  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  that 
the  general  dip  of  Caithness  rocks  is  all  in  one  direction. 
No  such  thing !  I  candidly  tell  you  that '  my  masters ' 
must  revise  their  views  before  I  can  feel  the  smallest 
respect  for  what  they  say  about  Caithness.  I  cannot 
resist  the  evidence  of  my  senses.  Take,  for  instance,  the 
Hill  of  Buckies,*  which -you  saw.  The  dip  there  is 
north-east,  whereas  at  Thurso  the  dip  is  north-west. 

"  Of  course,  I  am  very  far  from  wishing  you  to  meddle 
with  the  findings  of  men  driving  along  the  public  road 
and  viewing  the  country  from  gigs !  No !  But  it  is 
my  misfortune  to  laugh  outrageously  during  my  rambles 

*  TLe  Hill  of  Buckies,  so  called  from  the  large  quantity  of  marin* 
shells  found  there.  It  is  not  far  from  Thurso. 


CHAP.  xv.         DIP  OF  CAITHNESS  ROCKS.  219 

to  find  the  Caithness  rocks  dipping  in  every  airt*  of  the 
compass,  whereas  it  is  stated  in  geological  books  that 
they  dip  in  only  one  direction  ! " 

Kobert  Dick  was  not  afraid  of  correcting  Hugh 
Miller  himself.  In  one  of  his  letters  he  says : — "  You 
have  fallen  into  error  in  your  Old  Red  Sandstone.  You 
have  described  Caithness  as  a  vast  pyramid  rising  per- 
pendicularly from  the  bases  furnished  by  the  primary 
rocks  of  Sutherland,  and  presenting  newer  beds  and 
strata  as  we  ascend,  until  we  reach  the  apex. 

"  Now,  Mr.  Miller,  this  is  not  only  incorrect  but  cal- 
culated to  deceive.  But  you  are  not  to  blame.  It  is  the 
getters-up  of  the  geological  maps  who  are  to  blame. 
You  work  by  the  geological  maps.  Geological  maps  and 
treatises  are  got  up  by  men  in  red-hot  haste,  on  data 
proved  to  be  erroneous  years  ago.  New  books,  with 
nothing  new  in  them  but  the  paper  and  ink!  The 
public  are  gulled,  and  the  poor  student,  panting  for 
knowledge,  fills  his  belly  with  husks,  and  by  and  by  he 
regards  his  new  books  with  derision ! 

"  I  am  working  very  hard — sometimes  seeking  new 
fossils  but  finding  none ;  sometimes  rambling  far  over 
the  hills  and  finding  a  junction  of  the  Old  Eed  very 
different  indeed  from  the  respectable  '  authorities '  in 
Edinburgh.  As  for  the  maps,  I  have  handed  them  over 
to  the  devil  as  the  most  detestable  pieces  of  imposture 
ever  obtruded  on  a  discerning  public.  'Discerning' 
indeed ! 

*  Direction.—"  Of  a'  the  airts  the  wind  can  blaw, 
I  dearly  lo'e  the  west." — Burns. 


220  GEOLOGICAL  MAPS.  CHAP.  xv. 

"  Your  Edinburgh  Professors  can  put  on  their  spec- 
tacles next  time  they  travel  north.  If  they  wish  to  be 
respected,  they  must  be  a  little  more  particular." 

Dick  himself  had  bought  one  of  the  best  maps  of  the 
time.  He  used  it  for  travelling  purposes.  He  noted 
down  on  it  the  direction  of  his  journeys.  He  marked 
the  dips  of  the  strata  in  nearly  every  part  of  the  county. 
He  noted  the  disturbances,  the  faults,  the  beds  in  con- 
fusion, the  sites  of  the  boulder  clay,  the  flagstones,  the 
red  sandstone,  the  gneiss,  the  conglomerates,  and  the 
various  geological  formations  of  Caithness.  The  map  is 
full  of  his  marks.  In  some  places,  where  a  river  or  a 
loch  is  put,  he  marks  "  nonsense  "  or  "  stuff,"  meaning 
that  there  is  no  such  thing.  This  map  must  have  been 
his  pocket-companion  for  many  years.  Underneath  it 
he  writes : — "  I  have  been  rambling  over  Caithness  since 
1830,  and  anything  more  unlike  the  truth  than  the 
above  picture  I  have  never  seen.  There  is  no  pleasure 
in  marking  anything  on  it.  I  have  made  an  attempt  to 
put  in  roads.  The  dip  is  often  seen  by  the  road-sides." 

Writing  to  Hugh  Miller  about  the  geological  maps  of 
Caithness,  he  said : — "  It  would  be  easy  to  construct  such 

a  plaything  as  those  maps  of  Messrs. , ,  and 

,  but  when  you  had  done  so,  would  the  toy  meet 

the  felt  necessity  ?  .  .  .  0  brave  gentlemen !  bold  men 
and  daring !  how  gallantly  you  have  set  the  truth  aside  ! 
— here  laying  down  your  fancy  ovals,  there  your  half- 
moon  patches !  just  as  if  Nature  were  strictly  bound 
down  to  mathematical  figures,  squares,  and  circles.  How 
inimitably  you  have  run  your  Old  Red  in  Caithness 


CHAP.  xv.  A  NEW  MAP  WANTED.  22\ 

sheer  up  to  the  root  of  Morven,  in  defiance  of  every  inter- 
vening obstacle.  Outbursts  of  granite  are  nothing.  No  ! 
Their  iron-pointed  crests  (stubborn  facts)  standing  up 
here  and  there  are  only  trifles,  yet  they  riddle  in  rotten 
holes  your  pretty  pictures  !  .  .  .  For  on  such  things  men 
now-a-days  found  their  Deep  Philosophy. 

"  Seriously,  if  any  junction  of  Old  Red  with  the 
granitic  rocks  be  as  irregular  and  complicated  as  that 
in  Caithness,  it  will  be  no  easy  task  to  delineate  it  cor- 
rectly ;  and  unless  it  be  correctly  done  it  will  be  of  no 
value.  It  would  require  such  an  amount  of  time  and 
patience,  such  a  crossing  and  re-crossing  of  the  county, 
as  few  private  individuals  could  venture  on. 

"  For  my  own  part,  though  I  grumble  at  toil  as  little 
as  any  man,  I  have,  so  far  as  regards  any  serious  inten- 
tion of  doing  such  a  thing,  given  it  up.  At  the  same 
time,  as  I  ramble  now  and  then,  I  will  have  an  eye  to 
it,  and  that  is  all.  Let  the  Government  do  it;  they 
only  can  order  it  to  be  done  properly." 

Then,  about  the  new-fashioned  ideas  about  geology 
he  said  : — "  '  Since  the  fashions,'  to  use  your  own  words, 
'  have  not  passed  away,'  how  provokingly  strange  will 
you  deem  it,  if  you  and  the  rest  of  your  scientific 
brethren  settle  down  at  last  to  the  conviction  that  this 
earth  never  saw  a  creation  but  ONE.  .  .  .  Though  diffi- 
culties and  doubts  innumerable  stand  in  the  way,  they 
may  yet  be  brushed  aside  like  morning  mists,  and  the 
simple  truth  shine  forth  clear  and  luminous  as  the  sun. 
.  .  .  See !  says  some  observer,  the  dreams  of  our  wise 

men  !     They  tell  us  that  the  dead  animals  entombed  in 
11 


222  THEORY  OF  DEGRADATION.       CHAP.  xv. 

the  solid  rocks  do  not  belong  to  one  creation!  and 
behold,  they  still  exist.  The  animal  whose  shell  they 
name  Nummulite  still  lives  in  the  Mediterranean.  The 
Pentacrinite  lives  in  the  West  Indian  seas  and  in  the 
bay  of  Dublin.  .  .  .  Your  '  Theory  of  Degradation '  is 
at  least  a  very  ingenious  piece  of  pleading ;  but  if  I  am 
right  in  supposing  that  it  rests  mainly  on  the  idea  that 
no  reptiles  existed  during  the  period  that  the  lowest 
fossiliferous  strata  were  accumulating,  then  I  say  you 
may  yourself  live  to  re- write  that  part  of  your  story, 
[n  the  progress  of  discovery,  the  whole  series  of  geologic 
speculations  may  change.  From  the  very  nature  of  the 
investigations,  an  element  of  uncertainty  must  for  a 
long  time  mingle  in  all  your  most  valued  performances. 
That  stern,  startling  fact  of  ferns  in  the  Orkney  schists 
must  in  no  small  degree  tend  to  unsettle  all  fixed  belief 
in  the  findings  of  the  stone,  philosophers,  if,  indeed,  any 
belief  can  really  belong  to  them." 

At  Miller's  request,  Dick  again  went  out  to  do  his 
biddings.  "  Eeferring  you,"  he  said  (24th  December, 
1849),  to  a  promise  I  made  to  you  when  down  at  Thurso, 
to  examine  the  groovings  and  polishings,  by  removing  a 
little  of  the  soil  in  the  locality  in  which  you  detected 
those  marks,  I  wish  to  remark  that  the  work  is  done. 
You  might  think  me  dilatory  and  slothful,  but  I  could 
not  accomplish  it  sooner.  In  the  first  place,  the  business 
was  retarded  by  a  severe  frost.  Winter  held  his  iron 
rule ;  and  could  you  have  seen  the  place  over  which  you 
rambled  in  July  last,  you  would  have  beheld  a  strange 
metamorphosis.  The  strata  were  wholly  covered  witi 


CHAP.  xv.     WORKING  AGAIN  AT  THE  ROCKS.       223 

sheets  of  ice,  with  long  fantastic  icicles  hanging  from 
every  precipice.  The  air  was  still,  and  the  sea  with- 
out a  ripple.  Of  course  nothing  could  be  done ;  it  was 
too  icy,  too  cold. 

"  The  scene  changed  to  another  phase,  not  a  whit 
more  endurable.  A  cold,  '  blae,  eastlin '  wind,  accom- 
panied by  driving  sleety  showers,  whistled  along  the 
watery  turmoil.  This  was  followed  by  a  close,  dense, 
foggy  drizzle.  Bogs  and  mires  were  impassable  to  ordi- 
nary folk.  Patience  said  '  Wait.' 

"  Well,  I  waited.  Winds  and  rains  are  but  a  tide. 
The  eastern  sky  at  length  frowned,  and  stormed,  and 
wept  itself  into  sheer  good  humour.  The  air  became 
dry  and  mild,  and  a  delightful  morning  at  length  dawned. 
I  took  up  my  spade  and  went  off  to  the  spot,  in  order  to 
solve  your  query." 

"  I  remember  that  I  was  much  struck  by  the  pheno- 
menon, when  you  pointed  it  out  to  me  on  the  top  of  yon 
dizzy  precipice.  I  was  no  less  astonished  on  seeing  it 
a  second  time.  To  me  these  wonders  are  never  old. 
Their  edge  never  dulls.  They  always  stir  me. 

"  I  laid  bare  the  rock  for  about  two  feet.  I  did  not 
feel  entitled  to  do  any  more.  I  felt  I  had  no  right  to 
strip  the  soil  off  any  man's  property,  so  I  desisted.  But 
it  was  quite  enough.  The  rock,  beneath  the  soil,  was 
polished  and  grooved,  in  even  a  more  beautiful  manner 
than  when  you  saw  it.  The  bearings  of  the  groovings 
and  scratches  were,  as  near  as  could  be  determined 
without  a  compass,  west  and  east. 

"On  coming  homewards,  I  noted,  at  a  spot  where 


224    HEAD  PL  A  TE  OF  AN  ASTEROLEPIS.     CHAP,  xv, 

Lady  Sinclair  had  caused  a  small  runnel  of  water  to  be 
diverted  in  order  to  form  a  mimic  cascade,  a  good  piece 
of  the  rock  laid  bare  of  the  soil ;  and  the  surface  of  that 
rock  was  grooved  and  polished  similar  to  the  other." 

This  unmitigated  hard  work  injured  Dick's  health. 
He  did  not  sustain  himself  properly.  On  his  long 
journeys  of  forty  or  fifty  miles  he  had  only  a  little 
biscuit  to  eat.  He  drank  from  the  nearest  spring. 
There  were  not  only  no  public-houses  along  the  districts 
which  he  travelled  through ;  but  no  houses  of  any  kind. 
There  were  only  moors,  and  mosses,  and  mires. 

On  the  28th  of  January  1850,  he  sent  Hugh  Miller 
the  head  plate  of  an  Asterolepis.  He  found  the  heavy 
stone  in  which  it  lay  concealed,  five  long  miles  from 
Thurso.  He  hammered  and  chiselled,  and  took  out  the 
stone  himself ;  but  he  could  not  carry  it  away.  He  hid 
it  until  he  could  get  some  help.  He  hired  a  man,  and  the 
two  went  out  in  the  dark  with  a  wheelbarrow  to  bring 
it  home.  It  was  a  very  heavy  stone.  They  carried  it 
"  up  the  brae  at  the  shore,"  and  placed  it  carefully  in 
the  wheelbarrow.  The  two  trundled  it  home,  turn  and 
turn  about,  until  they  reached  Dick's  house  in  Wilson 
Lane,  late  at  night.  In  a  future  letter  to  Hugh  Miller 
he  says  : — "  Truly  the  labour  of  digging  it  out  has  nearly 
finished  me.  I  worked  too  hard,  caught  cold  after- 
wards, and  I  am  no  better  yet." 

On  Miller's  asking  him  to  go  out  and  further 
observe  the  groovings  on  the  hill-sides,  he  says : — "  The 
thing  shall  be  attended  to.  But,  Mr.  Miller,  I  have  not 
been  to  the  hills  this  winter,  not  since  October.  Not 


CHAP.  xv.        DICK'S  POLISHING  BENCH.  225 

that  I  am  forgetful  or  unmindful  of  such  affairs.  But 
many  conflicting  cares  will  be  creeping  in  and  annoying 
one.  Thus  the  course  of  stone,  love,  cannot  run  smooth. 
For  three  weeks  and  more  I  have  been  grinding  the  few 
stones  I  have  into  something  of  a  neater  shape,  rendering 
them  less  cumbrous  and  more  trim  and  smooth.  Truth  to 
say,  it  is  hard  work,  and  requires  enthusiasm.  Geologists 
should  be  all  gentlemen,  with  nothing  else  to  do." 

The  means  by  which  Dick  sawed  and  polished  his 
stones,  were  very  simple.  An  old  cask  about  the  size  of 
a  herring  barrel  set  on  its  end,  and  supporting  a  board 
or  flat  stone,  was  his  bench.  He  had  a  short  portion  of 
the  common  hand-saw,  fitted  by  himself  with  a  rough 
wooden  handle.  With  this,  and  the  addition  of  a  little 
sand  and  water,  he  trimmed  the  stones  containing  the 
fossils,  and  afterwards  polished  them  by  rubbing  the  two 
surfaces  together.  This  work  is  generally  done  by 
machinery ;  but  Dick  did  it  all  by  the  strength  of  his 
arms.  It  occupied  a  great  deal  of  time,  and  was  often 
very  heavy  labour. 

Hugh  Miller  plied  Dick  very  hard.  He  was  con- 
stantly writing  to  him,  asking  for  further  information. 
Mr.  Miller  was  then  contemplating  his  new  book — The 
Testimony  of  the  Rocks — for  the  purpose  of  reconciling 
geology  with  the  Mosaic  account  of  creation.  The 
matter  of  the  book  was  first  delivered  as  lectures. 
"  You  ask  me,"  said  Dick,  "  what  good  news  I  bring 
you  from  the  shore,  from  the  quarries  in  the  hills,  and 
from  the  quarries  in  the  plains  ?"  I  answer,  simply  nc 
uews  at  all. 


226  SEA-SHORE  AT  BARROGILL.        CHAP.  xv. 

"Since  February  last,  I  sauntered  east,  I  sauntered 
west ;  in  fact,  I  am  almost  as  familiar  with  every  rocky 
ledge  sixteen  miles  on  every  side  of  this  place  as  you 
are  with  the  desk  before  you.  I  have  peered  into  them 
all,  and  still  there  is  no  news.  Old  Boniface  ate  his 
ale,  drank  his  ale,  and  slept  upon  his  ale.  So  may  I 
say,  I  have  ate  on  the  strata,  I  have  hammered  the 
strata,  and  sometimes  I  have  sat  down  and  fallen  asleep 
on  the  strata;  and,  after  all,  I  am  not  one  whit  the 
wiser. 

"One  sunny  morning  I  found  myself  on  the  sea- 
shore at  Barrogill.  I  had  been  there  before,  but  I  was 
never  so  sure  of  achieving  wonders  as  I  was  on  this 
occasion.  The  Pentland  tides  had  receded  to  the  lowest 
ebb,  and  the  whole  range  of  stratified  schists  lay  dry  and 
inviting.  I  set  gallantly  to  work,  and  charged  along 
one  ledge  and  down  another ;  up  a  third,  and  across  a 
fourth ;  retreating,  advancing,  wheeling,  kneeling,  poking, 
poring ;  now  to  the  right,  now  to  the  left ;  then  the  last 
tremendous  assault,  and  all  is  over,  save  '  Try  again.' 

"  Well,  I  found  a  bed  of  very  dark  bituminous  schist, 
very  dark  whilst  wet  by  the  sea.  It  almost  seemed  of 
a  coal  colour,  though  the  stone,  when  dry,  is  brownish. 
In  fact,  the  strata  differ  in  nothing  essential  from  similar 
bituminous  beds  at  Brims  and  near  Thurso.  In  those 
strata  I  found  nothing,  save  detached  scales  of  Diplo- 
pterus,  droppings,  detached  spines  of  Cheiracanthus,  and 
bits  of  broken  bones  of  Coccosteus.  Here  and  there,  in 
those  beds,  lay  roundish  and  irregularly  shaped  dark- 
coloured  pellets,  of  what  looked  like  bituminous  nodules. 


NEAR  SKARSKERRY.  227 


...  I  turned  away,  and  wound  my  way  Dunnet-wards, 
examining  every  accessible  ridge  on  my  way  up.  There 
is  a  wondrous  similarity  among  the  rocks  of  Caithness 
everywhere,  though  from  the  Haven  of  Mey  up  to 
Scarskerry  they  are  charged  with  iron  to  a  greater 
extent  than  in  any  other  spot.  At  the  little  Mill  of 
Mey  they  are  literally  red  as  'keel,  and,  tilted  up  at  a 
high  angle,  dipping  north-east.  ...  As  I  passed  on, 
looking  down  from  the  rocks,  I  could  identify  the  dark 
Barrogill  bed,  buried  deep  beneath  those  rough  red 
strata.  And  in  some  gyoes  I  exclaimed,  as  I  looked 
down, '  There's  Thurso  beds !  and  there,  and  there !' 

"Near  Scarskerry,  at  a  jutting  promontory,  the 
dark  bituminous  beds,  and  grey  limy  beds,  many  feet 
in  thickness,  are  seen  tilted  up  at  an  acute  angle,  thin, 
slaty,  rugged,  and  hard,  and  across  their  sharp  edge  the 
chafing  waves  roll  twice  every  day.*  I  had  marked 
them  often  as  I  passed  along  at  former  visits ;  but  the 
white  surf  had  debarred  me  of  the  pleasure  of  a  reeon- 
naisance.  But  this  time  'twas  all  right,  and  I  plied  the 
hammer  where  hammer  had  never  been  plied  before. 
...  I  found  a  few  broken  fragments  of  Asterolepis, 
scales  of  the  same,  and  a  few  scales  of  Diplopterus. 

*  In  another  letter  to  Hugh  Miller,  Dick  says  : — "  You  know 
Nichol's  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,  and  his  plates  of  the  Nebulae  ? 
Well ;  many  of  the  ends  of  our  flagstones  resemble  them — a  series  of 
star-like  forms,  set  upon  a  jet-black  ground.  Is  it  not  extraordinary 
that  upon  the  end  of  a  stone  there  should  be  resemblances  to  a  series 
of  forms  traced  by  telescopes  in  immensity  ?  Indeed  no  !  All  Nature 
is  alike.  The  ripple-mark  may  any  day  be  seen  in  the  clouds,  as  welj 
as  on  the  sea-shore,  or  in  the  rocks." 


228  GILL'S  BURN. 


Not  another  article  did  I  find,  although  I  tried  until 
the  incoming  tide  threatened  to  cut  off  my  retreat  to 
the  land.  And  then  I  fled." 

Dick  went  on  with  his  ramblings,  and  sent,  as  usual, 
the  results  to  Hugh  Miller.  He  went  to  Barrogill  and 
Gills  Bay  on  the  Pentland  Firth,  marking  the  dips  of 
the  flags  and  red  sandstone.  At  the  junction  of  Gills 
Burn  with  the  Firth  he  found  several  beds  of  bituminous 
shale,  containing  fossil  coprolites  and  large  seaweed 
plants  not  unlike  a  stout  bough.  This  was  afterwards 
engraved  in  Hugh  Miller's  Testimony  of  the  Rocks.  Dick 
found  the  beds  of  clay  slate  interlacing  with  the  huge 
mass  of  red  sandstone  before  him,  and  up  Gills  Burn  he 
saw  a  beautiful  section  of  boulder  clay.  '•  No  less  than 
three  little  streams  have  cut  their  course  through  the 
boulder  clay,  laying  bare  their  internal  structure  most 
beautifully.  In  one  of  those  little  streams  you  walk 
up  into  the  very  bowels  of  the  earth,  with  a  perpendi- 
cular wall  on  each  side  of  you,  picking  out  at  your  leisure 
Crassena,  Mactra,  Cyprina,  Turritella,  Dentalium,  chalk, 
flints,  pieces  of  Oolite,  and  such  like. 

"  Freswick  Burn  is  nothing,  Harpsdale  is  nothing,  the 
Haven  of  Mey  is  nothing  to  a  geologist,  compared  with 
this.  I  wish  you  no  higher  gratification  than  an  hour 
spent  among  the  clay  and  shells  at  Gills  Bay.  This 
section  is  noticeable  because  it  exhibits  at  the  base, 
just  where  it  rests  on  the  red  sandstone,  a  bed  of 
gravel  and  shells — broken  and  intermixed  together — 
a  thing  I  never  saw  in  connection  with  any  other  sec- 
tion. I  have  seen,  here  and  there,  small  gravel  nests  of 


CHAP.  xv.  RAMBLE  TO  BENCHEILT.  229 

various  shapes,  but  never  at  the  hase  line.  In  truth,  I 
do  not  remember  ever  seeing  the  base  line  of  a  section 
of  boulder  clay  until  I  saw  this  one." 

From  Gills  Bay,  Dick  went  westwards  to  the  bay  of 
Scotland  Haven,  where  he  found  various  remains  of  the 
Asterolepis.  He  brought  away  a  few  of  them,  more  by 
way  of  memorial  than  because  of  their  value.  "The 
slates  from  this  locality  on  to  Dunnet,"  he  says,  "  dip 
east-north-east,  and  in  many  places  they  are  in  com- 
plete confusion.  As  I  passed  homewards,  my  thoughts 
reverted  to  the  ignorance  of  those  who  imagine  that 
Caithness  strata  have  in  general  one  particular  dip — one 
'general  dip.'  A  greater  delusion  never  entered  the 
brain-box  of  mortal  man." 

Dick's  next  ramble  was  to  Bencheilt,  about  twenty- 
five  miles  south  of  Thurso.  His  wish  was  to  examine 
the  granitic  de'bris,  and  to  correct  the  observations  made 
during  his  midnight  journey  to  Dunbeath  about  three 
years  before.  He  went  by  Sordal  and  Spittle  Hill, 
where  the  strata  dipped  east.  At  the  thirteenth  mile- 
stone, he  found  the  granitic  de'bris,  and  it  continued  to 
Stemster  Hill.  Passing  a  Druidical  pillar,  nine  feet 
high,  he  went  on  to  Bencheilt.  He  was  twenty  miles 
from  home.  His  time  was  nearly  up  ;  yet  he  determined 
bo  ascend  the  mountain.  Observing,  however,  that  the 
Loch  of  Stemster  was  close  at  hand,  and  that  a  Druid's 
temple  stood  on  its  side,  he  resolved  to  go  over  and  see 
the  great  antiquarian  monument. 

"  The  Druidical  temple,"  he  says,  "  is  not  a  circle. 

It  is  shaped  like  a  horse-shoe — like  an  old-fashioned 
11* 


230  DRUIDICAL  TEMPLE.  CHAP,  xv 

reticule  basket,  or  rather  like  an  old  wife's  pocket — 
pardon  the  simile.  The  stones  are  from  the  hills  around. 
The  highest  stone  may  be  six  feet  high ;  their  average 
height  about  four  feet.  They  are  grey,  moss-grown,  and 
lichened ;  and  upon  some  of  their  points  the  hammer  of 
the  antiquarian  has  hit  very  hard.  At  the  north-east 
corner  is  a  small  space,  outside  the  circle,  at  the  foot  of 
a  large  stone — the  second  stone  in  the  end  row, — at 
which  some  person  has  been  digging  for  relics,  and  has 
left  it  half  open.  The  small  space  looks  a  grave,  as  if 
some  one  had  been  buried  there  after  sacrifice. 

"  Eeturning  to  the  west  end  of  Stemster  Loch,  you 
observe  a  small  stream  runs  out  of  it  down  to  Loch 
Rangag.  This  little  stream  I  traced  from  the  one  loch 
to  the  other.  I  traced  it  very  patiently,  and  was 
rewarded  and  delighted. 

"  Where  the  burn  runs  out  of  Loch  Stemster,  there 
has  been  dug  a  sort  of  watercourse,  and  a  sluice-gate 
has  been  put  in.  They  have  cut  through  the  strata, 
hard  clay  stone,  and  bituminous  stone,  with  the  same 
abrupt  dip  to  the  east.  You  go  down  the  stream,  over 
the  edges  of  the  strata,  still  dipping  east.  On  and  on,  and 
still  the  dip  is  east.  Going  on,  over  their  edges,  you 
are  arrested  by  a  bed  tilted  south  !  Dip  south.  Close  in 
contact,  you  find  a  bed  on  end! — broken  fragments, 
angular,  gneiss-looking,  hard,  bound  together  by  three 
seams  of  lime  crystallised.  Disturbance  and  even  tritu- 
ration  have  been  at  work.  On  a  little.  The  strata  wheel 
round  again  to  an  easterly  dip.  Down,  down,  and  down 
— down  even  to  the  Mill,  and  even  below  the  Mill  j  and 


CHAP.  xv.  DIVERSITY  OF  DIP^.  231 

the  same  beds,  bed  over  bed ;  what  a  pile !  The  dis- 
tance between  the  two  lochs  is  about  a  mile  on  the  map. 
During  half  of  that  mile,  you  descend  the  strata,  bed 
upon  bed,  stair-like ;  about  2625  feet.  Then  up  above 
Loch  Stemster  another  hill  overlies  all  this  thickness  of 
rocks !  You  are  perfectly  safe  in  estimating  the  thick- 
ness of  the  Slate  beds." 

After  he  had  made  his  observations,  he  returned 
home  with  all  speed.  The  bread  must  be  made  and 
baked,  and  the  bread  must  be  sold.  His  hard  day's 
work  in  the  mountains  was  followed  by  a  hard  day's 
work  in  the  bakehouse. 

"A  long  period  elapsed  before  Dick  again  corre- 
sponded with  Hugh  Miller.  The  latter  was  editing  the 
Witness,  and  preparing  his  admirable  book  entitled 
My  Sctwols  and  Schoolmasters.  Dick  had  again  returned 
to  his  study  of  botany.  But  the  correspondence  seems 
to  have  been  resumed  towards  the  end  of  1854.  In  a 
letter  written  by  Dick  to  Hugh  Miller,  he  says,  "  When 
Satan  once  appeared  where  he  ought  not  to  have  been, 
and  was  asked  '  Whence  comest  thou  ? '  his  answer  was, 
'  From  going  to  and  fro  in  the  earth,  and  walking  up 
and  down  in  it.'  Now,  what  could  you  expect  from  any 
deil's  bairns  but  only  a  reflex  of  their  father's  conduct  ? 
I  too  have  been  going  to  and  fro  in  the  earth,  and 
walking  up  and  down  in  it ;  with  this  difference,  how- 
ever, that  I  have  had  the  very  best  intentions.  And 
though  Satan's  palace  chambers  are  said  to  be  paved 
with  such,  I  hope  he  shan't  have  any  of  mine  for  flag- 
stones— more  particularly  as  my  acts  h^ve  been  of  tlie 


232  LABORIOUS  JOURNEYS.  CHAP.  xv. 

most  innocent  kind, — scorning  to  mock,  the  use  of  any 
living  thing, — not  even  rudely  crossing  the  stray  ideas 
of  any  fellow-geologist. 

"  I  have  been  admiring  the  fashion  of  the  grass  of  the 
field ;  not  only  admiring  but  collecting  it ;  not  only 
collecting  but  studying  it.  In  the  prosecution  of  the 
study,  I  have  made  hundreds  of  laborious  journeys.  I 
have  ransacked  the  coast, — rambled  inland  over  moor, 
niire,  and  meadow — up  hills  and  across  valleys — peeped 
into  running  streams  and  stagnant  pools,  goose-dubs 
and  dismal  lochs.  Finally,  I  have  been  twice  on  the 
pinnacle  of  Morven — the  Mont  Blanc  of  Caithness. 

"Nor  has  the  peculiar  study  that  you  favour  been 
forgotten.  I  have  made  many  journeys  expressly  in 
search  of  fossils,  or  to  examine  some  particular  stratum, 
I  have  regularly  visited  the  boulder  clay  after  rains  and 
storms — kept  a  keen  eye  after  all  the  slate  quarries — 
and  even  spent  days  in  scrutinising  Dunnet  cliffs. 
True,  in  March  1854, 1  clambered  down  the  West  Front, 
more  than  two  hundred  feet,  and  examined,  searched,  and 
hammered  for  hours ;  and  my  only  reward  was  a  curious 
thing,  which  is  still  a  problem.  Splendid  sections  are 
those  cliffs.  How  strange  one  feels,  crawling  along  their 
feet,  and  looking  up  their  perpendicular  height !  What 
mites,  what  trifles  we  are  amidst  the  might  of  earth  and 
the  vastness  of  ocean !" 

Hugh  Miller  was  at  this  time  very  much  annoyed 
at  the  leaders  of  the  sect  of  which  his  newspaper 
was  the  organ.  "I  see,"  says  Dick,  "that  you  are 
not  in  heaven  as  to  peace  any  more  than  I  am.  Yet 


DUKNET  HEAD  :     WEST  FRONT — NEAR  THE  LIGHTHOUSE. 


CHAP.  xv.  GOSPEL  THEORIES.  233 

I  candidly  say  that  it  is  very  hard  that  you  cannot 
enjoy  yourself  for  one  day  among  the  rocks,  without 
being  assailed  for  it  by  ignorant  W.  W.'s  be  they  clerical 
or  not.  Great  stir  about  tyrannical  Popery  at  present ; 
but  query — may  there  not  be  among  ourselves  Moderate 
Popes,  Free  Popes,  and  such  like?  Plenty,  I  guess. 
The  divine  right  of  ruling  is  worth  ten  times  the 
stipend." 

In  acknowledging  the  receipt  from  Hugh  Miller  of 
some  papers  containing  an  account  of  the  meeting  of  the 
British  Association  at  Edinburgh,  Dick  says — "  These 
papers  are  not  thrown  away.  They  shall  be  duly 
pondered  and  considered — ay,  on  mountain  tops,  even 
at  early  dawn,  or  sober  eve,  when  the  twinkling  stars  and 
the  soothing  winds  tell  their  own  tale  of  nature's  happi- 
ness in  their  own  dear  way. 

"  It  is  a  blessed  thing  that  creation  smiles  or  frowns, 
laughs  or  is  sad,  just  as  we  are  -content  or  otherwise. 
Every  man  according  to  his  '  gift.'  Sooth  to  say,  I  am 
one  of  those  whose  faith  is  too  weak  to  see  every  one  of 
the  many  twinkling  orbs  that  bedeck  the  vault  of  heaven 
— the  abodes  of  beings  who  suffer  and  of  beings  who 
rejoice — of  beings  who  are  saved,  and  of  beings  who  are 
lost.  No,  no !  I  have  thrown  Calvin's  theory  to  the 
winds.  There  are  as  many  Gospel  theories  as  there  are 
geological ;  and  all  are  at  liberty  to  behold  their  own 
likeness  in  their  own  mirror.  Only  one  thing.  If 
divines  have  for  centuries  been  preaching  nonsense 
about  the  creation  of  the  world  and  of  man,  what  con- 
fidence can  an  ignorant  man  have  in  their  findings  and 


234  HUGH  MILLERS  DEATH.          CHAP.  xv. 

interpretations  of  other  parts  of  the  same  writings, 
equally  full  of  interpretations,  corrections,  and  amend- 
ments ?  I  know  what  I  say." 

The  correspondence  proceeds  at  intervals,  until  the 
death  of  Hugh  Miller,  which  took  place  on  the  24th 
December  1856.  He  was  then  preparing  the  last  sheets 
of  the  Testimony  of  the,  Rocks,  which  was  published  at 
the  beginning  of  1857.  Dick  was  of  opinion  that  Hugh 
Miller  published  the  book  quite  as  much  to  please  the 
dominant  religious  party  in  Scotland,  as  to  satisfy  the 
convictions  of  his  own  mind.  Indeed,  he  traced  the 
beginnings  of  Hugh  Miller's  insanity  to  the  over-stimula- 
tion of  his  brain,  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  the 
exigencies  of  his  position  as  a  scientific  man  and  a 
religious  journalist.  Some  time  before  the  sad  cata- 
strophe of  Hugh  Miller's  death,  he  mentioned  to  Pro- 
fessor Shearer  a  curious  symptom,  indicative  of  com- 
mencing insanity  in  this  gifted  man. 

The  following  are  Professor  Shearer's  words  : — "  I 
had  an  interview  with  Mr.  Dick  in  the  inner  shrine  of 
his  daily  labours — his  bakehouse.  This  was  considered 
a  high  mark  of  his  consideration ;  and  indeed  his  manner 
was  perfectly  cordial  and  natural.  Our  conversation 
naturally  turned  upon  his  friend  Hugh  Miller,  then  not 
long  dead,  and  to  his  books.  His  powerful  and  bril- 
liant effort  to  reconcile  the  scriptural  account  of  creation 
with  geological  science,  Mr.  Dick  considered  a  failure. 
At  the  same  time,  he  strongly  maintained  the  doctrine 
of  successive  creations  of  animated  beings,  though  he 
appeared  to  have  no  confidence  in  the  Darwinian  doc- 


THE  FAIRIES."  235 


trine  of  development.  Pointing  to  the  sketches  of  the 
Greek  boy  and  the  ape  on  the  walls,  he  asked,  '  whether 
that  could  come  out  of  this  ?' 

"  Returning  to  Hugh  Miller,  I  naturally  expressed  my 
sorrow  that  a  life  so  brilliant  and  valuable  as  that 
described  in  his  Schools  and  Schoolmasters,  should  have 
ended  so  sadly.  '  Ah,  poor  Hugh  !'  said  he, '  I  knew  him 
well.  His  life,  as  he  could  write  it,  would  be  as  interest- 
ing as  a  romance.  But  I  am  not  at  all  astonished  at  the 
way  it  ended.  His  mind  was  touched  somehow  by 
superstition.  I  mind,'  he  continued,  '  after  an  after- 
noon's work  on  the  rocks  together  at  Holborn  Head,  we 
sat  down  on  the  leeside  of  a  dyke  to  look  over  our  spe- 
cimens, when  suddenly  up  jumped  Hugh,  exclaiming, 
'  The  fairies  have  got  hold  of  my  trousers ! '  and  then 
sitting  down  again,  he  kept  rubbing  his  legs  for  a  long 
time.  It  was  of  no  use  suggesting  that  an  ant  or  some 
other  well-known  '  beastie'  had  got  there.  Hugh  would 
have  it  that  it  was  '  the  fairies ' ! "  * 

"  When  the  news  of  Hugh  Miller's  death  came,"  said 
Dick  to  his  sister,  "  I  thought  it  was  the  end  of  all 
things.  I  was  more  shocked  than  I  could  tell  to 
anybody.  Poor  Hugh !  I  knew  him  so  well !  I  shall 
always  remember  him.  Indeed,  he  is  now,  and  almost 
always,  with  me.  I  cannot  look  on  a  stone  without 
thinking  of  him.  I  am  not  likely  ever  to  forget  him. 
He  was  sorely  afflicted  with  his  head  while  he  was 

*  Hugh  Miller  wrote  a  good  deal  about  the  fairies  in  his  works. 
See  his  description  of  the  Fairies  of  the  Ravine  of  Eathie,  in  Old 
Red  Sandstone,  pp.  221-2,  Ed.  1875. 


236  "  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  ROCKS."      CHAP.  xv. 

here,  and  to  such  a  degree  that  neither  you  nor  I  can 
form  any  idea  of  his  sufferings.  Peace  to  him!  He 
will  live  long  over  all  the  earth." 

Again  writing  to  his  sister,  he  says,  "  Mrs.  Miller  has 
sent  me  Hugh's  last  Testimony  of  the  Hocks.  I  have 
read  it  frequently.  It  contains  a  great  deal  of  good 
writing ;  but  it  leaves  the  great  point  as  far  from  being 
settled  as  ever.  I  am  surprised  at  his  mode  of  handling 
the  two  records — the  account  of  creation  in  Genesis, 
and  the  facts  as  we  actually  find  them;  for  it  is  an 
undeniable  fact  that  all  our  present  dry  lands  are  full 
of  dead  animals.  But  don't  mistake  me.  Mr.  Miller 
has  produced  an  unmistakably  clever  book,  which  will 
sell  fast  and  become  popular.  But  it  does  not  solve  the 
great  problem ;  neither  is  it  in  harmony  with  the 
account  of  creation  recorded  in  the  oldest  book  extant. 
Nor  will  it  convert  geologists,  and  satisfy  those  who 
know  anything  about  rocks  and  organic  remains. 

"  Possibly  the  business  cannot  be  settled  in  the 
present  stage  of  discovery,  and  friend  Hugh  had  rather 
too  much  veneration  for  sundry  great  living  men,  to  strike 
out  a  new  path  amid  such  an  entangling  forest  of  con- 
flicting opinions.  Of  one  thing  you  may  be  sure.  The 
earth,  as  we  have  it,  was  not  made  in  six  ordinary  days. 
The  earth  is  making  yet.  It  is  still  in  course  of  creation." 

Strange  to  say,  when  the  Life  of  Hugh  Miller  came 
out,  not  a  word  was  said  about  Eobert  Dick.  The 
two  had  been  in  communication  for  more  than  ten  years. 
Dick  returned  to  Mrs.  Miller  all  the  letters  he  had 
received  from  her  husband,  for  the  purposes  of  the  bio- 


CHAP.  xv.      BIOGRAPHY  OF  HUGH  MILLER.  237 

graphy;  and  more  than  a  hundred  of  Dick's  letters 
were  in  the  possession  of  the  biographer.  Dick  had 
given  all  his  best  fossils  to  Miller.  "  He  robbed  him- 
self," said  Hugh  Miller,  "to  do  me  service."  Dick 
worked  night  and  day  to  enable  him  to  illustrate  his 
works  by  new  specimens.  One  would  have  thought 
that  these  services  were  worthy  of  some  mention  in 
Hugh  Miller's  biography.  But  not  a  word  is  said  there 
ts  to  Hugh's  greatest  helper. 


CHAPTEE   XVI. 

CHARLES  W.  PEACH,  A.L.S. 

WHILE  Bobert  Dick  was  searching  for  organic  remains 
among  the  rocks  at  Thurso  during  his  leisure  hours, 
another  scientific  labourer  was  occupied  in  the  same 
manner  at  the  opposite  end  of  the  island,  among  the 
rocks  of  Cornwall.  Eobert  Dick  had  discovered  numer- 
ous remains  of  fossil  fishes  in  Caithness,  where  distin- 
guished geologists  had  stated  that  no  fossil  fishes  were 
to  be  found  ;  and  Charles  William  Peach  had  discovered 
fossil  fishes  in  Cornwall,  though  it  had  also  been  stated 
that  the  rocks  there  were  non-fossiliferous.  While  the 
one  was  disturbing  the  echoes  of  Pudding-gyoe,  the  other 
was  hammering  in  Heady-Money  Cove.  The  two  were 
working  simultaneously  amongst  rocks  of  the  same 
epoch,  and  the  results  of  their  labours  were  in  a  remark- 
able degree  alike. 

The  Cornish  worker  in  science  was  then  but  a  private 
in  the  mounted  coastguard  service.  Like  Dick,  in  his 
hours  of  leisure  he  found  time  to  add  materially  to  the 
facts  upon  which  geology  is  based.  Thus,  at  the  same 
time,  Hugh  Miller,  originally  a  stonemason, — Eobert 
Dick,  a  working  baker, — and  Charles  William  Peach,  a 
private  in  the  coastguard  service, — were  all  engaged 


CHARLES  W.  PEACH,  A.L.S. 


STORY  OF  MR.  PEACH.  239 


in  like  pursuits.  "  It  is  one  of  the  circumstances  of 
peculiar  interest,"  said  Hugh  Miller, "  with  which  geology 
in  its  present  state  is  invested,  that  there  is  no  man 
of  energy  and  observation,  who  may  not  rationally  in- 
dulge in  the  hope  of  extending  its  limits,  by  adding  to 
its  facts." 

While  engaged  in  their  respective  pursuits,  Dick  and 
Peach  were  quite  unknown  to  each  other.  They  worked 
on  quietly  and  unostentatiously,  without  any  thought  of 
fame.  It  might  be  said  that  theirs  was  "  the  pursuit  of 
knowledge  under  difficulties."  But  this  is  a  mistake. 
The  pursuit  of  knowledge  is  always  accompanied  with 
pleasure,  and  the  pleasure  is  only  enhanced  by  the  diffi- 
culties with  which  it  is  surmounted. 

But  circumstances  shortly  occurred  which  led  to  Mr. 
Peach's  promotion  in  the  service,  and  to  his  removal  to 
the  north — first  to  Peterhead  and  afterwards  to  Wick. 
Then  it  was  that  Dick  and  Peach  became  the  most  inti- 
mate of  friends.  For  this  reason  it  is  perhaps  appropriate 
to  couple  the  portrait  of  the  one  friend  with  that  of  the 
other, — not  only  because  their  pursuits  during  their 
leisure  moments  were  in  a  great  measure  the  same  ;  but 
because  it  serves  as  an  introduction  to  the  correspond- 
ence which  follows. 

Mr.  Peach  has  told  us  the  story  of  his  life.  We 
think  it  full  of  interest.  It  shows  what  a  man  in  even 
the  humblest  ranks  of  life  may  do,  to  accumulate  know- 
ledge and  to  advance  science  for  the  benefit  of  his 
fellow-creatures. 

Mr.  Peach  was  born  in  September  1800,  at  the  village 


240 


WANS  FORD,  NO'l  TS. 


of  Wansford  in  Northamptonshire.  At  the  time  of  his 
birth,  his  father  was  a  saddler  and  harness-maker,  but 
he  afterwards  gave  up  the  business  and  took  a  small 
inn  in  the  village,  and  also  farmed  about  eighty  acres  of 
land.  The  time  came  when  young  Peach  had  to  be  sent 
to  school.  He  first  went  to  a  dame's  school,  where  he 
speedily  learned  the  ABC.  After  that  he  was  sent  to 


WANSFORD,   NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

the  village  school,  the  master  of  which  had  been  an  old 
sawyer.  The  man  could  no  longer  saw,  but  it  was  thought 
he  might  teach.  In  those  days  any  worn-out  broken- 
legged  man  was  thought  good  enough  to  be  a  school- 
master. The  old  sawyer  knew  very  little  about  spelling. 
There  was  not  a  grammar-book  about  the  school. 

But  as  old  Mr.  Peach  was  anxious  to  make  his  son  a 
scholar,  Charles  was  taken  from  the  old  sawyer's  school 
at  twelve  years  old,  and  sent  to  a  school  at  Folkingham, 
in  Lincolnshire.  There  he  made  better  progress.  He 


CHAP.  xvi.  A  RIDING  OFFICER.  241 

learnt  to  read  and  write  well ;  and  he  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  ordinary  branches  of  education.  He  re- 
mained at  this  place  for  three  years,  and  at  the  age  of 
fifteen  he  left  school  altogether. 

He  returned  to  his  father's  house  to  help  in  the  work 
of  the  inn,  and  to  assist  in  the  labours  of  the  farm.  It 
was  not  a  very  good  training  for  a  lad.  Peach  was 
brought  into  contact  with  the  people  who  frequented 
his  father's  inn.  Wansford  was  then  a  very  drunken 
village.  Peach  was  often  invited  to  drink,  but  always 
refused, — a  proof  of  moral  courage  at  an  early  age.  He 
was  consequently  called  "the  milksop"  of  the  house. 
Perhaps  from  what  he  daily  saw  before  him,  he  deter- 
mined to  abstain  from  drink.  In  this  way  the  Spartans 
taught  their  children.  At  all  events,  though  reared 
in  an  inn,  Peach  abstained  from  liquor  for  the  rest  of 
his  life. 

Not  liking  his  position  at  home,  Charles  applied  for 
the  position  of  riding  officer  in  the  Eevenue  Coast- 
guard. He  was  appointed  in  January  1824,  and 
directed  to  proceed  to  Southrepps,  in  the  county  of  Nor- 
folk, and  report  himself  to  the  commanding  officer  there. 
After  approval,  he  was  directed  to  take  up  his  station 
at  Weybourn,  in  the  port  of  Cley,  Norfolk. 

At  that  tune  Peach  knew  nothing  of  Natural  History. 
He  had  never  seen  the  sea.  What  a  sight,  and  hov/  full 
of  wonders,  it  was  to  him  !  He  was  struck  with  every- 
thing connected  with  it.  He  wandered  along  the  shore, 
and  found  brilliant  seaweeds  and  zoophytes  innumer- 
able, the  names  of  which  he  did  not  yet  know.  He 


242  IMPRESSED  BY  A  ZOOPHYTE.       CHAP.  xvi. 

was  particularly  impressed  by  a  splendid  specimen, 
which  was  placed  on  the  parlour  chimney-piece  of 
the  little  inn  where  he  stayed  at.*  The  appearance 
of  the  zoophyte  strongly  excited  his  curiosity.  He 
determined  to  know  what  it  was,  and  where  he  could 
find  a  specimen  for  himself.  This  little  object  had  the 
effect  of  turning  his  attention  to  the  study  of  Nature. 

He  began  to  make  a  collection.  He  had  no  book  on 
the  subject.  He  collected,  more  for  the  beauty  of  the 
forms  and  the  colours  of  the  agates.  He  would  know 
more  by  and  by.  Men  in  the  Coastguard  service  were 
in  those  days  turned  rapidly  about  from  place  to  place, 
for  no  particular  reason,  but  generally  at  considerable 
expense  to  themselves.  After  being  at  Weybourn  for 
a  year,  Peach  was  removed  to  Sherringham,  also  in 
Norfolk. 

It  was  while  at  this  station  that  he  met  the  Eev.  J. 
Layton,  then  living  at  Catfield.  The  reverend  gentle- 
man, finding  that  Peach  was  an  enthusiastic  collector  of 
zoophytes,  asked  him  if  he  should  not  like  to  know  the 
names  of  the  objects  he  collected.  "  Certainly,"  was  the 
reply.  The  clergyman  then  invited  him  to  his  house, 
and  showed  him  a  book  containing  the  history  of  British 
zoophytes.  He  was  delighted  with  the  book ;  but,  as  it 
was  expensive,  and  he  could  not  purchase  it,  he  went 
boldly  to  work,  and  copied  out  the  greater  part  of  the 

*  It  proved  to  be  the  Antennularia  antennina.  The  description  of 
this  zoophyte  is  accompanied  by  a  brief  sketch  of  Mr.  Peach's  career, 
in  the  second  edition  of  Dr.  Johnston's  work  on  The  British  Zoophytes, 
p.  86,  Ed.  1847. 


CHAP.  xvi.          CHANGES  OF  STATION.  243 

letterpress.  Although  he  had  never  had  a  lesson  in 
drawing,  he  also  endeavoured,  to  the  best  of  his  power, 
to  copy  out  all  the  engravings.  By  this  and  other 
means,  he  laid  the  foundations  of  a  great  deal  of  know- 
ledge of  the  lower  forms  of  marine  life,  while  carrying 
on  his  humble  office  of  mounted  guard  in  the  Eevenue 
service  along  the  northern  coast  of  Norfolk. 

His  business  was  to  look  after  smugglers,  and  pre- 
vent them  landing  their  illicit  goods  at  any  part  of  the 
coast.  His  work  was  done  partly  at  night  and  partly 
by  day.  He  must  be  constantly  on  the  alert.  The 
mounted  guard  were  not  allowed  to  remain  long  in  one 
place.  After  remaining  at  Sherringham  for  about  two 
years,  Peach  was  removed  to  Hasboro.  After  a  year's 
service  there,  he  was  sent  to  Cromer ;  then  from  Cromer 
back  to  Cley,  where  he  remained  for  two  years.  Here 
he  married,  and  entered  upon  a  new  career,  that  of 
bringing  up  a  family  on  small  wages.  But  he  met 
every  difficulty  cheerfully.  He  was  fond  of  home  life, 
and  his  wife  helped  to  make  his  home  happy. 

At  Cley  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  station.  He 
superintended  the  look-out  after  smugglers,  and  he 
did  his  duty  carefully.  Notwithstanding  this,  he  was  once 
charged  with  having  neglected  it.  A  jack-in-office,  an 
Irish  naval  captain  in  command  of  the  coast  service 
there,  assembled  the  Coastguard  before  him,  and  charged 
them  all  with  being  bribed  by  the  smugglers.  Peach 
was  justly  indignant.  He  protested  for  himself  and  on 
the  part  of  his  men  that  they  were  loyal  and  honest 
servants  of  her  Majesty,  and  he  challenged  the  captain 


244  GORRANHA  VEN.  CHAP.  xvi. 

to  prove  his  words.  The  captain  could  not ;  and  accord- 
ingly, after  a  little  hard  swearing,  he  drew  in  his  horns, 
and  said  no  more  on  the  subject. 

It  may  here  be  mentioned  that  Mr.  Peach  was  a 
handy  man  at  everything.  He  learnt  to  draw  with  cor- 
rectness. He  cultivated  mechanics.  When  he  went  into 
the  Coastguard,  he  spent  part  of  his  spare  time  in  making 
a  turning-lathe.  With  this  he  turned  jet  earrings,  jet 
boxes,  and  other  things.  He  afterwards  made  a  com- 
pound slide-rest,  and  turned  things  in  iron  and  brass. 

After  two  years'  service  at  Cley,  Peach  was  sent  to 
Lyme  Eegis  in  Dorset,  at  the  south-western  part  of  the 
island.  He  then  lived  at  Charmouth,  but  he  remained 
there  only  four  or  five  months,  when  he  was  removed  to 
Beer,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Axe,  in  Devonshire.  He 
remained  there  for  about  two  years,  always  working  in 
his  leisure  hours  at  zoology  and  natural  history. 

He  was  then  removed  to  Paignton  in  Tor  Bay,  farther 
down  the  coast.  He  was  not  allowed  to  rest  there, 
but  was  shortly  after  removed  to  Gorranhaven,  near 
Mevagissey,  in  Cornwall.  It  was  here  that  he  indefati- 
gably  pursued  his  studies  in  zoology.  He  collected 
some  of  the  most  delicate  specimens  of  marine  fauna. 
Many  of  these  he  sent  to  Dr.  Johnston  when  preparing 
his  history  of  the  British  Zoophytes.  Others  were  sent 
to  the  most  distinguished  writers  on  zoology,  and 
several  of  them  were  called  after  his  name.* 

It  was   while   living  at    Gorranhaven    that  Peach 

*  The  Isodictyia  Peachii,  Membranipora  Peachii,  Lipralia  Peachi\ 
Cellularia  Peachii,  Peachii  hastata,  and  Eolis  Peachii. 


CHAP.  xvi.     THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION.  245 

applied  himself  to  a  new  subject, — the  geological  forma- 
tion of  the  coast.  It  had  been  stated  by  well-known 
geologists  that  no  relics  of  ancient  life  existed  in  the 
Cornish  rocks.  "We  have  no  exuviae,"  said  Pryce, 
"  of  land  or  sea  animals  buried  in  our  strata."  "  The 
rocks  of  Cornwall  and  of  Scotland  are  non-fossiliferous," 
said  Dean  Conybeare.  The  same  statement  was  repeated 
by  many  writers,  and  amongst  others  by  Sir  Eoderick 
Murchison,  who  took  the  statement  on  trust.  In  fact, 
geology  was  then  in  its  infancy.  During  the  last  fifty 
years,  nearly  everything  has  been  changed. 

The  private  in  the  mounted  Coastguard  service  did  a 
great  deal  to  alter  the  then  state  of  geology.  He  was 
not  satisfied  with  the  statements  of  others.  He  examined 
for  himself.  He  had  the  quick  eye  and  the  keen  judg- 
ment. He  possessed  the  gift  of  careful  observation. 
Nor  was  he  ever  daunted  by  difficulties.  In  fair  weather 
and  in  foul,  he  worked  among  the  Cornish  rocks,  and 
found  fossils  where  no  fossils  were  said  to  have  been — 
fossils  innumerable ! 

Mr.  Peach  was  not  the  man  to  let  his  light  lie  hid 
under  a  bushel.  A  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
was  about  to  be  held  at  Plymouth.  Plymouth  was  not 
far  from  the  place  where  he  lived,  and  he  determined  to 
put  his  facts  together,  and  read  them  before  the  associa- 
tion. He  never  wrote  a  paper  before,  nor  had  he  ever 
read  one.  He  had  only  heard  one  scientific  lecture.  But 
with  his  ready  mother  wit  he  prepared  his  paper,  and 
it  proved  to  be  a  thoroughly  original  one.  He  read  it 
himself  at  the  Plymouth  meeting  in  1841.  It  was 

entitled,  On  the  Organic  Fossils  of  Cornwall 
12 


246  READS  MANY  PAPERS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

"  It  is  impossible,"  he  writes  in  1847,  "  to  describe 
the  feelings  under  which  I  then  rose.  That  is  over  long 
since.  The  only  beating  of  my  heart  now  about  the 
British  Association  is,  that  of  gratitude  towards  its 
members,  and  of  affection  for  their  great  kindness.  I 
feel  my  love  of  scientific  pursuits  strengthen  every  day. 
I  have  taken  hold  of  that  which  every  day  affords  '  a 
feast  of  reason  and  a  flow  of  soul.'" 

In  the  following  year  (1842)  he  attended  the  meeting 
of  the  British  Association  at  Manchester,  where  he  read 
a  paper  before  the  Zoological  section  on  his  discoveries 
and  observations  of  the  marine  fauna  on  the  Cornish 
coast.  In  1843  he  attended  the  meeting  at  Cork,  and 
in  1844  he  was  at  York.  He  never  went  without  a 
paper.  Sometimes  he  read  several.  Men  of  distinction 
began  to  notice  this  remarkable  coastguardsman.  He  was 
acknowledged  to  be  one  of  the  most  original  discoverers 
in  geology  and  zoology.  Such  men  as  Murchison,  De 
la  Beche,  Buckland,  Forbes,  Daubeny,  and  Agassiz, 
took  him  by  the  hand  and  greeted  him  as  a  fellow 
labourer  in  the  work  of  human  improvement  and  scien- 
tific development. 

Dr.  Eobert  Chambers  was  present  at  the  York  meet- 
ing. He  wrote  a  very  interesting  article  on  the  subject, 
which  appeared  in  Chambers's  Journal  of  November 
23,  1844.  Here  is  his  description  of  Mr.  Peach: — 
"But  who  is  that  little  intelligent-looking  man  in  a 
faded  naval  uniform,  who  is  so  invariably  seen  in  a 
particular  central  seat  in  this  section  ?  That  is  perhaps 
one  of  the  most  interesting  men  who  attend  the  associa- 


CHAP.  xvi.          DR.  CHAMBERS'1  ACCOUNT.  247 

tion.  He  is  only  a  private  in  the  mounted  guard 
(preventive  service)  at  an  obscure  part  of  the  Cornish 
coast,  with  four  shillings  a  day,  and  a  wife  and  seven 
children,  most  of  whose  education  he  has  himself  to 
conduct.  He  never  tastes  the  luxuries  which  are  so 
common  in  the  middle  ranks  of  life,  and  even  amongst 
a  large  portion  of  the  working  classes.  He  has  to  mend 
with  his  own  hands  every  sort  of  thing  that  can  wear  or 
break  in  his  house.  Yet  Charles  Peach  is  a  votary  of 
natural  history — not  a  student  of  the  science  in  books, 
for  he  cannot  afford  books ;  but  he  is  a  diligent  investi- 
gator by  sea  and  shore,  a  collector  of  zoophytes  and 
echinodermata — strange  creatures,  many  of  which  are 
as  yet  hardly  known  to  man.  These  he  collects,  pre- 
serves, and  describes ;  and  every  year  he  comes  up  to 
the  British  Association  with  a  few  novelties  of  this 
kind,  accompanied  by  illustrative  papers  and  drawings 
thus,  under  circumstances  the  very  opposite  of  such 
men  as  Lord  Enniskillen,  adding,  in  like  manner,  to  the 
general  stock  of  knowledge. 

"  On  the  present  occasion  he  is  unusually  elated,  for 
he  has  made  the  discovery  of  a  holothuria  with  twenty 
tentacula,  a  species  of  the  echinodermata,  which  Edward 
Forbes,  in  his  book  on  Starfishes,  had  said  was  never 
yet  observed  in  the  British  seas.  It  may  be  of  small 
moment  to  you,  who  perhaps  know  nothing  of  holo- 
thurias,  but  it  is  a  considerable  thing  to  the  fauna  of 
Britain,*  and  a  vast  matter  to  a  poor  private  of  the 

*  About  thirty  years  after  the  meeting  at  York,  the  Neill  Prize 
Gold  Medal  was  presented  to  Mr.  Peach  by  the  Royal  Society  of  Edia- 


248  BUYS  A  MICROSCOPE.  CHAP.  xvi. 

Cornwall  Mounted  Guard.  And  accordingly  he  will  go 
home  in  a  few  days,  full  of  the  glory  of  his  exhibition, 
and  strung  anew  by  the  kind  notice  taken  of  him  by 
the  masters  of  science,  to  proceed  in  similar  inquiries, 
difficult  as  it  may  be  to  prosecute  them  under  such  a 
complication  of  duties,  professional  and  domestic. 

"  But  he  has  still  another  subject  of  congratulation ; 
for  Dr.  Carpenter  has  kindly  given  him  a  microscope,* 
wherewith  to  observe  the  structure  of  his  favourite 
animals, — an  instrument  for  which  he  has  sighed  for 
many  years  in  vain.  Honest  Peach !  humble  as  is  thy 
name  and  simple  thy  learning,  thou  art  an  honour  even 
to  this  assemblage  of  nobles  and  doctors ;  nay  more, 
when  I  consider  everything,  thou  art  an  honour  to 
human  nature  itself;  for  where  is  the  heroism  like  that 
of  virtuous,  intelligent,  independent  poverty  ?  and  such 
heroism  is  thine  ! " 

burgh.  On  that  occasion,  Professor  Geikie  said — "Somewhere  about 
twenty  species  of  marine  fauna,  and  several  genera  of  sponges,  were 
first  made  known  by  him  as  denizens  of  British  seas.  He  has  consider- 
ably augmented  our  list  of  native  hydrozoa  and  polyzoa.  The  naked- 
eyed  Medusae  owe  not  a  little  to  his  attention,  and  one  genus  of  them 
(Staurophora)  was  first  introduced  by  him  to  the  naturalists  of  this 
country.  The  Echinodenns,  too,  are  under  similar  obligations  to  him, 
for,  besides  bringing  several  new  species  to  light,  he  found  the  huge 
Echinus  mtlo  of  the  Mediterranean  on  the  coast  of  Cornwall,  and  sup- 
plied the  twenty-armed  Holothuria  nigra  to  fill  up  the  blank  pointed 
rut  by  Edward  Forbes  among  the  British  Holothuriae. " — Proceedings 
v/the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  5th  April  1875. 

*  This  is  a  mistake.  The  microscope  was  not  given  by  Dr.  Car- 
penter, but  he  kindly  superintended  its  fitting  up.  Mr.  Peach  obtained 
the  money  to  purchase  it,  by  superintending  and  adding  to  the  col- 
lections of  Natural  History  at  the  Polytechnic  Institution  of  Falmouth 


CHAP.  xvi.     LANDING  WAITER  AT  FOWEY.  249 

Some  of  the  gentlemen  who  attended  the  meeting  at 
York,  and  especially  Dr.  Buckland,  in  their  admiration 
for  the  character  of  Mr.  Peach,  proposed  to  do  some- 
thing for  his  promotion  in  her  Majesty's  service.  Dr. 
Buckland  wrote  to  Sir  Robert  Peel  on  the  subject.  The 
reply  was,  that  there  were  no  openings  at  the  time,  but 
that  the  application  of  Dr.  Buckland  on  behalf  of  Mr. 


CHARLES  PEACH'S  HOUSE,  FOWEY. 

Peach  should  be  kept  in  mind.  At  length  the  pro- 
motion came.  A  position  of  Landing  Waiter  was 
vacant  at  London,  and  another  at  Fowey.  Mr.  Peach 
preterred  the  latter,  though  the  salary  was  £50  less. 
He  desired  to  remain  in  his  quarters  by  the  sea-coast, 
to  carry  on  his  investigations  among  the  zoophytes,  and 
to  further  examine  the  rocks  of  Cornwall  at  his  leisure. 
His  salary  was  now  £100  a  year ;  and  the  advance  of 
pay  greatly  helped  him  and  hi»  family.  He  removed 


250     ENRICHES  CORNISH  COLLECTIONS.    CHAP.  xvi. 

to  a  pretty  house  overlooking  the  river  Fowey  and  the 
English  Channel,  and  at  this  house  Mr.  Tennyson,  the 
Poet  Laureate,  was  a  frequent  visitor. 

While  residing  at  Fowey,  Mr.  Peach  became  an 
honorary  member  of  all  the  scientific  societies  in  Corn- 
wall. But  he  was  far  more  than  an  honorary  member. 
He  greatly  enriched  their  collections.  He  added  many 
organic  remains  of  the  Devonian  Eocks  to  the  admirable 
collection  of  the  Eoyal  Geological  Society  of  Cornwall. 
Indeed,  the  collection  seems  to  have  remained  as  Mr. 
Peach  left  it,  some  thirty  years  ago.  The  President  of 
the  Society,  at  the  meeting  in  1877,  thus  referred  to  the 
museum  at  Penzance : — "  Our  collection  contains  Devon- 
ian forms  from  the  lower,  middle,  and  upper  series,  in 
most  of  those  areas  in  the  counties  of  Cornwall  and 
Devon,  where  the  rocks  are  exposed.  It  must  be  allowed 
that  it  is  essential  to  the  credit  and  future  history  of  the 
Society  that  this,  of  all  groups  of  rocks  and  associated 
fossils,  should  be  well,  if  not  perfectly,  represented  in  the 
museum.  The  collection,  as  it  now  stands,  is  in  the 
main  due  to  the  energy  and  industry  of  Mr.  Charles 
Peach,  A.L.S.,  one  of  our  oldest  living  naturalists,  who 
for  many  years  resided  on  the  south  coast  of  Cornwall, 
there  making  a  special  study  of  the  coast  sections,  and 
who  extensively  collected  from  them,  especially  at  East 
and  West  Looe,  Polperro,  Polruan,  and  Fowey.  This 
truly  great  collection  is  now  displayed  in  the  cases  of 
our  Society,  and  has  been  but  little  added  to  since, — a 
circumstance  especially  to  be  regretted,  when  we  take 
into  consideration  the  great  amount  of  work  and  re- 


CHAP.  xvi.       KKMOWZS  TO  PETEKHEAD.  251 

search  that  has  been  done  and  carried  on  in  foreign 
countries."* 

As  constant  movement  from  place  to  place  seems  tc 
be  the  rule  of  the  Bevenue  Service,  Mr.  Peach  left  Fowey 
in  1849;  and  this  time  he  was  sent  to  a  far-distant 
place — to  Peterhead,  in  the  north-east  of  Scotland.  The 
removal  cost  him  a  great  deal  of  money.  His  own 
expenses  were  paid,  but  he  had  to  remove  his  wife  and 
family  at  his  own  expense.  Yet  it  was  a  promotion  in 
the  service.  He  was  now  Comptroller  of  Customs.  The 
dignity  of  the  appellation  was  much  greater  than  the 
advance  of  salary,  which  was  only  £20  a  year.  Still 
it  was  a  promotion,  and  it  might  lead  to  better  fortune. 

At  Peterhead,  as  in  Norfolk,  Devonshire,  and  Corn- 
wall, Mr.  Peach  went  on  with  his  study  of  zoology 
and  geology.  He  added  to  the  list  of  British  fishes, 
Yarrell's  Blenny,  Eay's  Bream,  and  the  Anchovy, — 
which  had  not  before  been  known  to  inhabit  the  seas 
which  wash  the  north-eastern  coast  of  Scotland.  He 
also  devoted  much  attention  to  the  nest-building  habits 
of  certain  sea  shells  and  fishes.  "  At  Peterhead,"  says  Pro- 
fessor Geikie,  "  he  made  himself  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  family  arrangements  of  that  rather  fierce- 
looking  little  fish,  the  fifteen-spined  stickle-back  (Gaster- 
osteus  spinachia).  In  a  rocky  pool  he  discovered  a 
colony  of  them,  and  learnt  how  they  built  their  nests 
and  deposited  their  ova.  He  watched  the  hatching 
and  growth  of  the  young  until  the  whole  colony,  young 

*  Sixty -Fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  Royal  Geological  Society  yf 
Cornwall.  President's  Address,  p.  xix.  Plymouth,  1877. 


252  REMOVES  TO  WICK.  CHAP.  xvi. 

and  old,  took  to  the  sea.  As  he  used  to  visit  them 
five  or  six  times  a  day,  the  parents  grew  so  familiar 
that  they  would  swim  round  and  touch  his  hand, 
though  on  the  appearance  of  a  stranger  they  would 
angrily  dash  at  any  stick  or  incautious  finger  that 
was  brought  near  them.  The  same  habit  of  close  and 
cultivated  observation  was  shown  by  his  study  of  the 
maternal  instincts  of  the  female  lobster  in  its  native 
haunts."* 

Mr.  Peach's  next  removal  was  to  Wick, — the  greatest 
fishing  town  in  the  North,  Though  an  ardent  lover  of 
nature,  he  never  neglected  his  duty.  He  was  as  accurate 
and  quick-sighted  in  business  as  in  science.  He  was  alike 
shrewd,  wise,  and  observant  in  both.  He  was  the  model  of 
a  Comptroller  of  Customs,  as  he  was  of  a  true  coEector 
and  naturalist.  His  removal  to  Wick  was  a  promotion. 
His  salary  was  advanced  to  £150  a  year,  though  his 
duties  were  to  a  certain  extent  enlarged.  Part  of  his 
work  consisted  in  travelling  round  the  coast  of  Caithness 
in  search  of  wrecks,  and  reporting  them  to  the  Board  of 
Trade.  This  led  him  to  travel  to  the  rocky  points  of 
the  coast,  where  the  wrecks  principally  occurred ;  and 
he  made  good  use  of  his  spare  time  by  hammering  the 
rocks  in  search  of  fossils,  and  more  particularly  the  fossil 
plants  with  which  the  dark  flagstones  of  the  district 
abounded. 

His  removal  to  Wick  occurred  in  1853.  One  of  the 
first  things  that  he  did  was  to  travel  across  the  county 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  Session  1874-5,  p 
511. 


CHAP.  xvi.         VISITS  DICK  AT  THURSO.  253 

to  pay  a  visit  to  Kobert  Dick  at  Thurso.  While  he 
resided  in  Cornwall,  the  name  of  Eobert  Dick  had  been 
a  household  word  with  him.  He  knew  what  he  had  done 
from  Hugh  Miller's  writings,  and  he  had  no  doubt  that 
he  would  find  Dick  to  be  a  man  after  his  own  heart. 
Kor  was  he  disappointed.  When  he  first  called  at 
Dick's  shop  in  Wilson's  Lane,  on  the  19th  October  1853, 
he  found  that  the  "  maister,"  as  his  servant  called  him, 
was  in  the  bakehouse.  The  caller  sent  in  his  name,  and 
the  baker  speedily  appeared  in  the  front  shop,  his  shirt 
sleeves  rolled  up,  and  his  arms  covered  with  flour. 

"  I'm  Charles  Peach  of  Ready  Money  Cove  in  Corn- 
wall ;  and  you  are  Robert  Dick  of  Pudding  Goe."  That 
was  Mr.  Peach's  first  introduction.  "How  are  ye?" 
answered  Robert  Dick,  with  a  firm  grasp  of  the  hand ; 
"  come  into  the  bakehouse !"  That  was  an  honour 
accorded  to  few,  but  in  the  case  of  a  renowned  geolo- 
gist it  was  readily  granted.  Dick  went  on  with  his 
work  at  the  oven  mouth,  or  at  the  side  of  the  dough, 
while  the  two  talked  together.  It  was  an  interesting 
conversation,  which  Mr.  Peach  long  remembered.  The 
latter  observed  on  the  wall  of  the  bakehouse  a  full-sized 
sketch  of  the  Greek  boy  taking  the  thorn  from  his  foot, 
with  an  Egyptian  god  on  each  side, — all  accurately  done 
in  pencil  or  charcoal  by  the  Thurso  baker. 

Mr.  Peach  called  again  in  the  evening,  and  again 
found  Dick  at  the  oven  in  the  bakehouse.  After  he  had 
done  his  evening's  work,  he  had  a  fire  lighted  in  his 
parlour,  and  took  his  new  friend  upstairs  to  see  his 
collection.  Mr.  Peach  was  first  attracted  by  the  fine 
12* 


254  REPEATED  VISITS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

busts  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  Lord  Byron,  and  a  large 
plaster  figure  of  the  Venus  of  Milo,  which  the  apartment 
contained.  Dick  then  showed  his  collection  of  fossils, 
plants,  ferns,  and  entomological  specimens.  Mr.  Peach, 
in  an  entry  in  his  diary,  written  the  same  evening, 
says — "  He  is  a  very  diffident  man,  but  an  enthusiast  in 
natural  history  pursuits.  He  is  unmarried,  and  lives 
most  retired.  In  fact,  he  is  very  little  known  in  Thurso. 
He  has  a  nice  collection  of  Caithness  ferns,  beetles,  and 
insects.  He  is  deeply  interested  in  botany.  His 
researches  in  geology  have  been  great,  especially  in  the 
Old  Eed  Sandstone;  and  some  of  his  specimens  have 
added  new  links  to  the  history  of  these  ancient  rocks." 

Mr.  Peach  soon  repeated  his  visit.  He  called  again 
at  the  beginning  of  the  following  May,  and  again  found 
Dick  very  busy  in  his  bakehouse.  The  fire  was  not 
again  lighted  in  the  parlour.  Peach  was  now  regarded 
as  a  friend.  All  the  subsequent  interviews  between  the 
two  occurred  at  the  mouth  of  the  oven,  or  in  the  kitchen, 
or  in  the  fields,  or  among  the  rocks.  All  ceremony  and 
formality  were  laid  aside ;  and  although  they  had  many 
differences  of  opinion  and  stout  debates,  these  were,  like 
lovers'  quarrels,  soon  made  up. 

Mr.  Peach  entered  the  following  passage  in  his  diary, 
descriptive  of  his  second  visit  to  Dick : — "  2d  May  1854. 
Rose  early;  called  upon  Mr.  Dick;  found  him  at  his 
oven,  and  very  busy ;  had  a  nice  chat  with  him.  ...  In 
the  evening  I  saw  him  in  his  bedroom.  What  an 
industrious  man  he  is.  He  is  through  nineteen  volumes 
of  plants,  and  hopes  soon  to  finish  his  herbarium.  He 


CHAP.  xvi.  WALKS  WITH  DICK.  255 

has  heaps  upon  heaps  of  specimens,  and  appears  to 
thoroughly  understand  his  subject.  After  two  hours' 
chat  I  left  him  to  go  to  his  bed,  to  which,  if  possible, 
he  retires  at  9  P.M.,  to  rise  again  between  3  and  4  A.M. 
I  have  often  been  up  and  with  him  at  that  time,  not 
willing  to  lose  time  when  I  had  an  opportunity  of  enjoying 
his  society.  His  conversation  was  too  precious  to  lose." 

During  the  ensuing  summer,  when  the  grasses  and 
plants  were  in  bloom,  the  two  took  a  long  walk  up  the 
Thurso  river.  Dick  pointed  out  to  his  friend  the  habi- 
tat of  the  Holy  Grass  (Hierochloe  borealis),  which  he  had 
long  known;  and  also  what  was  then  called  Drum- 
mond's  Horsetail  (Equisetumpratense).  Dick  also  pointed 
out  the  Baltic  rush  (Juncus  balticus),  which  Mr.  Peach 
had  never  before  seen.  Mr.  Peach  says  of  this  walk, 
that  "Dick's  cheerful  manner,  his  sparkling  wit,  and 
frolicsome  playfulness,  added  to  the  other  beauties  of 
the  excursion,  made  it  a  treat  indeed." 

"  My  next  visit  to  Thurso,"  says  Mr.  Peach,  "  occurred 
in  connection  with  a  wreck,  happily  unattended  with 
loss  of  life.  On  this  occasion,  our  first  difference  broke 
out.  The  Old  Eed  Sandstone  period  was  said  to  be  one 
of  seaweeds  and  cartilaginous  fish.  That  I  felt  to  be 
unstable,  from  specimens  which  I  had  picked  up  in  my 
spare  minutes  snatched  from  duty.  We  both  defended 
our  views.  He  was  strenuous  in  his  defence  of  Hugh 
Miller's  and  his  own  opinions,  and  although  I  felt  a  sad 
heretic,  I  warnily,  b,ut  I  hope  modestly,  suggested  that 
I  might  be  right.  Time  has  since  proved  that  I  was  so, 
and  dear  Dick  set  to  working  out  the  problem  for  him- 


256  LOVERS'  QUARRELS.  CHAP.  xvr. 

self  as  usual,  and  at  last  he  came  to  the  same  conclusion 
that  1  had  done.  I  have  just  found  a  note  in  reply  to 
one  of  mine.  After  saying  that  he  is  ready  to  be  my 
pupil  in  seaweeds,  zoophytes,  and  in  every  other  depart- 
ment of  natural  history,  he  adds,  and  '  even  in  fossil 
wood '  * — a  jocular  allusion  to  our  discussion  on  this 
point." 

Mr.  Peach,  in  a  recent  letter,  referring  to  the  many 
happy  hours  and  tough  battles  fought  in  Dick's  bake- 
house, says  that  old  Annie,  the  housekeeper,  would 
sometimes  interfere,  and  say,  "  Eh,  maister,  ye're  awfu' 
hard  wi'  Mr.  Peach ;  he'll  never  come  back  again  after 
sic  rough  usage."  But  Peach  came  back  as  before.  The 
lovers'  quarrels  soon  healed,  and  they  were  more  affec- 
tionate than  ever.  "  I  had  the  advantage,"  says  Mr. 
Peach,  "  in  having  read  all  that  Hugh  Miller  had  done, 
and  also  many  of  Dick's  letters  on  the  same  subject. 
Besides,  I  had  had  lots  of  experience  in  Devonian  and 
Old  Eed  rocks  in  more  places  than  Scotland.  I  had  also 
a  mode  of  my  own  for  collecting.  I  got  all  the  weathered 
and  detached  portions  of  fishes  and  plants,  studied  them, 
and  fitted  them  into  more  perfect  specimens.  But  Dick 
did  much  good  service.  He  was  fortunately  in  time  to 


*  Hugh  Miller,  in  his  Testimony  of  the  Rocks,  refers  to  this  fossil 
wood  as  a  "  curious  nondescript  vegetable  creation."  He  adds  : — "  I 
have  not  hitherto  succeeded  in  finding  for  myself  specimens  of  this 
organism,  which  has  been  named  provisionally  by  Dr.  Fleming  Stroma 
^biCKea  ;  but  it  seems  not  improbable  that  certain  (supposed)  fragments 
of  wood,  detected  by  Mr.  Charles  Peach  in  the  Caithness  flagstones, 
but  which  do  not  exhibit  the  woody  structure,  may  have  belong*^ 
to  it" 


CHAP.  xvi.  FOSSILS  AT  DURNESS.  257 

reap  the  harvest.  I  only  got  his  gleanings.  But  I 
found  for  myself  new  fields  of  un worked  rocks  in  Suther- 
landshire,  and  got  new  fishes  there,  and  also  new  ones 
in  the  old  fields  that  Dick  had  so  long  been  working  in. 
I  was  very  fortunate.  My  duties  led  me  so  far  about, 
and  gave  me  many  opportunities  that  I  should  not 
otherwise  have  had  ;  whereas  Dick  was  confined  to  the 
neighbourhood  of  his  bakehouse  in  Thurso.  All  this  I 
took  advantage  of,  after  duty  had  been  done.  By  rising 
early  in  the  morning  and  working  until  late  at  night ;  by 
often  giving  up  my  meal  times,  and  satisfying  myself  with 
a  crust  of  bread  and  butter,  and  at  night  with  a  Highland 
tea  and  something  to  eat,  I  fortunately  contrived  to  fill 
up  my  leisure  hours  with  a  good  deal  of  useful  work." 

The  principal  new  field  to  which  Mr.  Peach  refers, 
was  the  limestone  of  Durness  in  Sutherland.  The  spot 
was  too  far  from  Caithness  to  enable  Dick  to  investigate 
it.  But  it  was  in  the  Comptroller's  way.  He  went  to 
Durness  to  visit  a  wrecked  ship,  and  he  did  not  neglect 
his  opportunity.  He  was  the  first  to  find  fossils  in  the 
limestones  of  Durness.  Obscure  organic  remains  had 
before  been  detected  by  Macculloch  in  the  quartz  rocks 
of  Sutherland ;  but  they  had  gradually  passed  out  of 
mind,  and  their  organic  nature  was  stoutly  denied  even 
by  such  geologists  as  Sedgwick  and  Murchison.  Mr.  Peach, 
however,  brought  to  light,  in  1854,  a  good  series  of  shells 
and  corals,  which  demonstrated  the  limestones  containing 
them  to  lie  on  the  same  geological  horizon  as  some  part 
of  the  great  Lower  Silurian  formations  of  other  regions.* 

*  When  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  heard  of  this  discovery,  he  wrote 


258   RESULTS  OF  PEACH'S  DISCOVERIES.  CHAP.  xvi. 

The  discovery  remained  without  solution  for  some 
years,  the  principal  geologists  still  doubting  its  reality. 
But  about  five  years  after,  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison  again 
visited  the  spot,  and  the  discovery  was  confirmed. 
Professor  Judd,  of  the  Eoyal  School  of  Mines,  Jermyn 
Street,  London,  said  in  the  Geological  Society's  Quarterly 
Journal  that  "  Charles  Peach's  discovery  in  1854  of 
Silurian  fossils  at  Durness,  Sutherland,  has  already 
borne  the  most  important  fruit ;  and,  in  the  hands  of 
Murchison,  Eamsay,  Geikie,  Harkness,  and  Jamieson,  has 
afforded  the  necessary  clue  for  determining  the  age  of  the 
great  primary  masses  of  the  Highlands  of  Scotland." 

We  have  thus  described  the  origin  of  the  friendship 
between  Charles  Peach  and  Eobert  Dick.  It  strength- 
ened as  it  grew.  Charles  Peach  shared  all  Dick's 
enthusiasm,  and  bore  a  warm  and  constant  friendship 
for  the  solitary  student.  They  communicated  to  each 
other,  as  all  true  labourers  in  science  do,  the  results  of 
their  respective  discoveries.  They  kept  up  a  regular 
correspondence,  and  many  of  their  communications  with 
each  other  will  be  found  referred  to  in  the  following  pages. 


to  his  friend  Professor  Sedgwick  : — "  Yon  have  no  doubt  heard  of  the 
discoveries  of  fossils  in  the  Durness  limestone  of  Sutherland  by  Peach. 
He  has  corresponded  with  me  on  the  point,  and  has  sent  me  some  of 
the  fossils.  I  have  had  them  polished.  The  forms,  rude  and  ill-pre- 
served as  they  are,  look  more  like  Clymenise  and  Goniatites  than  any- 
thing else,  with  corals  ;  and,  if  so,  the  calcareous  masses  which  I  saw 
from  Assynt  to  Durness,  interstratified  in  the  quartz  rock,  are  high  in 
the  Devonian.  I  would  like  to  hear  what  you  say  to  this  tclairvisse- 
ment  I  I  see  great  difficulty  in  understanding  it."— Professor  Geikie'* 
Life  of  Sir  Eoderick  I.  Murchison,  vol.  ii.  p.  195. 


CHAPTER  XVIL 
ROBERT  DICK  AND   CHARLES  PEACH 

A  SUCCESSION  of  visits  from  Peach  to  Dick,  and  a  long 
correspondence  between  them,  followed  their  first  intro- 
duction. Peach  travelled  a  great  deal,  especially  during 
the  shipwrecking  season  ;  and  when  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Thurso  it  was  his  invariable  practice  to  call  upon  his 
friend  Dick.  They  communicated  to  each  other  all  that 
they  had  found  since  their  last  meeting,  and  they  often 
sent  parcels  of  shells  and  fossils  by  the  carrier's  cart, 
with  numerous  communications,  to  ask  each  other's 
opinion  about  their  special  findings. 

Shortly  after  Peach's  first  visit  to  Thurso,  he  found  a 
specimen  of  a  new  fossil  fish  which  he  thought  allied  to 
the  Dipterus.  It  was  a  bony  fish.  He  consulted  Dick 
on  the  subject.  Dick  thought  it  very  unusual ;  and 
"  from  the  resemblance  (he  said)  which  it  bears  to  the 
vertebral  column  of  the  Coccosteus,  fragments  of  which 
are  commonly  attached  to  its  buckler,  I  should,  for  my 
part,  have  no  hesitation  in  pronouncing  it  what  you  take 
it  to  be.*  Cartilage  becomes  petrified,  and  in  some  for- 
mations cartilaginous  fish  are  found.  But  your  speci- 


*  For  description  of  this  bony  fish  see  Decade  X.  Geological  Survey, 
Parts  iv.  v.  p.  51. 


260  EXCHANGE  OF  SHELLS.         CHAP.  xvn. 

men  shows  as  decidedly  bony  a  structure  as  Coccosteus. 
Your  specimen  is  altogether  new  to  me.  I  will  take 
good  care  of  the  fossil.  ...  I  am  in  a  tremendous  hurry 
of  business  to-day,  but  feel  your  kindness  very  much. 
.  .  .  Since  you  saw  me  here  I  have  walked  to  Morven 
top  and  back  again  to  Thurso  with  little  inconvenience. 
I  have  since  been  at  Scrabster  hills,  and  intend  being 
at  Duncansby  Head  very  soon." 

Dick  and  Peach  also  interchanged  shells  with  each 
other,  though  Dick  said  in  one  of  his  letters — "  I  do  not 
think  that  you  require  any  information  from  me  on 
matters  pertaining  to  this  or  any  other  study  or  research. 
You  are  a  bred  veteran,  and  I  am  but  a  greenhorn." 
Still,  Dick  would  not  give  way  on  any  point  on  which 
he  thought  that  he  was  right  and  Peach  wrong.  He 
insisted  that  he  was  entitled  to  have  his  say,  especially 
where  his  own  eyes  were  concerned.  He  did  not  believe 
so  much  in  books  or  in  theories,  but  he  believed  in  facts. 

In  one  of  Peach's  enthusiastic  letters  he  expresses 
the  hope  that  Dick  is  "  revelling  in  the  midst  of  the 
beauties  he  has  collected."  To  this  Dick  replies,  "  I 
dinna  ken.  .  .  .  You  perhaps  know  the  story  of  the 
gentleman  who  returned  from  India  with  a  black  ser- 
vant. One  frosty  morning  the  master  went  a-shooting, 
and  took  the  dark  Oriental  to  beat  the  bushes.  He  was 
rendered  powerless  by  the  cold.  The  master  impatiently 
demanded  why  he  did  not  cry  '  Hush,  cock,  hush.'  '  Ah, 
massa,'  he  tremulously  replied,  '  me  wish  hush  cock  had 
never  been  born.'  And  so,  Massa  Peach,  sometimes  I 
wish  beauties  had  never  been  born.  Not  that  there  is 


CHAP.  xvii.        THE  MONK  OF  CAMERA  Y.  261 

too  much  loveliness  in  Nature ;  but  that  the  hunting  for 
objects  of  interest  squeezes  me  so  very  confoundedly 
that  the  wonder  perhaps  is,  not  that  I  do  so  little,  but 
rather  that  I  manage  to  beat  the  bushes  at  all. 

"  The  monk  of  Cambray  ! — Yes,  I  think  'twas  he, 
The  monk  of  Cambray  was  a  wonderful  man  ! 

He  turned  his  face  to  the  northwards, 
And,  mutt'ring  a  prayer  with  Amen  !  he  began 

Reading  backwards  instead  of  forwards  ! 

"  Exactly  so !  And  dull  disciples  in  the  school  of  Stones 
too  much  resemble  him.  Whether  from  the  effect  or 
defect  of  early  training,  when  too  much  left  to  them- 
selves, they  soon  fall  back  to  their  first  ideas,  and 
monkishly  read  backwards.  Our  friend  Hugh  Miller 
knew  that  I  never  fell  in  love  with  his  peculiar  views 
on  the  order  of  creation ;  and  how  he  did  me  the 
honour  of  enrolling  me  among  the  geological  gods  re- 
mains a  mystery  to  this  day.  I  suspect  that,  just  before 
pushing  me  in,  he  had  been  consulting  the  Apostle 
Paul,  who  says — '  Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faith  receive 
ye  ; '  but  then  he  adds,  '  Not  to  doubtful  disputations.' 
Ah  !  there's  the  rub  !  I  am  a  sad  mule.  What  then  ? 
Every  one  according  to  his  gift.  Conviction  must  pre- 
cede conversion. 

"  All  that  lived  during  the  deposition  of  the  Old  Eed 
Sandstone  has  not  been  preserved.  What  has  been  pre- 
served has  not  been  found.  What  has  been  found  is 
understood  very  imperfectly.  No  geologist  has  said  that 
all  that  lived  during  the  deposition  of  the  Silurian,  the 
Old  Ked,  Carboniferous,  and  other  formations,  has  been 


262  A  PATCHWORK  CREATION.      CHAP.  xvn. 

preserved.  They  rather  allow  that  not  a  tithe,  not  a 
fractional  part,  has  been  petrified  and  preserved.  And 
how  do  they  know  that  this  earth  had  not  once  a  habit- 
able surface  capable  of  accommodating  the  whole  of 
them  ?  all  that  has  become  extinct,  and  all  that  still 
survives  ?  .  .  .  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  that  had  Sir 
Charles  (Lyell),  Sir  Roderick  (Murchison),  Agassiz,  or 
Hugh  Miller,  taken  a  fancy  to  work  out  the  notion,  they 
might  have  given  us  a  habitable  surface  capable  of 
accommodating  all  that  lives  with  all  that  is  extinct, 
and  thus  saved  us  the  necessity  of  swallowing  that,  to 
me  at  least,  unpalatable  thing,  a  patchwork  creation — a 
system  of  odds  and  ends,  of  clippings  and  parings.  I 
cannot  believe  that  this  earth  ever  saw  a  creation  but 
one.  Much  has  become  extinct  I  allow,  but  much  is 
supposed  to  be  extinct  which  is  not  extinct. 

"  I  grant  that  chronology  is  corrupt.  I  grant  that  the 
earth  is  much  older  than  was  at  one  time  thought ;  and 
that  our  habitable  surface  was  not  made  in  a  day,  or  in 
a  week,  or  by  a  word ;  but  I  cannot  accept  the  order  ot 
creation  that  geologists  have  carved  out  for  me.  The 
arguments  of  geologists,  like  disturbed  strata,  have  a 
peculiar  dip,  and  a  strike,  by  which  you  can  easily  dis- 
tinguish the  school  of  the  reasoner. 

"And  what  means  all  this  palaver?  I  am  simply 
provoked  by  the  old  monkish  trick  of  reading  backwards 
instead  of  forwards.  This  is  a  land  of  liberty,  and  I 
nvail  myself  of  the  privilege  of  resting  and  waiting  for 
further  light." 

Such  were  Dick's  views  at  the  beginning  of  1854 


CHAP.  xvn.  FOSSIL  WOOD. 


About  the  same  time,  he  wrote  to  Hugh  Miller,  "  Do 
you  know,  I  am  often  accused  of  bearing  an  ill-will  to 
geologists  !  When  I  think  them  at  fault,  and  am  asked 
to  speak,  I  merely  speak  what  I  think  to  be  the  truth. 
Mr.  John  Miller  here  has  got  Murchison's  thirty- 
shilling  book,  and  handed  it  to  me  to  look  at.  Well, 
unfortunate  fellow  that  I  am,  I  saw  that  Sir  Roderick 
was  entirely  wrong  in  saying  that  Cyclas  was  confined  tc 
the  uppermost  beds  of  the  Old  Eed.  I  told  him  so,  and 
he,  as  usual,  thought  that  I  was  doing  injury,  and  what 
not,  to  geology  !  Poof  !  poof  !  In  what  respect  was  I 
a  gainer  or  Murchison  a  loser  ?  Instead  of  being  angry, 
you  geologists  should  be  pleased,  as  it  shows  that  we 
pay  attention  to  what  you  say." 

Mr.  Peach  went  to  the  meeting  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion at  Liverpool  in  September  1854  ;  and  there  he 
read  his  paper  as  usual.  On  this  occasion  he  recorded 
his  observations  on  "  The  Eemains  of  Sand  Plants  and 
Shells  in  the  Old  Eed  Sandstone  of  Caithness."  On  his 
return  to  Wick,  Dick  wrote  to  him,  and  asked,  "  What 
did  you  say  about  the  fossil  wood  ?  Tell  me  also  about 
the  shells."  It  may  be  mentioned  that  there  was  a  long 
discussion  between  the  two  geologists  about  fossil  wood. 
Dick  was  of  opinion  that  the  stuff  which  Peach  had 
found  in  Caithness  was  "concretionary  bituminous 
matter,  and  not  organic."  "  But  I  am  anxious,"  he  says, 
"  that  my  opinion  about  the  matter  should  not  retard  the 
progress  of  discovery.  I  may  be  wrong,  as  I  have  been 
before.  Professor  Forbes  described  the  fossil  wood  to 
be  'chert/  and  'masses  without  structure.'  If  I  an 


264  BOTANICAL  COLLECTION.        CHAP.  xvn. 

wrong,"  said  Dick, "  men  of  mark  have  been  wrong  •  men 
of  repute,  though  I  am  of  none." 

In  the  meantime,  Peach  sent  Dick  specimens  of 
fossils  and  plants.  One  of  these  was  found  near  Wick, 
the  Tectura  testudinalis — a  mollusc.  Another  was  a 
Cornish  heath — the  Erica  vagans.  Of  the  latter  Dick 
said,  "  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  it;  and 
as  my  plants  and  I  do  not  mean  to  separate  while 
life  lasts,  I  shall  have  a  memorial  of  you,  and  I  hope  a 
proper  sense  of  your  kindness,  each  time  that  I  examine 
it.  ...  'Tis  a  pity  I  have  no  other  rarity,  but  I  will 
give  you  a  few  grasses — a  little  brownish,  and  not  so 
good  as  your  last  one." 

Dick  again  refers  to  his  botanical  collection. 
"  Every  moment  of  my  spare  time  is  devoted  to  the 
labelling  of  my  papers,  and  attaching  dried  plants  to 
them.  Thanks  be  praised,  it  is  nearly  over,  and  the 
roughest  work  is  done.  All  the  plants  are  gummed 
down,  and  the  craving  for  a  completion  stirs  me  anew. 
How  they  are  to  come  is  a  mystery,  but  then  hope 
never  fails  me.  .  .  .  Your  first  favour  of  a  mistletoe  is 
in  its  appointed  place,  and  the  present  addition  you  have 
sent  is  equally  welcome.  You  may  rely  upon  it,  you 
bestow  the  specimen  on  one  whose  very  life  is  bound  up 
with  those  things  ;  and  I  can  in  all  sincerity  say  : 

"  For  them  I  panted,  them  I  priz'd 
For  them  I've  gladly  sacrificed 
Whate'er  I  lov'd  before  ; 
And  shall  I  see  them  sacrificed  ? 

*Na,  na,  man.     Many  thousand  thanks  to  you.     My 


CHAP.  xvii.     EXCHANGE  OF  SPECIMENS.  265 

friends  are  few,  and  I  get  on  slowly.  However,  that 
English  gentleman  spoke,  not  long  ago,  very  kindly  tc 
me ;  and  if  all  goes  well  with  him  and  me  for  a  short 
time, '  I'll  cock  my  bonnet  fu'  braw.'  He  is  a  thorough 
botanist." 

The  English  gentleman  referred  to  was  Mr.  W.  L. 
Notcutt,  then  residing  at  Fakenham,  Norfolk.  He  had 
asked  Dick  to  send  him  a  collection  of  the  Old  Eed 
fossils  of  Caithness ;  offering  his  botanical  services  in 
return.  Dick  cheerfully  complied  with  his  request,  and 
Mr.  Notcutt  acknowledges  "most  cordially  his  noble 
suite  of  fossil  fish  from  the  Old  Eed  Sandstone."  "  There 
are  no  fossils  I  more  wished  for,"  he  says,  "  than  some 
specimens  from  your  ancient  strata,  and  your  kindness 
has  indeed  furnished  me  with  a  magnificent  collection. 
...  I  fancy  your  creed  in  natural  history  is  somewhat 
akin  to  my  own.  I  make  very  free  in  asking  help  from 
brother  naturalists,  and  I  am  never  better  pleased  than 
to  be  made  quite  as  free  use  of  in  return.  Indeed,  I 
think  the  very  character  of  our  pursuits  almost  claims 
the  free  interchange  of  such  help ;  for,  unless  one  is 
possessed  of  an  independent  property,  the  amount  of 
travelling  necessary  for  the  examination  of  the  produc- 
tions or  geological  deposits  of  distant  parts  of  our  land 
is  otherwise  an  impossibility." 

Mr.  Notcutt  accordingly  added  largely  to  Eobert 
Dick's  botanical  collection.  He  sent  him  additions  from 
year  to  year,  until  he  had  almost  finally  completed  his 
collection  ;  Dick,  at  the  same  time,  furnishing  him  with 
examples  of  the  grasses  and  plants  growing  in  the 
county  of  Caithness. 


266  DICK'S  CORRESPONDENCE.       CHAP.  xvu. 

Robert  Dick  received  numerous  letters  from  men  of 
distinction,  requesting  specimens  of  the  Holy  Grass  which 
he  had  discovered  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Thurso. 
Professor  Balfour  wrote  to  him  in  1854,  requesting  roots 
of  the  plant  for  the  Botanical  Garden  at  Edinburgh. 
Dr.  Allman,  then  professor  of  Natural  History  at  Edin- 
burgh, and  now  president  of  the  Linnean  Society, 
requested  specimens  of  the  fossil  fish  for  the  University 
Museum.  Letters  flowed  in  from  Perth,  from  Aberdeen, 
from  Glasgow,  from  various  places  in  England  and 
Ireland,  requesting  specimens  of  the  Holy  Grass,  of  shells, 
and  of  fossil  remains.  Among  his  correspondents 
we  find  the  names  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Brodie,  of  the 
Vicarage,  Rowington,  near  Warwick;  Mr.  Backhouse,  of 
York ;  and  Professor  Babington,  of  Cambridge.  Many 
of  these  were  made  known  to  Dick  through  his  friend 
Charles  Peach. 

The  correspondence  with  Mr.  Peach  continues :  "  I 
am  sold,"  says  Dick,  "  body  and  soul,  to  dried  plants,  not 
fossil  ones; — no  breaking  of  stones  or  anything  else  for  me, 
but  the  drudge  of  self-denying  determination.  .  .  .  Who 
was  it  that  wished  he  was  a  tailor,  for  then  he  might 
sometimes  get  a  holiday?  Ay,  Mr.  Peach,  plants  are 
plants,  and  stones  are  stones  indeed,  to  those  who  gape 
and  gasp  to  get  a  mouthful  of  fresh  air.  But  man  was 
born  to  struggle  and  to  endure." 

Unfortunately,  Dick's  health  began  to  fail.  He 
complained  of  a  rasping  cough,  and  of  rheumatism. 
Though  a  strong-looking  man,  and  in  the  prime  of  life 
(for  he  was  not  yet  fifty),  he  complains  of  pain — daily 


CHAP.  xvn.          HIS  COUNTRY  WALKS.  267 

pain.  He  says  to  his  friend  Peach  that  he  is  "  suffering 
the  punishment  of  over-fatigue  and  confinement  to  the 
house."  He  had  no  assistant  in  his  daily  labour — no 
journeyman,  no  apprentice.  All  his  work  was  done  by 
himself.  And  yet  he  continued  his  walks.  "  Like  all 
confined  animals,"  he  said,  "when  snuffing  the  caller 
air,  I  become  quite  uproarious.  A  walk  of  twenty-six 
miles  is  such  a  very  fine  thing." 

But  it  is  an  awful  thing  in  the  North  to  take  a  walk 
on  a  Sunday.  The  Thurso  folks  saw  him  going  out  and 
coming  in  on  that  day,  and  they  were  very  much  shocked. 
What  could  come  of  such  a  person?  They  began  to 
belabour  him  with  tracts.  These  accumulated  on  his 
hands  so  much,  that  he  went  to  the  oven  one  day,  drew 
the  fire  to  the  front  of  the  grate,  put  in  the  bundle  of 
tracts,  and  pushed  the  burning  coals  back,  thus  con- 
suming them  to  ashes. 

A  few  years  later,  when  Dr.  Macleod  raised  such  a 
stir  in  the  North  by  his  observations  as  to  the  Judaical 
observance  of  the  Sabbath  by  his  countrymen,  Robert 
Dick  observed  to  his  brother-in-law : — "  I  have  got  the 
newspaper  containing  the  uproar  about  Dr.  Macleod, 
and  am  much  amused  at  what  their  reverences  said. 
They  would,  if  they  could,  shut  out  the  light.  '  Donald, 
man,  Donald !  what  is  it  that  ye'll  aye  be  shutting  out 
ta  light  ?'  '  If  ta  tail  pe  brak,  ye'll  find  that !  Very 
good ;  and  all  the  noise,  I  fancy,  is  for  fear  that  'the  tail 
pe  brak.'"* 

*  The  allusion  is  to  an  anecdote  of  two  expatriated  Highlaudmen  in 
Canada,  who  went  out  to  hunt  for  wild  pigs.  They  found  a  litter  in 


268  A  SUNDAY  WALK.  CHAP.  xvii. 

One  Sunday  morning,  when  wearied  out  with  his 
week's  work,  he  went  out  to  take  a  walk.  He  described 
it  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Peach,  written  in  the  month 
of  July.  He  begins  with  the  quotation : — 

" '  God  blames  not  him  who  toils  six  days  in  seven, 
Where  smoke  and  dust  bedim  the  golden  day, 
If  he  delight  beneath  the  dome  of  heaven 

To  see  the  clouds  and  hear  the  winds  at  play.' 

"To-day,"  he  said,  "the  wind  blew  hard,  and  as  I 
had  been  wearied  with  heat,  sweat,  and  confinement 
during  the  week,  it  struck  me  that  a  walk  of  about  eight 
miles  up  the  country  would  do  me  good  in  every  way. 

"Well,  I  had  got  about  eight  miles  out.  Some 
beautiful  tufts  of  Erica  Tetralix  grew  temptingly  a  few 
paces  off,  along  the  high  road.  So,  without  a  moment's 
hesitation,  I  stepped  aside  among  them,  and,  stooping 
down,  began  pulling  at  them  admiringly.  From  my 
reverie  of  delight,  amidst  beauties  blushing  crimson,  I 
was  suddenly  startled  by  a  rough  voice  accosting  me  in 
Gaelic.  I  looked  round,  and  saw  one  of  the  ugliest- 
faced  Highlanders  that  ever  '  cam  doon'  staring  wildly 
at  me.  'A  blowy  day,'  said  I.  'Ach,  ach,'  said  he. 
A  brief  silence  ensued.  'Why  are  ye  no  at  sermon?' 


a  cavern  with  a  very  .small  entrance.  The  mother  was  out.  One 
Highlandman  went  in  to  slay  the  pigs  ;  the  other  kept  watch  outside. 
The  mother-pig,  hearing  the  screams  of  her  family,  came  up  suddenly 
and  rushed  into  the  hole.  The  Highlandman  outside  took  fast  hold 
of  the  animal's  tail,  and  held  hard,  occasionally  using  his  dirk. 
Hence  the  noise  from  the  inside  :  "  Donald,  man,  Donald  !  what  is  it 
that  ye'll  aye  be  shutting  out  ta  light  ? "  and  the  answer  from  the  out. 
tiide  was,  "  If  ta  tail  pe  brak,  ye'll  find  that !" 


CHAP.  xvn.  THE  HIEtANDMAN.  269 

he  growled.  '  Why  are  ye  no  at  sermon  yoursel?'  I 
replied.  'Eh?'  said  he;  'oo,  ye  see  I  maun  mind  the 
beasts.'  '  Well,'  said  I, '  we  are  very  much  alike.  You 
mind  your  beasts,  and  I  mind  this  (holding  up  a  piece 
of  the  beautiful  plant  I  had  plucked).  We  have  both 
our  reasons  for  what  we  are  about.'  'Man!'  he  said 
fiercely,  'ye're  nae  better  than  a  beast,  tae  be  looking 
for  grass  on  the  Sawbath.  The  cattle  there  want  reason, 
which  maybe  you  have.'  '  Stop,  my  good  fellow,'  said 
I ;  '  the  cattle  look  at  the  plants  without  seeing  the 
least  beauty  in  them ;  they  pick  out  the  grass  here  and 
there  to  fill  their  bellies ;  but  I  look  at  them  for  the 
improvement  of  my  mind.'  'Ach!'  he  grunted;  and 
then  he  roared,  '  It's  a  sad  thing  for  a  man  who  has  got 
one  wife  already,  to  go  a  — —  after  another.'  At  this 
coarse  outburst  I  laughed  loudly ;  and  after  telling  him 
that  I  had  got  no  wife  at  all,  I  suddenly  walked  away 
and  left  the  man  with  his  beasts.  I  wonder  what  this 
blind  zealot  would  have  done  to  me  if  he  had  the  power. 
The  less  we  know,  the  more  intolerant  and  tyrannical 
we  become.  All  the  religious  persecutions  that  we  read 
of  are  merely  the  result  of  ignorance,  and  of  the  cruelty 
that  comes  of  ignorance.  I  wonder  whether  that  man 
ever  thinks  of  the  words  the  Master  he  pretends  to 
serve  once  said  to  His  disciples — '  Consider  the  lilies  of 
the  field,  how  they  grow ;  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they 
spin ;  and  yet  I  say  unto  you,  that  even  Solomon  in  all 
his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these.'" 

Amongst  the  numerous  scientific  men  who  sought 
the  acquaintance  of  Dick  was  the  late  Sir  Eoderick 
13 


270  SIR  RODERICK  MURCHISON.       CHAP.  xvn. 


Murchison.  He  was  appointed  Director-General  of  the 
Geological  Survey  and  of  the  School  of  Mines  in  1855, 
and  having  been  informed  of  the  remarkable  discoveries 
made  by  Mr.  Peach  in  the  Durness  limestone,  he  pro- 
posed to  make  a  journey  in  the  north-west  of  Scotland 
in  the  course  of  the  same  year.  He  started  in  August, 
accompanied  by  Professor  Nicol.  They  went  by  Inver- 
ness, to  Applecross,  Gairloch,  and  Assynt.  They  went 
northward  to  Durness  and  Tongue.  It  does  not  appear 
that  Sir  Eoderick  made  any  new  discoveries  on  this 
occasion ;  field-geology  was  in  the  meantime  at  fault. 
Professor  Geikie,  in  his  Life  of  Murchison;  says  that 
"  so  far  as  respected  any  new  light  on  the  geology  of 
the  north-west  of  Scotland,  his  excursion  to  Assynt 
left  matters  very  much  as  they  were."* 

When  at  Tongue,  Sir  Eoderick  and  Professor  Nicol 
drove  across  the  country  by  the  north  coast  to  Thurso. 
They  were  not  then  personally  acquainted  with  Eobert 
Dick,  though  they  had  often  heard  of  him  by  name. 
Professor  Nicol  first  sought  him  out,  and  then  he 
took  Sir  Eoderick  to  his  shop  in  Wilson's  Lane.  The 
latter  wished  for  some  information  from  Dick  as  to  the 
localities  where  he  had  found  certain  Old  Eed  fossils. 
Dick,  however,  was  very  busy  with  his  batch  at  the 
time ;  he  could  not  leave  his  bread  to  burn  in  the 
oven,  in  order  to  give  the  necessary  information.  The 
travellers  were  also  in  a  hurry,  as  Sir  Eoderick  had 
many  other  places  to  visit  before  the  next  meeting  of 
the  British  Association,  which  was  to  be  held  at  Glasgow 
in  the  beginning  of  September. 

*  Vol.  ii.  r.  205. 


CHAP.  xvir.        REQUEST  FOR  FOSSILS. 


271 


Sir  Roderick,  however,  did  not  forget  the  Thurso 
baker-geologist  and  botanist.  In  May  1857  he  wrote 
to  him  from  the  Museum  of  Practical  Geology  in  Jermyn 
Street  as  follows  : — "  Dear  Sir — Aware  of  the  talent  you 
have  evinced  in  collecting  rare  and  good  specimens  of 
the  fossil  fishes  of  the  Caithness  flags,  and  finding  that 
this  establishment  is  very  poor  in  such  remains,  I  venture 


DICK'S  HOUSE,  WILSON'S  LANE. 

to  ask  you  to  taKe  some  steps  to  supply  us  with  a  few 
really  good  things  in  the  ichthyic  line.  All  cost  of 
extraction,  as  well  as  the  full  value  of  the  fossils,  would 
be  paid  thankfully  to  the  finders.  Pray  excuse  the 
freedom  I  use.  I  have  no  other  means  of  endeavouring 
to  secure  this  desirable  object." 

Robert  Dick  acceded  to  the  baronet's  request.     He 
did  not  sell  any  of  his  fossils,  but  he  sent  the  donation 


272  DICK'S  MAP  OF  CAITHNESS.       CHAP.  xvn. 

of  "  a  very  fine  specimen  of  Asterolepis,"  for  which  their 
Lordships  of  the  Committee  of  Privy  Council  of  Educa- 
tion sent  Mr.  Dick  their  best  acknowledgments. 

Sir  Roderick  Murchison  was  much  more  fortunate  in 
finding  Dick  at  liberty  on  his  next  visit  to  Thurso. 
Besides,  he  had  Charles  Peach  with  him,  who  soon  made 
everything  smooth  between  the  baronet  and  the  baker. 
They  were  both  introduced  to  the  bakehouse.  It  was 
only  Dick's  intimate  friends  who  were  introduced  to 
that  sanctum  sanctorum.  Dick  was  still  in  his  working 
clothes.  A  conversation  took  place  about  the  dip  of 
certain  rocks  in  Caithness.  Sir  Roderick  complained  of 
the  want  of  any  sufficient  map  of  the  county.  Here 
Dick  could  chime  in  with  him.  In  fact,  he  had  wandered 
over  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  county,  and 
found  that  the  existing  maps  were  mere  "  bosh."  "  But  if 
you  will  permit  me,"  he  said,  "  I  will  endeavour  to  show 
you  a  map  of  Caithness."  "By  all  means,"  said  the 
baronet. 

Taking  up  a  few  handfuls  of  flour,  and  spreading  it 
out  on  the  baking  board,  Dick  proceeded  to  mould  a 
model  in  relief  of  the  geological  structure  of  Caithness. 
He  showed  all  the  principal  features  of  the  county — the 
hills  and  dales,  the  rocks  and  cliffs,  the  dislocations  and 
fractures,  the  watersheds  and  the  drainage,  and,  in  fact, 
an  outline  of  the  entire  geography  of  the  county.  To 
quote  the  words  of  Sir  Roderick  Murchisoii,  "Mr. 
Robert  Dick  directed  my  notice  to  the  presence  of 
numerous  powerful  fractures  and  dislocations  in  the 
flagstones  ranging  over  Caithness,  and  which,  to  the 


CHAP.  xvn.     A  MAP  MOULDED  IN  FLOUR.  273 

superficial  observer,  seem  to  lie  simply  in  undulations. 
But  to  whatever  extent  these  dislocations  have  occurred, 
they  never  can  be  accurately  defined  until  a  correct  map 
of  the  county  be  executed,  it  being  a  melancholy  fact, 
that  though  easily  capable  of  examination  owing  to  the 
slight  elevation  of  the  greater  part  of  the  county, 
Caithness  is  probably  the  worst  mapped  county  in 
Scotland."* 

Mr.  Peach  has  also  a  pleasant  recollection  of  the 
interview.  He  says :  "  I  felt  it  to  be  a  great  privilege 
indeed  to  be  present  at  the  meeting  of  the  baronet  and 
Dick  in  the  bakehouse.  It  was  a  treat  to  me  to  see  the 
hills  and  dales,  the  rocks  and  cliffs,  made  up  with  flour, 
and  a  likeness  of  Caithness  moulded  in  relief  by  his 
nimble  fingers.  He  seemed  to  be  familiar  with  every 
foot  of  the  county,  every  hill  and  dale,  every  movement 
and  flexure,  every  fracture  and  dislocation,  and  the 
readiness  and  ease  with  which  he  communicated  the 
information  greatly  pleased  and  surprised  the  renowned 
geologist ;  and  when  he  left  the  place  he  expressed  his 
delight  and  astonishment  at  the  amount  of  information  he 
had  received  from  the  wonderful,  though  comparatively 
unknown,  baker  of  Thurso." 

The  conference  between  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison  and 
Dick  lasted  so  long,  that  Peach  says  "  he  was  so  much 
overcome  by  sleep,  that  he  had  a  long  nap  while  they 
talked  together."  For  Dick  took  the  baronet  up  to  his 
museum,  and  showed  him  his  collection  of  plants.  Sii 
Eoderick  was  as  much  surprised  at  his  knowledge  of 

*  Sir  Roderick  Murchison's  Siluria.     Fourth  edition,  p.  269. 


274  THE  OLD  CHURCH.  CHAP.  xvn. 

botany  as  of  geology.  He  found  that  Dick  had  almost 
exhausted  the  plants  of  Caithness,  and  that  he  was  en- 
gaged in  making  up  a  complete  Herbarium,  principally 
by  exchanging  plants  with  other  botanical  collectors. 

When  the  two  geologists  left  Dick's  shop,  they  went 
to  the  flag  yards  over  the  river,  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing pieces  of  the  Banniskirk  flags  for  analysing.  "  We 


THTJRSO  KIVEB  :    THE  OLD  CHURCH. 


got  a  boat,"  says  Peach,  "  passed  over  the  harbour,  looked 
at  the  Old  Church,  and  felt  much  disgusted  with  the 
Thurso  people  for  leaving  it  roofless  and  allowing  it  to 
go  to  decay." 

Before  he  left  Thurso  Sir  Koderick  addressed  Dick 
in  the  following  letter : — * 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Dick — I  cannot  leave  Thurso  for  the 
Ultima  Thule  without  thanking  you  sincerely  for  the 

*  31st  July  1858. 


CHAP.  xvn.       MURCHISON  AND  PEACH.  275 

information  I  have  received  from  you  respecting  the 
structure  and  succession  of  the  Caithness  deposits,  and 
for  your  very  agreeable  conversation,  which  was  so 
instructive  as  to  the  physical  geology  of  these  parts  of 
Scotland.  Pray  do  not  forget  the  old  geologist  who 
wTOte  upon  Banniskirk  fishes  thirty-two  years  ago,  and 
who  much  desires  to  make  a  decent  show  of  them  in 
the  great  National  Museum  of  the  Survey ;  and  in  return 
I  promise  you  all  the  rarer  British  plants,  which  are  to 
be  had  by  the  zealous  endeavours  of — Yours  most  faith- 
fully, EODERICK  I.  MURCHISON." 

On  the  following  day,  Sir  Eoderick  and  Mr.  Peach 
left  Thurso  for  Stromness  in  the  Orkneys,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Pentland  Firth.  They  went  to  Kirkwall, 
passing  on  their  way  the  Standing  Stones  of  Stennis, 
the  Orkney  Stonehenge.  On  their  way  north,  they 
visited  Sumburgh  Head,  and  saw  the  Old  Eed  Sand- 
stone of  Caithness  prolonged  into  the  southern  limb  of 
the  Shetland  Islands.  Then  to  the  northernmost  island 
of  the  group  ;  and  finally  the  two  geologists  were 
dropped  by  the  steamer  "  Pharos,"  on  its  way  south,  on 
the  bleak  headland  of  Cape  Wrath.  They  proceeded  to 
visit  the  Durness  limestone,  where  all  that  Peach  had 
already  discovered  was  confirmed  by  the  personal  obser- 
vation of  Sir  Eoderick.  It  was  not  until  the  end  of 
September  that  Mr.  Peach  reached  Wick. 

In  the  meantime,  Sir  Eoderick  proceeded  to  Leeds, 
where  the  next  annual  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
was  to  be  held.  There  he  laid  before  the  geological 


276  SJK  RODERICK'S  PAPER.         CHAP,  xvu 

section  "  The  Results  of  his  Researches  among  the  older 
rocks  of  the  Scottish  Highlands."  He  did  full  justice 
to  Mr.  Peach's  discovery  of  organic  remains  of  the 
Lower  Silurian  age  in  the  crystalline  limestone  of 
Sutherland ;  similar  to  those  which  occur  in  the  Lower 
Silurian  rocks  of  North  America.  Sir  Roderick  also  said 
in  his  paper,  that  as  regarded  the  ichthyolitic  flagstones 
of  Caithness,  "  he  had  made  various  interesting  additions 
to  his  former  knowledge,  particularly  as  derived  from 
the  researches  of  Mr.  Robert  Dick  of  Thurso."* 

But  Sir  Roderick  made  further  mention  of  Robert 
Dick  at  the  public  meeting  held  in  the  Leeds  Town  Hall 
on  the  29th  of  September  1858.  In  fact,  his  eulogium 
of  Dick  constituted  the  principal  part  of  his  address. 
We  have  already  given  part  of  it  in  the  preface  to  this 
book,  and  need  not  here  repeat  it.  Sir  Roderick  con- 
cluded his  speech  by  saying  that  he  had  referred  to  the 
facts  relating  to  the  marvellous  knowledge  acquired  by 
this  humble  working  baker  of  Thurso,  "in  order  that 
the  audience  might  deduce  a  practical  application." 

Mr.  Peach  immediately  sent  to  his  friend  at  Thurso 
the  newspaper  in  which  the  report  of  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison's  speech  appeared,  and  he  also  congratulated 
Dick  upon  the  cordial  manner  in  which  the  baronet  had 
referred  to  his  scientific  knowledge.  Dick,  as  we  shall 
afterwards  find,  did  not  think  so  much  of  the  speech  as 
Peach  did  ;  but,  after  about  fifteen  minutes'  deliberation, 
he  scribbled  off  the  following  stanzas,  and  sent  them  to 
Charles  Peach  as  his  answer.  Peach  sent  the  verses  to 

*  See  Leeds  Meeting  of  the  British  Association,  1858. 


CHAP.  xvn.         SONG  OF  A  GEOLOGIST.  277 

the  Wick  newspaper,  where  it  was  printed  under  the 
title  of  the  "  Song  of  a  Geologist."  * 

Hammers  an'  chisels  an'  a', 

Chisels  an'  fossils  an'  a  ; 
Sir  Rory's  the  boy,  o'  the  right  sort  o'  stuff, 

Hurrah  !  for  the  hammers  sae  braw. 

It's  good  to  be  breaking  a  stone, 

The  work  now  is  lucky  an'  braw  ; 
It's  grand  to  be  finding  a  bone — 

A  fish-bone  the  grandest  of  a'. 

Hammers  an'  chisels  an'  a', 

Chisels  an'  fossils  an'  a  ; 
Resurrection's  our  trade  ;  by  raising  the  dead 

We've  grandeur  an'  honour  an'  a'. 

May  labour  be  crown'd  wi'  success — 
May  prudence  promulgate  the  story — 

May  scoffers  grow  every  day  less, 

Till  the  rocks  are  a  mountain  o'  glory. 

Hammers  an'  chisels  an'  a', 

Chisels  an'  fossils  an'  a'  ; 
The  deeper  we  go,  the  more  we  shall  know 

Of  the  past  an'  the  recent  an'  a'. 

Here's  freedom  to  dig  and  to  learn — 
Here's  freedom  to  think  an'  to  speak  ; 

There's  nane  ever  grumbled  to  look  at  a  stone, 
But  creatures  baith  stupid  an'  weak. 

Hammers  an'  chisels  an'  a', 

Chisels  an'  fossils  an'  a' ; 
In  spite  of  the  devil  we'll  dig  as  we're  able — 

Hurrah  !  for  the  hammers  sae  braw. 

AMYGDALOID. 

*  It  is  said  that  these  verses  so  pleased  Sir  Roderick 
13* 


278  AMYGDALOID.  CHAP.  xvn. 

Dick  was  amazed  to  find  himself  in  print  for  the  first 
time.  In  writing  to  his  friend  Mr.  John  Miller,  then 
"esiding  in  London,  he  said  : — "  If  there  be  Amygdaloid 
umong  the  fossiliferous  rocks  of  Thurso,  or  in  your 
native  county,  your  humble  servant  has  hitherto  failed 
to  detect  it.  Charles  Peach  has  a  wonderful  talent 
that  way,  and  I  remember  his  bringing  me  some  pieces 
of  supposed  trap  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Wick.  But 
when  I  sent  him  these  scribblings  he  thought  for  certain 
that  he  had  found  an  eruptive  rock  at  last.  He  clapped 
them  into  the  paper  and  stuck  Amygdaloid  at  the  end. 
Charlie  had  found  trap  again.  If  the  matter  had 
depended  upon  me,  the  printers  in  Wick  would  have 
been  saved  the  trouble  of  setting  the  verses  up  in  print." 
To  Peach  he  wrote  : — "  The  rhyme  was  merely  meant 
to  make  you  laugh,  and,  that  purpose  served,  to  burn  it. 
Time  was  when  I  used  to  scribble  songs  by  the  dozen, 
though  I  dare  say  no  one  would  give  a  bawbee  for  a 
bagful  of  them.  ...  I  never  was  free  enough  of  care 
and  trouble  to  cultivate  the  gift.  .  .  .  Sentimental  folk 
want  fine  feeling  and  fine  language,  and  I  canna  be 
fashed.  And  you  laughed,  did  you  ?  So  much  laughter, 
so  much  life  enjoyed.  You  are  very  dowie,  you  say. 
Well,  Charles,  if  you  gain  by  that,  you'll  lose  by 
nothing. 

So,  you  sit  by  the  fireplace, 

And  moping  away, 

and  the  eminent  band  of  geologists  belonging  to  the  "  E«d  Lion  Club," 
that  they  were  inserted  in  their  records  and  sung  at  their  annual 
meetings.  —John  o'  Groat's  Journal. 


CHAP.  xvii.      SONG  OF  THE  FOSSIL-HUNTER.         279 

To  field  or  to  sea-side 
Want  courage  to  stray. 
When  fernies  are  withered, 
And  field  flowers  are  gone, 
Oh  !  who  would  go  hunting 
Starfishes  alone  ? 

After  that,  Dick  confesses  that  he  himself  feels  very 
dowie — he  says  he  is  very  unwell,  still  feverish,  with 
cough,  cough,  cough !  Nevertheless  he  appends  another 
bit  of  rhyme,  to  make  Charlie  laugh  again ! 

Oh,  gin  ye  was  a  fossil  fish 

Long  petrified  in  Auld  Red  Stanes, 

An'  I  a  wanderin'  found  the  rock 

That  held  the  remnant  of  yeer  banes  ! 

How  I  would  try  to  dig  ye  out, 

And  send  ye  up  to  Lon'on  fair, 
Weel  pack't  and  sealed,  ye  needna  doubt, 

To  rest  at  Rory 's  *  evennair  ! 

Oh,  gin  ye  were  an  Alpine  plant 

That  grew  upon  'Jie  mountains  high, 

An'  I  a  wanderin'  found  the  plant 
The  little  mossie  burnie  by  ! 

How  I  would  joy,  if  ye  did  'scape 

The  wintry  winds  and  storms  severe — 

I'd  pu'  and  put  ye  in  my  cap, 
An'  dry  ye,  for  -a  thousand  year ! 

When  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  next  visited  Suther- 
land, in  August  1859,  he  was  unable  to  call  upon 
Bobert  Dick ;  but  he  sent  him  the  following  letter : — 

*  Sir  Roderick  Murchison. 


280  MURCHISON'S  LETTER.          CHAP.  xvn. 

"My  dear  Mr.  Dick — I  send  you  by  this  mail  a 
copy  of  my  memoir  on  '  The  Geological  Structure  of  the 
North  of  Scotland.'  It  is  a  Great  Eeform  Bill  which  I 
am  endeavouring  to  pass  ;  and  it  is  hard  to  induce  old 
mineralogical  and  bit-by-bit  geologists  to  enter  into  my 
views.  But  if  the  grand  superposition  of  strata  be  not 
set  aside,  nothing  can  be  so  clear  (nothing  at  least  that 
I  have  ever  seen  in  any  county)  as  the  A  B  C  D  ot 
the  great  steps  by  which  the  geologist  ascends,  in  pro- 
ceeding from  the  west  to  the  east  coast  of  the  north 
of  Scotland. 

"  I  deeply  regret  not  to  be  able  in  my  conscience  to 
go  and  shake  hands  with  you  this  summer.  The  fact 
is,  that  the  general  succession  in  Caithness,  under  the 
administration  of  Peach  and  yourself,  is  quite  secure.  I 
must  therefore  look  to  tracts  never  explored  by  me; 
and  being  satisfied  myself  that  the  statements  printed 
in  my  memoir  are  substantially  correct,  I  wish  to  test 
them  by  exploring  the  tract  between  Melvich  and 
Helmsdale,  which  I  have  never  yet  visited. 

"  The  workers  had  very  nearly  completed  all  your 
Herbarium  before  I  left  London,  and  you  will  have  it 
soon.  Professor  Ramsay  is  with  me,  and  is  delighted 
with  the  clearness  of  the  order  of  succession.  He  is  to 
sing  '  Hammers  an'  Chisels  an'  a' '  at  our  next  anni- 
versary dinner. — Yours  very  faithfully, 

"  RODERICK  I.  MURCHISON." 

The  remainder  of  the  herbarium  promised  by  Sir 
Roderick  reached  Thursp  shortly  after  the  date  of  his 


CHAP.  xvir.      RHYME  OF  THE  BLUE  BELLS.  281 

letter.  Dick  again  exercised  his  rhyming  faculties  on  his 
friend  Peach.  "  As  for  mysel,"  he  said,  "  should  any- 
body speer  for  me  at  Aberdeen,  you  may  say  that  I  am 
quite  merry,  singing  like  a  cricket  over  those  dried 
plants  that  Sir  Koderick  has  sent  me.  Listen  a  minute : 

0,  will  ye  gang  oot  owre  the  moor  ? 

0,  will  ye  gang  wi'  me,  Rory  ? 
To  while  awa'  a  weary  hour  ; 
•  I'm  sure  I'd  gang  wi'  ye,  Rory. 

We'll  wander  'mang  the  heather  knowes, 

Their  bonnie  bells  to  pu',  Rory  ! 
An'  where  the  purple  fox-glove  grows, 

His  stately  grace  to  view,  Rory  ! 

0,  will  ye  gang  oot  owre  the  moor,  etc. 

How  lightly  would  I  clim'  the  hills 

To  gather  thyme  wi'  ye,  Rory  ! 
And  seek  the  wild  flowers  by  the  rills, 

As  blithely  as  a  bee,  Rory ! 

0,  will  ye  gang  oot  owre  the  moor,  etc. 

See  what  it  is  to  get  a  good  crop  of  hay !  I'm  just  as 
happy  as  a  beggar ;  and,  like  Tarn  o'  Shanter, '  owre  a' 
the  ills  o'  life  victorious ! ' " 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

LION-HUNTERS—FERNS  AND  MOSSES. 

AFTER  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison  had  made  his  speech  at 
Leeds,  Robert  Dick's  name  was  carried  far  and  wide  on 
the  wings  of  the  press.  He  was  spoken  of  as  one  of  the 
most  extraordinary  instances  of  the  pursuit  of  knowledge 
under  difficulties.  Even  the  Thurso  people  began  to 
look  upon  him  in  a  different  light.  "They  had  long 
regarded  him  as  partially  insane,"  said  the  editor  of  a 
Wick  newspaper.  "  But  as  time  rolled  on  opinions 
gradually  changed.  By  and  by  it  began  to  be  whispered 
that  men  of  great  influence  were  visiting  the  mad 
Thurso  baker;  and  when  it  was  found  that  at  the 
meetings  of  the  British  Association  he  was  named  as 
one  of  the  highest  authorities  on  certain  scientific 
questions,  and  that  even  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  had 
been  sitting  at  his  feet  and  receiving  lessons  from  him, 
the  Thurso  people  took  pride  in  naming  the  great 
scientific  baker  of  their  town." 

The  change  of  opinion  was  not,  however,  quite 
unanimous.  When  the  joking  rhyme  about  "  Hammers 
an'  chisels  an'  a' "  was  published  in  the  Wick  newspaper, 
Dick  wrote  to  Mr.  Peach  that  "  some  people  here  view 
the  matter  quite  seriously.  One  says, '  Sir  Roderick  will 


CHAP.  xvin.  LION-HUNTERS.  283 

regret  having  extolled  me  so  highly  :  the  verses  are 
more  like  what  a  half-drunk  Burns  would  write  than 
anything  they  know.'  A  weak  but  well-meaning  bodie 
at  Cromarty  sends  me  a  pious  bookie  about  the  state  of 
my  souL  He  says  '  the  spades,  perhaps,  are  made  that 
will  dig  my  grave/  He  need  not  have  had  any '  perhaps ' 
about  the  matter.  Kirk-yard  spades  bury  three  or  four 
generations.  A  Dublin  divine  has  sent  me  a  letter  that  I 
have  put  in  the  fire,  with '  There  goes  Balaam's  ass,  No.  I/ 
Indeed  you  know  that  the  rhyme  was  solely  made  to 
make  you  laugh,  while  you  were  dowie." 

The  lion-hunters  then  came  upon  him.  Point/tmt  a 
man  who  has  done  something  out  of  the  ordinary  way, 
and  immediately  a  tribe  of  nobodies  flock  to  see  him. 
If  they  cannot  get  introduced  to  him,  they  will  look  at 
him  through  his  window,  and  try  to  see  the  lion  through 
the  bars  of  his  cage.  Dick  hated  all  this  nonsense. 
He  would  not  be  lionised.  Every  scientific  man  was 
made  welcome  to  his  shop,  his  bakehouse,  and  his 
parlour;  but  when  persons,  who  knew  nothing  about 
science,  merely  called  to  see  him  as  a  show,  he  was 
shy  and  unapproachable.  Some  thought  him  rude. 
Yet  he  was  exceedingly  attached  to  those  who  were  his 
genuine  friends. 

A  gentleman  called  upon  him  one  day  and  sent  in 
his  name.  Dick  was  at  work  in  the  bakehouse.  "  Tell 
him/'  he  said  to  Annie  Mackay,  "  that  I  am  very  busy, 
and  cannot  see  him  at  present."  Another  message  was 
sent  in:  "Tell  Mr.  Dick  that  I  am  the  editor  of  so 
and  so."  The  reply  was,  "  I  have  no  time  for  editors ;" 


284  CALLS  OF  STRANGERS.         CHAP.  xvin. 

[Aside, — "They  only  thresh  straw  a  thousand  times 
threshed."]  The  editor  afterwards  stuck  a  prong  into 
his  back — after  he  was  dead. 

Dick  detested  sneakingness  and  dishonesty.  One 
day  a  person  called  upon  him  and  proceeded  to  say  that 
a  gentleman,  well  skilled  in  botany  and  physical  science, 
then  in  Orkney,  wished  to  call  upon  him,  and  that  he 
had  come  beforehand  to  tell  him  so.  It  immediately 
flashed  upon  Dick's  mind  that  this  was  the  very  person 
himself.  He  said,  "  It's  of  no  use  for  your  friend  to 
call:  I  have  no  time  for  new  acquaintances."  The 
stranger  then  tried  to  obtain  an  interview  through  a 
third  person,  who  was  instructed  to  say  that  he  was  the 
person  of  whom  he  had  spoken.  "  No,  no,"  said  Dick  ; 
"  tell  him  not  to  come  here,  for  if  he  do  I'll  say  what  I 
don't  want  to  say  to  anybody."  "  What's  that  ?"  "  I'll 
tell  him  to  go  to  the !"  was  the  reply. 

Many  strangers,  said  a  writer  in  the  Northern 
Ensign,  visited  Thurso  without  being  able  to  see  his 
collections,  although  they  had  come  for  the  express 
purpose.  In  this  list  we  believe  we  can  include  a 
member  of  the  reigning  dynasty  in  France  [Prince 
Lucien  Buonaparte  ?]  whom  Mr.  Dick  refused  to  see, 
greatly  to  his  disappointment.  But  when  once,  he  adds, 
Mr.  Dick  had  got  the  real  measure  of  a  man,  and  found 
him  what  he  thought  he  ought  to  be,  all  was  right,  and 
the  introduction  of  a  stranger  by  such  a  person  was  the 
unfailing  open  sesame  to  his  house  and  his  curiosities. 

Dick's  servant  and  housekeeper,  Annie  Mackay,  has 
said  of  .him,  that  many  people  called  to  see  her  maister 


CHAP,  xviii.  "  THE  DUKE "  CALLS.  286 

— some  on  business,  but  most  from  curiosity.  He  was 
polite  to  everybody.  In  business  no  man  could  be  more 
civil.  Sometimes  people  called  when  he  was  busy  in 
the  bakehouse.  His  arms  and  hands  were  covered  with 
flour ;  and  when  the  batch  was  in,  he  could  not  leave 
the  oven.  "You  see,"  she  said,  "he  had  pounds  and 
pounds  worth  o'  bread  i'  the  oven.  Had  he  left  that  and 
come  out  to  attend  the  visitors,  the  bread  wud  ha'  been 
burnt,  and  he  wud  ha'  lost  it  a'.  Wha  wud  ha1  paid 
him  for  that  ? 

"  The  Duke  o'  Argyll  ca'd  ae  day  to  see  the  maister. 
He  was  thrang  wi'  his  batch.  The  maister  said  to  the 
Duke  that  he  couldna  see  him  the  noo,  but  if  he  wad 
ca'  again  he  wad  show  him  the  fossils.  The  maister 
fix'd  the  time.  He  put  oot  the  fossils  and  waited  for  a 
hoor  ayont  the  time.  He  tell't  me, '  If  the  Duke  come, 
take  him  up  ta  the  parlour ;  I've  taken  oot  the  fossils 
and  laid  them  on  the  table.'  The  Duke  cam  after  the 
maister  gaed  oot,  and  looked  at  the  fossils,  but  he  didna 
stop  lang.  The  maister  was  aye  very  particular  about 
the  time  he  fixed  for  visitors  to  see  the  fossils." 

Sir  George  Sinclair  of  Thurso  Castle  usually  brought 
his  distinguished  visitors  to  see  Dick.  Sir  George  had 
a  great  admiration  for  the  baker.  When  speaking  of 
his  first  visit  to  him,  Sir  George  said  : — "  I  had  myself 
attended  many  courses  of  lectures  at  the  Edinburgh 
University,  and  had  acquired  some  knowledge  of  the 
various  departments  of  Natural  History ;  but,  in  con- 
ferring with  my  friend  Dick,  I  soon  discovered  that  all 
my  acquirements  were  shallow  and  superficial.  On 


286 


SIR  GEORGE  SINCLAIR.         CHAP.  xvm. 


those  to  which  I  had  devoted  attention  I  found  myself 
completely  eclipsed  by  my  acute  and  ardent  friend,  who 
was  always  as  ready  as  he  was  able,  to  correct  my  mis- 
takes, to  guide  my  inquiries,  and  to  add  to  my  scanty 
stock  of  general  information.  The  extent  and  variety  of 
his  scientific  acquirements  were  incredible  and  almost 


OLD  THURSO  CASTLE. 


uviexampled.  He  knew  as  much  about  many  sciences 
as  some  professors  know  about  one." 

Amongst  the  numerous  persons  introduced  by  Sir 
George  to  Dick,  were  Thomas  Carlyle  and  the  Baroness 
Burdett  Coutts.  With  the  former  he  had  but  little 
conversation.  They  shook  hands  together  across  the 
counter,  and  exchanged  a  few  words  of  congratulation. 
With  the  Baroness  he  discussed  the  discoveries  of  Mr. 
Pengelly  of  Torquay,  another  eminent  votary  of  science. 

Sir  George  often  invited  Dick  to  meet  his  distin- 


CHAP.  xvin.    MR.  PEACH  AT  ABERDEEN.  287 

guished  guests  at  the  Castle,  and  to  dine  or  breakfast 
with  them.  He  also  invited  him  to  meet  Hugh  Miller 
there  alone.  But  no  !  Dick  would  not  leave  his  own 
house.  He  felt  that  he  should  be  out  of  place  in  a 
Castle,  served  by  footmen.  "  His  unassuming  modesty," 
.said  Sir  George,  "  was  as  conspicuous  as  his  wonderful 
knowledge."  Lady  Sinclair  even  proposed  to  change 
her  baker,  and  buy  her  bread  from  him.  "  No,  no,"  he 
replied ;  "  I  am  the  last  person  to  take  the  bread  from 
any  honest  man's  mouth.  Eemain  where  you  are  ;  you 
cannot  be  better  served." 

When  Mr.  Peach  proposed  to  visit  Aberdeen  in  1859, 
for  the  purpose  of  attending  the  meeting  of  the  British 
Association,  he  asked  Eobert  Dick  if  he  would  not  send 
a  paper,  or  communicate  some  facts  through  his  friends. 
"  No  !  "  said  Dick  ;  "  when  you  go  to  Aberdeen  I  hope 
you  will  not  speak  of  me  at  all.  People  bothered  me 
so  much  last  year  after  Sir  Eoderick  made  his  speech  at 
Leeds,  that  I  have  no  desire  for  any  repetition.  Tell 
Mr.  Cleghorn  also  (a  geologist  at  Wick)  not  to  speak  of 
me.  I  wish  to  be  let  alone." 

But  he  was  quite  ready  to  sing  a  triumphant  song 
to  welcome  Charlie  home  again  : — 

O  welcome  Charlie  hame  again, 
O  welcome  Charlie  to  your  nain  ; 
The  toon  o'  Wick  has  been  in  pain 
For  want  o'  her  ain  Charlie. 

When  Charlie  went  to  Aberdeen, 

The  like  before  was  never  seen  ; 

His  coat  was  brown,  his  breeks  were  green, 

His  buckles  shining  rarely. 

0  welcome  Charlie,  etc. 


288  MEDICAL  STUDENTS.          CHAP.  xvui. 

Upon  his  back  a  bag  o'  stones, 
His  pouches  fa'  o'  fossil  bones  ; 
An'  tangles  lang  as  pipers'  drones 
Hang  ower  his  shoulders  rarely. 

O  welcome  Charlie,  etc. 

When  Charlie  spak,  the  great  were  dumb. 
They  felt  they  micht  nae  fash  their  thumb  : 
For  Charlie's  logic  was  a  drum 
That  did  its  business  rarely. 

0  welcome  Charlie,  etc. 

When  Charlie  sat  in  committee 
The  darkest  doubts  began  to  flee  ; 
A  touch  !  a  word  !  at  once  they  see  ! 
For  wha  can  match  wi'  Charlie  ? 

O  welcome  Charlie,  etc. 

Among  those  who  regularly  called  upon  Dick  at  his 
bakehouse,  were  the  medical  students  of  the  town  and 
neighbourhood.  These  were  always  made  heartily  wel- 
come. When  Dick  had  done  his  day's  work,  he  went 
out  with  them  and  pointed  out  the  plants  in  their  native 
habitat.  Dr.  Shearer  informs  us  that  there  was  hardly 
a  medical  student  belonging  to  Caithness,  who  did  not 
at  one  time  or  other  make  Mr.  Dick's  acquaintance. 
Amongst  these  were  Dr.  Meiklejohn,  afterwards  of  her 
Majesty's  ships  "Illustrious,"  "Harrier,"  and  "Asia;" 
Dr.  Brown,  a  well-known  botanist,  afterwards  author  of 
A  Manual  of  Botany,  Anatomical  and  Physiological ; 
and  Dr.  Shearer  himself. 

Dr.  Meiklejohn  has  told  us  of  his  first  introduction 
to  Dick.  Being  a  native  of  Caithness,  he  had  long 
hear<f  of  his  devotion  to  natural  science,  and  of  the 


CHAP,  xviii.  DR.  MEIKLEJOHN.  289 

value  of  his  researches  into  the  palaeontology  of  the 
Caithness  rocks.  When  Dr.  Meiklejohn  went  to  Thurso 
in  1850,  he  sought  an  introduction  to  Dick  through 
Miss  Eussell,  bookseller,  who  had  long  supplied  him 
with  books.  "We  at  once  called  upon  him,"  he  says, 
"  and  found  him  in  his  bakehouse,  having  just  finished 
his  day's  work.  I  was  much  struck  with  his  appear- 
ance. His  massive  forehead  and  fine  features  betokened 
a  man  of  great  intelligence.  I  regretted  that  he  was 
not  in  a  position  to  follow  his  scientific  pursuits,  free 
from  the  cares  of  arduous  daily  labour. 

"  On  being  informed  that  I  wished  to  know  the  best 
places  for  procuring  specimens  of  fossils  which  abounded 
in  the  rocks  of  the  district,  he  said  he  would  at  once 
accompany  me  to  some  good  fossiliferous  spots.  We 
walked  out  to  Holborn  Head,  where,  on  an  exposed 
surface  of  the  rock,  a  magnificent  cranial  buckler  of  the 
Asterolepis  was  imbedded.  This  was  the  first  example 
of  that  fine  fossil  which  I  had  ever  seen,  and  I  examined 
it  with  the  greatest  interest.  On  our  way  back,  he  took 
me  to  the  bed  of  a  small  stream  near  the  Bishop's 
Palace,  where  numerous  fossil  fishes  were  to  be  seen. 
During  my  stay,  we  had  many  walks  together.  His 
acquaintance  with  the  Fauna — particularly  with  the 
insects  and  shells — and  the  Flora  of  the  district,  was 
very  great.  I  got  much  information  from  him  on  thost; 
subjects." 

Their  acquaintance  continued.  When  Meiklejohn 
returned  to  Thurso — after  his  six  months'  study  of  sur- 
gery and  medicine  at  Edinburgh — one  of  the  first  things 


290  DR.  BROWN.  CHAP.  xvm. 

he  did  was  to  call  upon  Dick.  They  saw  much  of  each 
other  during  the  three  years  that  the  young  surgeon's 
studies  continued.  He  accompanied  Dick  in  his  walks. 
"  I  remember,"  he  says,  "  that  he  took  me  one  day  to  a 
small  pond,  where  he  had  found  that  curious  little  crus- 
tacean, with  a  bivalve  shell,  the  Cypris.  This  little 
animal  was  of  great  interest  to  us  both,  as  it  is  supposed 
to  be  allied  to  Estheria — a  fossil  not  uncommon  in  the 
Caithness  flagstones.  It  was  formerly  thought  to  be  a 
bivalve  mollusc  related  to  the  little  Cyclas  of  our 
rivers." 

Dr.  Meiklejohn  took  his  degree  in  1854,  immediately 
after  which  he  was  appointed  to  H.M.S.  "  Harrier,"  which 
was  about  to  sail  for  the  Baltic,  during  the  war  with 
Russia  in  the  same  year.  While  in  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia, 
Dr.  Meiklejohn  sent  Dick  a  long  account  of  the  Natural 
History  of  Finland.  "I  cannot,"  he  said,  "give  you 
any  elaborate  details,  as  my  only  opportunities  of  in- 
vestigating the  coasts  were,  when  I  accompanied  par- 
ties of  armed  men  in  boats,  looking  for  ships, — fre- 
quently with  a  live  shell  by  my  side,  and  in  danger  of 
being  picked  off  by  a  Russian  rifleman."  After  the  war, 
the  "  Harrier "  left  Portsmouth  for  Rio  Janeiro  and 
Perriambuco,  cruising  along  the  coast ;  and  Dr.  Meikle- 
john again  furnished  Dick  with  a  long  account  of  the 
botany  and  zoology  of  the  lands  which  he  had  visited. 

Dr.  Brown  first  made  the  acquaintance  of  Dick  while 
on  his  way  from  the  Orkneys  to  Edinburgh,  where  he 
was  studying  medicine.  He  called  upon  Dick  at  his 
bakehouse,  and  the  two  had  much  pleasant  conversation. 


CHAP.  xvni.  CAITHNESS  BOTANY.  291 

Dick  supplied  his  young  friend — for  he  was  then  only 
seventeen — with  a  list  of  the  plants  of  Caithness.  The 
list  was  a  long  one.  The  student  read  a  paper  on  the 
subject  to  the  Botanical  Society  of  Edinburgh.  He  gave 
several  of  the  plants  on  Dick's  authority.  The  professor 
of  Botany  jeered  at  the  idea  of  such  plants  growing  in 
Caithness,  and  declared  that  Dick  was  all  wrong !  Dick 
was  appealed  to.  He  insisted  that  he  was  all  right.  He 
had  seen  the  plants  growing  with  his  own  eyes.  What 
better  evidence  could  there  be  of  their  existence  in 
Caithness  ?  Speaking  of  the  affair  to  a  friend,  Dick 
said,  "I  doot  the  folk  that  objected  were  fireside 
botanists." 

The  correspondence,  however,  continued.  In  one  of 
his  letters,  Dick  said,  "  I  am  sorry  that  my  doubly- 
marked  list  of  plants  should  have  annoyed  you  so  much. 
It  is  impossible  for  me  to  send  my  dried  plants  to  Edin- 
burgh for  examination  by  your  Professors.  The  plants 
are  bulky, — and  besides,  I  value  them  too  highly  to 
allow  any  person  to  touch  them,  except  very  tenderly. 
How  can  I  forstand  your  Professors,  when  they  dinna 
forstand  themselves." 

"  Saxifraga  tridactylites :  Dunnet  Links.  Query — 
Why  do  your  Professors  doubt  my  word  about  so  com- 
mon a  plant  as  that  ?  Is  it  because  I  said  it  might  be 
had  in  millions  ?  .  .  .  Arbutus  alpina :  native.  .  .  . 
Luanda  Forsteri :  my  nainsel  fand  him.  .  .  .  Osmunda 
regalis.  Eh  ?  Weel,  man,  were  Dr.  Johnson  of  Berwick 
alive,  he  would  roar  so  loud  that  they  would  hear  him 
at  Morven.  Osmunda  regilis  has  just  as  good  a  right  to 


292  WILD  ROSES.  CHAP.  xvm. 

be  considered  native  as  Calluna  imlgaris.  .  .  .  You  will 
please  give  all  this  news  to  Professor  Balfour.  Tell  him 
I  am  just  as  jealous  of  my  rights  as  he  can  be  himself. 

"  I  truly  grant,  a  hundred  times, 

My  skeel  may  weel  be  doubted, 
But  facts  are  chiels  that  winna  ding, 
And  needna  be  disputed." 

Another  letter  from  the  medical  student  follows,  in 
which  he  offered  to  assist  Dick  with  specimens  of  plants ; 
to  which  the  baker,  perhaps  tired  of  the  subject,  said — 
"  I  hope  you  will  dismiss  from  your  mind  the  idea  of 
hunting  out  dried  plants  for  me.  Attend  to  your  studies, 
and  leave  me  to  find  plants  for  'mysel.'  .  .  .  Those 
plants  exist  in  Caithness  some  way.  How  can  I  tell 
how  they  got  there  ? " 

The  correspondence  was  not  yet  over.  The  student, 
on  his  way  home  to  the  Orkneys,  called  upon  Dick 
again,  made  up  all  differences,  and  got  from  him  some  of 
the  wild  Caithness  roses, — the  whole  of  which  Dick 
had  tracked  to  their  lonely  haunts  among  the  hills  and 
the  straths.  In  a  subsequent  letter,  Dick  says,  "  I  could 
pick  three  or  four  roses  of  different '  varieties '  from  one 
wild  rose  bush  in  various  stages  of  transformation.  I 
don't  consider  myself  beat  on  that  point  yet.  Nor 
will  I  rest  satisfied  until  I  get  the  decision  of  some 
authority.  I'll  wait,  even  for  twenty  years.  Spes 
in/racta.  What's  that  ?  Gaelic  ?  May  be  so — may  be 
no.  It's  all  the  same.  I'll  wait !  .  .  .  Thanks  to  you 
for  giving  me  the  Goat  Honeysuckle,  and  the  Woodsia 
from  Dumfriesshire.  I'll  thank  you  quietly  ilka  time  I 


CHAP.  xvm.  WILD  ROSES.  293 

look  on  them,  and  that's  better  than  noise.  .  .  H.  C. 
Watson  most  certainly  has  me  on  the  hip  about  Potamo- 
geton  plantagineus ;  but  I  have  as  certainly  floored  him 
about  the  Buckbean  (Menyanthes).  .  .  .  The  season  of 
wild  flowers  is  over  once  again  (September  1860),  and  I 
am  not  likely  to  wander  far  this  year.  I  have  never 
walked  less  in  all  my  life  than  this  summer.  Wishing 
you  all  the  happiness  in  this  world,  I  am,"  etc. 

In  the  following  month,  Dick  writes  to  his  young 
friend,  "  You  are  all  right ;  and  we  are  sworn  friends ;" 
and  again,  "  I  can't  quite  make  out  your  hieroglyphics 
They  are  a  mystery  to  me.  You  can  write  better  than 
I ;  only  don't  drive  quite  so  furiously.  I  was  never  at 
college !"  Then  he  goes  on  to  the  Caithness  roses  again. 
"  Along  with  this  you  will  receive  your  catalogue,  which 
I  have  gone  over  very  carefully,  and  made  some  notes 
thereon.  You  have  omitted  some  which  are  very  com- 
mon, and  others,  which,  though  less  abundant,  are  found 
here.  I  have  marked  no  roses  save  Rosa  spinosissima, 
Rosa  canina,  and  Rosa  micrantha.  They  are  abundant 
on  the  braes,  by  Thurso  river,  for  miles  inland.  In  dry 
seasons,  the  leaves  appear  almost  white  from  their  hairi- 
ness. On  a  hill  six  miles  away,  there  grows  a  rose ; 
another  fourteen  miles  away;  another  twelve  miles 
away;  another  six  miles  away,  on  the  edge  of  a  cliff' 
overhanging  the  sea,  and  exposed  to  the  full  sweep  of 
the  northern  tempests.  I  had  intended  to  have  sent  you 
specimens  of  all  these  roses.  But  the  heavy  rains  forbid  : 

"  '  The  best-laid  plans  o'  mice  and  men 

Gang  aft  aglee.' 
H 


294  HEATHS  AND  FERNS.          CHAP.  xviu. 

"But  what  ails  Dr.  Balfour  ?  I  am  wearying  to 
hear  what  these  roses  are.  He  need  not  hesitate  to  sa} 
what  he  thinks.  I  lay  traps  for  no  one. 

"  How  comes  it,  that  of  all  the  Scotch  heaths,  Erica 
Tetralix  only  should  be  given  to  the  habit  of  putting  out 
varieties.  I  have  watched  Calluna  vulgaris  and  Erica 
cinerea,  and  never  yet,  among  thousands  of  thousands, 
found  a  notable  variety.  But  with  Erica  Tetralix,  the 
loveliest  of  the  three,  the  case  is  very  different.  It  is 
subject  to  strange  shiftings  and  changings,  and  I  have 
some  delightful  varieties  from  it.  If  Erica  Tetralix  was 
sent  to  some  Darwinian  academy,  wonderful  results 
would  undoubtedly  follow ! 

"Your  society  doubted  whether  the  variety  of  the 
lady  fern,  known  as  Athyrium  molle,  was  really  native 
to  Caithness.  Since  I  saw  you,  I  have  got  two  speci- 
mens of  the  fern  from  England  ;  but  Dunnet  Cliffs  pro- 
duce far  finer  specimens  of  the  same  fern.  Take  my 
word  for  it.  I  have  got  two  specimens  of  the  variety 
rhceticum  from  England  ;  the  same  fern  is  also  here. 

"  In  your  catalogue,  I  observe  that  you  have  marked 
Poa  aquatica  as  a  native  of  Caithness.  That  is  serious. 
The  red  Poa  does  not  grow  in  Caithness." 

"  I'll  not  write  to  you  again  for  three  months.  Attend 
to  your  studies." 

We  have  quoted  these  extracts  to  show  howthoroughly 
Dick  had  mastered  the  botany  of  Caithness.  He  wan- 
dered over  the  country  far  and  near — in  spring,  summer, 
autumn,  and  whiter, — and  collected  all  that  grew  during 
those  seasons. 


CHAP.   XVIII. 


MOSSES.  295 


Strange  to  say,  he  missed  an  object  that  he  had 
long  been  looking  for.  It  was  the  Juncus  sguarrosus, 
which  is  usually  found  growing  on  boggy  earth.  He 
searched  for  it  along  the  banks  of  the  river,  but  though 
there,  it  had  been  cropped  down  by  the  beasts  which 
grazed  along  the  grassy  plat.  At  length  he  found  the 
plant  growing  to  perfection  not  a  hundred  yards  from 
his  own  door, — on  a  piece  of  land  called  "  The  Island  " — 
a  place  devoted  to  the  bleaching  of  clothes,  and  con- 
sequently sacred  from  the  intrusion  of  cattle. 

During  the  later  years  of  his  life,  Dick  again  returned 
to  the  study  of  botany.  He  searched  all  the  country 
round,  for  grasses,  ferns,  and  mosses.  What  an  insigni- 
ficant thing  a  Moss  seems !  Yet,  when  a  friend  was 
complaining  to  Linnaeus,  that  Sweden  did  not  afford 
scope  enough  for  the  study  of  Nature,  the  sage  laid  his 
hand  upon  a  bit  of  Moss  on  which  they  were  reclining, 
and  said,  "  Under  this  palm  is  material  for  the  study  of 
a  lifetime  !" 

Every  one  remembers  how  Mungo  Park,  when  lost  in 
the  desert,  was  delighted  with  the  sight  of  a  tuft  of  Moss. 
The  little  living  jewel,  growing  amongst  endless  wastes 
and  arid  rocks,  melted  the  traveller's  heart.  "  If  God 
cares  for  the  moss,"  he  said,  "  surely  He  cares  for  me  ; " 
and  Park  went  on  his  way  with  an  uplifted  heart. 

Dick  searched  the  whole  county  of  Caithness  for  the 
mosses  which  it  contained.  He  was  the  first  local 
botanist  who  had  investigated  the  subject.  Writing  to 
Peach  in  April  1856,  he  said : — "  The  club-mosses  are 
very  interesting  plants.  I  have  found  five  out  of  the 


296  THE  ROYAL  FERN.  CHAP.  xvm. 

six  British  species  growing  in  the  county,  and  probably 
I  may  also  find  the  sixth.  The  club-moss  which  strikes 
you,  is  alpinum,  which  is  found  in  great  abundance  on 
the  steep  sides  of  Morven.  Selago,  or  fir  club-moss, 
seems  an  exception.  Selagirurides  too,  bears  spores 
everywhere.  ...  I  am  scarcely  master  of  a  single 
spare  moment." 

"  I  am  going  off  to  the  moors,"  he  again  says,  "  for  a 
back-burden  of  moss.  If  you  were  here  you  would  go 
too,  but  you  would  have  to  rise  at  five.  If  you  will 
visit  quarries,  my  man,  it  will  not  do  to  be  snoozing  in 
your  bed  until  eight  o'clock.  I  was  up  at  one  this  morn- 
ing, hence  this  epistle."  This,  however,  was  a  piece  of 
banter ;  for  Dick  knew  that  Peach  was  an  early  riser, 
and  did  much  of  his  geological  work  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, or  late  at  night.  "  His  letters,"  said  Peach,  "  even 
if  bantering  me,  always  brought  sunshine." 

Dick  also  continued  his  search  for  ferns.  He  often 
wandered  along  the  foot  of  Dunnet  Head,  when  the  tide 
was  out,  and  climbed  up  the  rocks  into  some  shady 
nook  where  the  ferns  grew.  They  did  not  grow  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  cliffs,  but  on  the  west,  where  the 
Gulf  Stream  washes  along  the  headland.  Sometimes  he 
descended  the  western  cliffs,  where  a  fall  of  the  red 
sandstone  had  taken  place,  and  there  he  found  the  ferns 
of  which  he  had  come  in  search.  It  was  a  glorious  day 
for  him  when  he  found  the  Eoyal  Fern — Osmunda  regalia 
— growing  there  in  its  native  beauty.  "  I  can  yet 
recollect,"  he  says,  "  how  happy  I  was  when  I  found  the 
first  Osmunda.  I  was  wearied,  and  sore,  and  sick,  and 


DUNNET  HEAD  :    WEST  FRONT. 


CHAP,  xviir.     FERNS  ON  DUNNE T  HEAD.  297 

nearly  tired  of  this  world,  and  all  that's  in  it,  when  I 
caught  sight  of  that  glorious  Fern,  large,  radiant,  and 
flourishing,  among  the  reft  sandstone  cliffs  of  Dunnet. 
What  a  beauty  !  Almost  approaching  to  the  size  of  a 
tree  fern!" 

Dick  also  found  among  the  rocks  on  Dunnet  Head, 
Lastrea  dilatata,  Lastrea  fcenisecii,  the  Asplenium  mari- 
num,  Asplenium  filix-fcemina  (lady  fern),  and  numerous 
other  ferns.  Morven  mountain  was  also  one  of  his 
haunts,  and  there  he  found  Polypodium  Phegopteris,  P, 
calcareum,  and  Lastrea  Oreopteris.  Braalnabin  and  Dirlot 
also  furnished  him  with  many  specimens.  The  com- 
moner specimens  he  found  all  over  the  county.  He 
collected  many  of  the  seeds  and  plants,  and  sowed  them 
and  planted  them  broadcast  over  the  county,  to  be  living 
when  he  was  dead.  He  planted  scions  of  the  maiden 
hair  and  the  royal  fern  in  the  gorges  of  the  Dorery 
hills,  at  Morven,  and  in  his  fernery  at  Reay. 

Mr.  Peach  helped  Dick  in  his  inquiries  as  to  ferns. 
He  often  sent  him  seeds  or  plants,  so  that  they  might  be 
planted  in  favourite  spots.  He  also  sent  him  some  Cornish 
heaths.  "  Many  thanks ! "  said  Dick,  "  for  Erica  vagans 
and  Erica  ciliaris.  To  me  they  are  a  world  of  pleasure." 

Having  been  informed  by  Mr.  Peach  that  he 
had  found  Asplenium  marinum  at  Strathmore,*  Dick 
says,  "Nothing  that  you  ever  mentioned  to  me  has 
struck  me  so  much  as  what  you  say  about  Asplenium 

*  Mr  Peach  says  this  must  be  a  mistake.  Still  Dick's  letter  was 
written  on  the  supposition  that  he  had  found  the  plant,  and  it  shows 
how  thoroughly  he  was  acquainted  with  the  plants  along  the  coast. 


298  F£KNS  SEARCHED  FOR. 


CHAP.   XVIII, 


marinum.  ...  I  have  examined  every  accessible  sea- 
cliff  from  Portskerra  to  John  o'  Groat's,  and  never  yet 
found  a  trace  of  it.  A.  marinum  on  the  slaty  rocks  ! 
How  is  that  to  be  accounted  for  ?  Certainly  not  owing 
to  the  exposed  nature  of  the  coast,  nor  to  the  sea  spray. 
I  have  clambered  down  the  north-western  point  of 
Dunnet  Head,  where  the  northern  storms  waste  their 
fury  on  the  cliffs,  and  the  sea  spray  is  lifted  in  vapoui 
high  over  their  loftiest  pinnacles,  and  even  there  As- 
plenium  marinum  loves  to  nestle  among  its  crevices  ? 
The  distribution  must  be  a  mystery." 

Peach  sends  Dick  many  plants  for  him  to  name. 
He  sent  the  Polygonum  viviparum.  "  It  is  a  rare 
alpine  plant,"  was  the  reply.  "  It  is  not  a  fern  at  all, 
though  it  is  nearly  as  rare  as  your  treasured  Dryas 
odopetcda,  in  search  of  which  I  have  spent  many  a 
long  day.  Your  orchis  is  Hdbenaria  chlorantha;  your 
fern  Cystopteris  dentata:  it  is  decidedly  rare.  Thanks 
for  allowing  me  to  rob  you  of  Scolopendrium  (Hart's- 
tongue).  ...  A  plant  I  have  gathered  here,"  he 
says,  "  I  have  dried  and  submitted  to  an  English  pro- 
fessor (Babington).  He  has  pronounced  it  to  be  one  of 
the  very  rarest  in  Britain.  The  plant  is  rare,  but  not 
so  rare  as  the  professor  kindly  wished  to  make  it. 

"  Not  content  with  the  specimens  of  the  fern  which 
I  had  got  beside  me,  I  set  out  (July  23)  for  a  mountain 
nine  miles  away,  where  I  knew  the  plant  grew ;  and  in 
due  time  I  got  there,  and  saw,  or  thought  I  saw,  many 
different  species.  On  one  sloping  brae  grew  Polypodium 
Phegopteris,  and  I  sat  me  down  beside  it.  I  remarked 


CHAP.  xvni.      SIGHT  FROM  A  HILL  TOP.  299 

that,  though  of  all  sizes,  from  an  inch  up  to  twelve 
inches,  every  one  was  true  to  the  type.  Passing  on  to 
a  rocky  ledge,  I  saw  a  cluster  of  the  fern  I  had  gone  in 
quest  of.  Down  I  sat,  in  admiration  wrapt,  the  world 
forgot !  What  was  the  world  to  me,  with  its  pomps, 
and  pleasures,  and  nonsense  ?  Away  with  printed  books 
and  dried  specimens !  Nature,  ever  enduring  and  capti- 
vating Nature,  is  the  best  of  all  books  to  study  from. 
That,  said  I,  is  the  Polypodium  Dryopteris  of  learned 
men.  More  than  fifty  of  the  fern  were  growing  before 
me, — not  one  of  them  agreeing  in  any  particular  with 
the  Dryopteris  of  the  books. 

"  When  I  had  gathered  the  plants,  I  sat  and  looked 
around.  The  day  was  warm  and  delightful.  A  thin 
haze  was  dancing  through  the  air.  The  effect  was 
charming,  tempting  one  to  dream.  Through  the  mists 
of  Mirza  I  could  see  a  human  figure  at  the  hill  foot, 
stooping  low  to  the  ground.  Probably,  thought  I,  some 
broken-hearted  pilgrim  is  providing  for  futurity.  I 
turned  round,  and  after  a  while  I  looked  again.  Alas  ! 
it  was  a  half -naked  woman  filling  her  stomach  with  cold 
water.  The  spell  was  broken.  It  was  time  to  be  gone. 
Adieu,  old  boy !" 

In  this  way  was  the  pleasant  correspondence  of  the 
two  geologists  carried  on.  There  was  no  envy,  but 
every  kind  of  helpfulness  between  them.  Peach  told 
his  discoveries  to  Dick,  and  Dick  told  his  to  Peach. 
There  were  many  discussions  between  them,  more 
particularly  as  to  Peach's  fossil  wood.  Dick  said  that 
under  Peach's  supposition  "  a  stone  quarry  becomes  a 


300  THE  OLD  MAN'S  SONG:       CHAP.  xvin. 

buried  forest."  Yet  Mr.  Peach  held  that  he  was  right. 
And  Dick  also  worked  hard  to  get  at  the  right  meaning 
of  things. 

On  one  occasion  he  writes  to  Peach  as  follows : — "  A 
few  days  since  I  found  myself  standing  by  the  sea- 
shore on  the  east  side  of  Dunnet  Head.  I  was  scanning 
with  delighted  soul  the  overturned  strata,  and  musing 
on  the  Past,  on  the  Beginning,  on  Eternity ! 

"  I  am  again  bothered  with  rheumatism,  and  neither 
an  enthusiastic  love  of  stones  nor  fossils  can  delude  me 
into  the  belief  that  pain  is  an  illusion,  and  not  a  stern 
reality — intended  no  doubt  for  good,  and  yet  I  had  as 
lief  be  without  it — 

" '  Oh !  age  has  weary  days 

An'  nights  o'  sleepless  pain  ; 
The  gowden  time  o'  youthful  prime 
Can  never  come  again  ! ' 

That's  the  old  man's  song,  Charlie.  But  it  is  all  owing 
to  temperament  or  constitution,  or  to  stamina  at  the 
outset. 

"  I  felt  considerable  chagrin  when  you  returned  from 
the  West,  and  brought  no  root  of  Scolopendrium  with 
you.  I  did  not  want  it  for  myself,  but  for  science  and 
Nature.  I  wished  to  plant  it  on  Dunnet  cliffs,  or  on  the 
slate  hills  to  the  south  of  Thurso.  I  know  favourable 
spots  where  I  think  it  would  live,  and  gratify  the  weary 
souls  of  lonely  pilgrims,  long  after  you  and  I  are  singing 
hallelujah  with  the  angels.  If  you  don't  send  that 
Scolopendrium,  your  monument  in  the  North  will  have 
no  garland  hung  around  it." 


CHAP,  xviii.       THE  HART'S-TONGUE  FERN.  301 

A  little  later  lie  again  complains  of  illness.  He 
says,  "  I  can't  bear  mental  fatigue.  I  am  weary  and 
sore.  The  buzzing  of  a  fly  is  a  burden  to  me.  I  slept 
only  three  hours  last  night.  My  head  is  sore,  and  I 
am  not  'i'  the  vein.'  You  compliment  your  humble 
servant,  and  ask  assistance  to  your  list  of  queries.  I 
know  a  little — just  a  little,  and  am  daily  making  the 
little  more — the  mark  of  a  true  Scot ;  yet  in  the  im- 
perfect knowledge  of  the  Caithness  strata  I  would  not, 
for  crowns,  or  robes,  or  kingly  globes,  put  my  unhallowed 
hands  to  a  fancy  section  of  Caithness  strata."  * 

At  length  Peach  sent  him  the  Scolopendrium.  His 
sickness  had  fled,  and  he  was  quite  jubilant  in  his  reply. 
"  I  have  planted  it,"  he  said,  "  among  the  magnificent 
crags  of  Dunnet  Head.  A  bronze  pillar  should  reward 
the  person  who  introduces  into  a  county  such  a  lovely 
plant  as  the  Hart's-tongue  fern,  ever  verdant,  ever  gay. 
What  beautiful  green  fronds !  How  handsome  and 
picturesque !  My  only  regret  is  that  I  cannot  sow  it 
broadcast  over  the  whole  land." 

A  little  later  Peach  sent  him  another  lot  of  the 
Hart's-tongue  ferns  from  Sutherland.  Dick  proceeded 
to  plant  them  far  astray,  so  that  they  might  not  be 
huddled  together  into  one  corner,  "  I  prefer,"  he  said, 

*  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison  had  requested  Mr.  Peach  to  furnish  him 
with  &  section  of  the  rocks  between  Morven  and  the  Orkneys. 
"  What  ?"  said  Dick,  "  a  section  of  Caithness  strata  without  previous 
examination  ?  It  would  he  a  mere  fancy  section  of  the  whole  county's 
hard  crust,  to  the  delusion  of  all  and  sundry."  He  adds,  that  he 
Dejected  Hugh  Miller's  "  section  of  Caithness  strata,  as  based  on  defect- 
ive data  and  misleading  calculations." 
14* 


302         PLANTED  OVER  THE  COUNTY.      CHAP.  XVIH 

"the  fatigue  of  planting  them  as  widely  apart  from 
each  other  as  possible,  so  that  they  may  scatter  their 
colonies.  In  long  years,  after  you  and  I  are  dead,  and 
perhaps  making  '  a  bung  for  a  beer-barrel,'*  they  will 
be  fresh  and  flourishing.  ...  It  was  not  for  vanity  that 
I  begged  them  from  you.  No.  It  was  the  certainty 
that  in  generations  yet  unborn  the  feeling  that '  vanity 
of  vanities,  all  is  vanity,'  would  weigh  down  and 
oppress,  and  that  some  wanderer  sad  might  be  made 
happier  by  seeing  them.  For  is  not  a  '  thing  of  beauty 
a  joy  for  ever'  ?  Bless  and  thank  you,  my  dear  Charlie! 
They'll  never  thank  you.  That's  my  duty  !  One  cannot 
but  admire  the  Wisdom  which  gave  and  gives  a  feeling 
and  a  sense  of  the  beautiful  even  to  the  ignorant.  Were 
it  otherwise,  Beauty  would  not  exist;  and  to  the  All- 
knowing  how  small  is  the  difference  between  the  sage 
and  the  savage!" 

A  little  later  Dick  says  : — "  I  have  planted  the  Eoyal 
Fern  inland  many  miles.  I  have  planted  it  at  Eeay 
and  Dorery.  There  I  can  see  the  hills  of  Sutherland 
far  in  the  distance.  Aided  by  my  zealous  friend  Charles 
the  Sassenach,  I  have  adorned  and  beautified  Caith- 
ness. I  write  this  in  the  midst  of  care  and  trouble. 
I  have  a  bad  cough,  and  no  more  romance  at  present. 

*  "  Why  may  not  imagination  trace  the  noble  dust  of  Alexander, 
till  he  find  it  stopping  a  bunghole  «...  Alexander  died,  Alexander 
was  buried,  Alexander  returneth  unto  dust  ;  the  dust  is  earth  ;  ol 
earth  we  make  loam  ;  and  why,  of  that  loam,  whereto  he  was  con- 
verted, might  they  not  stop  a  Deer-barrel  ? 

"  Imperious  Csesar,  dead  and  aimed  to  clay, 
Might  st.ip  a.  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away."—  Hamlet. 


CHAP,  xviii.  LETTER  TO  PEACH.  303 

Eobin's  head's  sair.  It's  a  desperate  thing  to  fill  up  a 
page  with  a  bad  headache.  I  am  glad  that  you  are  in 
spirits  at  least,  if  not  altogether  in  health.  So  many 
people  are  going  that  I  began  to  be  apprehensive  that 
you  were  seriously  ill.  .  .  .  Charles,  old  boy,  go  when 
you  may  (unless  I  go  first),  I  shall  seriously  miss  you. 


ROBERT  DICK'S  SEAT  :    VIEW   INTO  8CTHEBLAND8HIRE. 

I  miss  Hugh  Miller  as  much  as  ever  I  did,  and  'tis 
likely  I  will  ever  do  so." 

Mr.  Peach  says  that  Dick  had  so  thoroughly  examined 
the  botany  of  the  county,  that  for  some  years  before  his 
death  he  could  discover  nothing  that  he  had  not  before 
met  with.  "  I  well  remember,"  he  says,  "  when  asking 
him '  what  there  was  new,'  his  eye  brightened  up,  and  he 
answered,  '  Just  this  one  plant  new  to  the  county.  I 
was  giving  up  my  botanical  search,  and  returning  home 


304  DARWIN'S  JOURNAL.  CHAP,  xvm, 

after  a  long  evening  walk  from  Dunnet  Links,  when  I 
lighted  upon  this  pretty  umbelliferous  plant — hedge 
parsley  ;  and  here  it  is  ! '  Thus,  so  closely  had  he  looked 
up  the  plants  of  the  county  that  for  some  years  he  could 
scarcely  discover  another.  Had  he  been  persuaded  to 
give  his  thoughts  to  the  world,  he  would  have  stood  very 
high  in  the  ranks  of  scientific  authors.  But  he  never 
could  be  induced  to  publish  his  observations  and  dis- 
coveries. He  could  not  get  over  his  bashfulness." 

Many  discussions  about  geology  occur  in  the  course 
of  the  correspondence.  Peach  sent  Dick  Darwin's 
Journal  to  read.  Dick  replies  : — "  Though  the  book  was 
never  in  my  hands  before,  yet  I  found  that  I  was  already 
familiar  with  most  of  the  facts  it  contains.  Sir  Charles 
Lyell  draws  upon  it  rather  freely.  And  in  various  other 
works  I  have  met  with  his  craft.  He  is  a  fine  fellow. 
.  .  .  He  traverses  the  widespread  Pampas  of  Buenos 
Ayres  and  Patagonia,  rides  over  their  accumulated  sand 
and  pebbles  and  their  sepulchres  of  dead  bones,  and  he 
is  overwhelmed  and  bewildered  at  their  magnitude. 
But  why  should  he  be  astonished  ?  The  sands  are  many, 
it  is  true,  and  the  boulders  and  stones  innumerable  ;  but 
the  sea,  the  million-handed  ocean,  that  rounded  them  in 
his  palm,  is  vastly  more  extensive.  The  sea  is  a  work- 
man that  never  wearies,  never  rests,  never  slumbers  ! 
Thanks  to  you  and  Mr.  Darwin,  the  perusal  of  the  book 
has  confirmed  nie  in  all  that  I  told  you  long  ago.  .  .  . 
Humboldt  half  guesses  that  the  living  and  the  fossil 
animals  belong  to  the  still  existing  creation,  but  it  seems 
to  be  convenient  to  withhold  the  avowal 


CHAP.  xvni.      DEXTEROUS  GEOLOGISTS.  305 

"  Nobody  knows  when  this  earth  was  made,  how  it 
was  made,  or  how  long  it  was  in  making. 

"  Of  one  creation  part  we  ken, 

Wi'  mair  we  dinna  meddle  ; 
A  nee  dream  o'  twa,  ye'll  dream  o'  ten, 
An'  fancies  endless — diddle  ! 

"  Don't  think  that  I  do  not  value  Mr.  Darwin.  I 
have  read  his  observations  most  carefully;  but  with  my 
own  spectacles.  Geologists  have  led  me  such  a  dance 
during  the  last  twenty-five  years,  that  I  prefer  that  way 
of  reading  books. 

"  This  earth  on  which  we  move  may  have  been 
created  very  long  ago,  but  certainly  most  of  the  regions 
visited  by  Mr.  Darwin  exhibited  very  few  signs  of  a 
hoar  antiquity  ;  and  despite  previous  teachings  and  their 
influence,  the  very  recent  nature  of  many  of  the  deposits 
forced  itself  upon  his  attention."  After  quoting  from 
Humboldt,  Professor  Sedgwick,  and  others,  he  continues 
the  argument  in  favour  of  his  own  views.  He  concludes 
thus  : — "  I  remember  that  when  friend  Hugh  set  down 
in  print  that  all  that  lived  previous  to  and  during  the 
chalk  died  out  with  the  chalk,  and  not  one  existence  was 
spared ;  yet  when,  after  a  time,  a  species  of  shell  was 
found  in  tertiary  and  chalk  strata,  the  geologists  very 
dexterously  clapped  those  tertiary  strata  alongside  and 
with  the  chalk,  just  to  make  things  tally !  How  will 
they  manage  now  ? " 

Dick  deprecated  the  idea  of  explaining  the  universe 
and  how  it  was  formed,  but  he  threw  out  the  following 
idea  of  the  greatness  of  the  thing  attempted  to  be  ex- 


306  THE  CUPFUL  OF  SAND.         CHAP.  xvm. 

plained,  and  the  littleness  of  the  things  attempting  to 
explain  it : — 

"  Take  a  cupful  of  sand  and  strew  it  over  the  floor. 
It  is  a  mere  sprinkling,  scarcely  discernible.  A  fly 
settles  down  on  it,  walks  over  and  across  it,  and  regard  3 
it  as  hi  no  way  remarkable.  A  smaller  creature  than 
the  fly  comes  and  walks  over  it  To  him  it  is  a  very 
great  matter, — quite  a  Sahara  !  Now,  were  the  whole  of 
the  formations  of  geologists,  by  some  superhuman  power, 
let  loose  particle  from  particle,  and  the  whole  strewed 
over  the  floor  of  the  ocean,  would  they  form  more  than 
a  mere  sprinkling  ? 

"  Brush  the  cupful  of  sand  together  again.  It  forms 
a  little  hill,  or,  if  of  a  lengthened  form,  a  mountain 
range.  The  fly  from  your  window  comes  again  and 
settles  down  beside  it.  He  looks  up.  '  How  magnifi- 
cent ! '  says  he.  He  walks  round  it  and  over  it.  '  How 
vast !  millions  and  millions  of  years  must  have  been 
consumed  in  their  formation  ! '  Ignorant,  simply  igno- 
rant, all  the  while,  of  the  means  by  which  a  body  of 
matter  so  apparently  formidable  to  his  puny  ideas  was 
brought  together.  The  fly  will  not  understand  it,  but 
he'll  buzz  and  buzz,  and  make  a  noise ;  and  his  fellow 
flies,  hearing  the  noise,  will  exclaim,  '  What  a  long- 
headed fellow ! ' " 

George  Shearer  of  Thurso,  then  a  student  at  Edin- 
burgh, was  a  great  admirer  of  Dick.  He  got  from  him 
a  great  deal  of  his  first  knowledge  of  botany.  As  in 
the  case  of  Dr.  Meiklejohn,  Dick  took  him  to  see  the 
plants  growing  in  their  native  habitats.  They  had  con- 


CHAP,  xviii.  DR.  SHEARER.  307 

versations  on  many  subjects.  But  there  was  one  subject 
on  which  George  Shearer  was  particularly  anxious  to 
know  Dick's  opinion ;  and  that  was  his  views  as  to  the 
Mosaic  Cosmogony. 

Accordingly,  he  wrote  to  him  from  Edinburgh  on  the 
subject.  But  Dick  was  not  to  be  "  drawn  "  by  a  person 
so  much  his  inferior  in  years  and  knowledge.  He  re- 
plied : — "  As  to  your  religious  queries,  my  answer  is — 
On  religious  matters  we  are  not  equal.  I  am  within 
three  months  of  being  fifty-three  years  of  age.  Wait 
until  you  are  as  old,  and  wearing  spectacles,  and  then 
we  will  discuss  those  matters.  Meantime,  as  you  can- 
not rest,  you  will  probably  be  writing  a  commentary  on 
the  Eomans.  My  advice  to  you  is,  'Tak'  tent;  let 
sleepin'  dogs  lie ! ' " 

This  reminds  one  of  a  story  told  of  the  late  poet 
Rogers.  When  asked  by  a  lady  what  was  his  religion, 
he  replied,  "  I  am  of  the  religion  of  all  sensible  men." 
"And  what  is  that?"  asked  the  lady.  "All  sensible 
men,"  replied  Rogers, "  keep  that  to  themselves." 

Dr.  Shearer,  many  years  after,  when  grown  to  man- 
hood, said  that  Dick  must  then  have  thought  him  some- 
what of  a  prig.  "  I  took  his  reply,"  he  says,  "  in  excellent 
part.  I  felt  that,  when  he  wrote  it,  he  thought  that  the 
unthinking  may  easily  be  orthodox,  and  that  the  loudest 
professors  were  sometimes  the  shabbiest  actors  in  the 
drama  of  life." 

Dick  was  of  opinion  that  dogmatism  in  interpretation, 
was  equally  out  of  place  in  geology  as  in  divinity.  He 
thought  that  man's  proper  work  at  present  was  to  search 


308  DR.  MEIKLEJOHN.  CHAP,  xvin 

and  acquire  new  facts  and  materials  for  the  formation  of 
further  knowledge.  Theories  might  wait.  Certainly  the 
time  had  not  yet  arisen  for  harmonising  the  Testimony  of 
tlie  Rocks  with  the  first  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Genesis. 

Dr.  Meiklejohn  again  resumed  his  correspondence 
with  his  friend  Dick  on  his  return  to  England,  while 
surgeon  of  H.M.S.  "Asia."  Dick  replied  to  him  at 
once.  He  began  his  letter  to  the  doctor  with  a  little 
bit  of  censure  : — "  If  I  were  to  plead  busy,  as  you  do,  as 
an  excuse  for  not  writing,  I  think  I  would  never  scribble 
a  word  at  all.  I  rise  generally  at  three  o'clock,  and  am 
for  the  most  part  engaged  all  the  day  until  I  go  to  roost 
at  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Nothing  but  thirty 
years'  practice  could  have  enabled  me  to  endure  such  a 
galley-slave  life. 

"  I  have  not  seen  Sir  Charles  Lyell's  book  on  the 
Geological  Age  of  Man,  and  should  I  see  a  review  of  it  I 
must  be  on  my  guard,  for  I  fear  I  am  too  straightfor- 
ward in  expressing  my  notions  on  these  and  other 
fashionable  speculative  dreams.  I  have  seen  Darwin's 
book  on  Orchids  very  coolly  reviewed  in  the  Athenceum. 
I  have  no  wish  to  meddle  with  Mr.  Darwin's  peculiar 
notions.  .  .  .  One  thing,  indeed,  I'll  grant  Mr.  Darwin 
— that  hundreds  of  so-called  species  may  have  sprung 
from  one  stock.  I  have  been  lately  looking  at  grasses, 
and  would  not  care  though  Mr.  Darwin  made  all  the 
species  of  Poa  and  Festuca  to  have  grown  from  one 
plant.  And  so  of  many  more  of  them." 

In  a  future  letter  Dick  says  : — "  I  am  sorry  you  think 
that  I  do  an  injustice  to  Mr.  Darwin,  as  I  would  not 


CHAP.  xvni.         MR.  DARWIN'S  VIEWS.  309 

knowingly  do  an  injustice  to  any  one.  It  is  quite  pos- 
sible that,  in  my  ignorance  of  what  that  gentleman's 
true  views  really  are,  I  may  have  spoken  rashly  and 
hastily.  That  you  can  pardon,  for  in  truth  I  have  never 
read  one  of  his  books,  and  the  reviewers  of  them  mry 
have  twisted  his  meaning  to  serve  their  own  purposes. 

"  If  what  Mr.  Darwin  means  be,  that  the  various  ani- 
mals and  plants  we  see  around  us  are  not  exactly  first 
creations — that  is,  are  not  now  what  they  were  when 
made  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty,  but  have  since  that 
act  been  changing  continually,  so  that  it  is  now  difficult 
to  say  from  what  particular  stock  the  various  forms  have 
come — if  that  be  all,  if  not  pushed  too  far,  it  does  not 
seem  dangerous  doctrine ;  in  fact,  it  looks  rather  playful, 
and  at  the  same  time  it  may  have  much  truth  in  it.  I 
can  myself  see  that  it  is  and  must  be  difficult  to  deter- 
mine from  what  particular  stock  many  species  of  plants 
have  sprung.  For  that  every  species,  made  such  by  man, 
was  a  particular  act  of  God's  workmanship,  is  out  of  the 
question.  That  idea  I  cannot  admit  at  all.  Cuvier's 
definition  of  a  species  may  be  the  right  one,  but  surely  it 
is  rash  and  presumptuous.  How  can  I  or  any  man, 
while  looking  at  a  plant,  say  that  it  has  maintained  all 
its  particular  characteristics  unchanged  since  it  came  from 
the  hands  of  its  Maker  ? 

"  Since  I  have  looked  at  Scotch  roses — for  example, 
the  very  small  lot  of  them  to  be  met  with  in  Caithness 
— I  have  found  much  to  correct  my  earliest  ideas  on 
creation,  such  as  my  teachers  (knowing  as  little  as  I  did 
myself)  instilled  into  me.  I  thought,  even  since  I  read 


310  EXTERNAL  INFLUENCES.      CHAP.  xvin. 

books  on  plants,  and  looked  on  the  coloured  figures,  that 
the  various  species  were  well  marked,  and  must  have 
had  a  distinct  origin.  I  confess  that  that  notion  is  fast 
leaving  me.  All  my  simpler  ideas  are  giving  way. 
Whether  the  result  will  be  to  make  me  happier  or  better 
I  cannot  say.  Certainly  they  cannot  hurt  me,  for,  after 
all,  first  stocks  must  have  had  a  Creator.  They  could  not 
spring  up  out  of  the  ground  unbidden,  and  that  is  enough 
for  me.  There  is  an  over-ruling  Hand  everywhere. 

"  External  influences — such  as  soil,  situation,  climate, 
and  such  like — exercise  a  powerful  effect  on  wild  roses. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  Rosa  spinosissima.  You  know  its 
peculiar  characteristics,  and  how  very  unlike  the 
common  dog  rose  (R.  canina)  it  is.  Would  you 
believe  that  one  bush  of  it  on  the  boulder  clay  here, 
has  put  forth  flowers  hardly  distinguishable  from  dog- 
roses.  The  leaves  large,  the  flowers  white,  the  prickles 
hooked,  and  so  on.  You  have  seen  roses  in  country 
gardens  ?  White  roses  in  a  corner,  with  double  flowers, 
and  very  large  unsightly  leaves.  Well,  would  you 
think  or  expect  Rosa  spinosissima  to  have  such  large 
unsightly  leaves  growing  wild  on  hard  boulder  clay  ? 
Some  stocks  of  R.  spinosissima  have  pink  petals;  in 
dry  years,  red  petals  and  excessively  hairy  leaves ;  in 
wet  seasons,  white  petals  and  smooth  leaves ;  in  short, 
the  leaves  and  the  whole  plant  vary  excessively.  And 
suppose  the  plant  changed  to  another  soil,  and  favoured 
by  shelter,  its  improved  appearance  is  hardly  credible. 

"  I  have  seen  something  worth  noting.  Some  plants 
of  Rosa  spinosissima  grew  on  the  face  of  a  brae  of  blue 


CHAP.  xvin.  VARIETIES  IN  ROSES.  311 


boulder  clay.  Drains  and  improvements  on  the  soil  atop 
of  the  clay  sent  a  perpetual  stream  of  water  over  the 
roots  of  the  plants.  In  two  years  they  have  so  altered 
that  I  can  hardly  believe  my  eyes.  .  .  .  All  the  roses 
growing  wild  in  Caithness  may  have  come  from  one 
stock ;  but  from  what  particular  stock  I  cannot  tell." 

We  merely  quote  these  remarks  from  Dick's  letters 
to  show  the  acuteness  and  accuracy  of  his  observations. 
He  never  missed  any  peculiar  characteristic  of  a  plant. 
He  had  also  a  wonderful  memory  about  it,  and  could 
contrast  its  appearance  during  one  season  with  its 
appearance  in  another.  It  was  the  same  with  all  his 
natural  history  observations.  In  one  of  his  letters  to 
Dr.  Meiklejohn  he  refers  to  the  mischief  done  to  the 
fields  of  Caithness  by  a  particular  grub.  "  Speaking  of 
grasses,"  he  says,  "  reminds  me  of  the  crops  of  Caithness. 
They  are  desperately  cut  up  by  a  worm,  of  what  par- 
ticular species  I'll  not  say,  but  the  grub  of  'Daddy 
Longlegs '  (Tipula  oleracea)  has  certainly  the  predomi- 
nance. It  has  drawn  after  it  whole  flocks  of  starlings, 
who  are  driving  a  brisk  trade.  But  it  would  require 
millions  of  them  to  stay  she  plague.  Indeed,  the  work 
of  ruin  is  already  done.  It  is  pitiful." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

ROBERT  DICK  IN  ADVERSITY. 

FLOWERS,  ferns,  and  mosses,  must  for  a  time  disappear, 
and  give  place  to  troubles,  disappointments,  and  sorrows. 
It  is  a  hard  work-a-day  world  in  which  we  live.  Mis- 
fortunes follow  close  upon  pleasures,  however  innocent ; 
and  we  must  set  ourselves  to  bear  them  as  best  we  may. 
Dick  was  never  a  rich  man.  The  most  that  he  could 
do  was  to  make  both  ends  meet  and  keep  out  of  debt. 
He  could  even  spare  a  little  money  to  buy  books.  Be- 
fore 1860,  we  find  him  buying  from  the  Thurso  book- 
seller the  History  of  British  Lichens,  the  Coloured  Ferns 
of  Britain,  Sowerby's  Ferns,  and  the  Handbook  of  British 


But  after  that  time  his  business  fell  off  rapidly,  and 
he  had  to  be  more  sparing  in  his  book-buying.  It  must 
be  said  of  Dick  that  he  closely  attended  to  his  business. 
Only  once  do  we  find  him  confessing  that  he  had  stolen 
a  morning  from  his  daily  work ;  and  that  was  when  he 
went  on  his  long  journey  to  Freswick,  to  search  for  shells 
among  the  boulder  clay  for  his  friend  Hugh  Miller. 

Though  he  often  left  the  town  at  midnight,  his  bread 
for  the  following  morning  had  been  baked  before  he  left. 
It  was  sold  during  the  day  by  his  housekeeper.  And 


CHAP.  xix.  LOSES  HIS  BUSINESS.  313 

he  was  always  back  to  Thurso  to  resume  his  work  on 
the  same  evening.  During  the  interval,  he  had  been 
rambling  over  the  county,  and  sometimes  walking  from 
fifty  to  eighty  miles — wandering  under  the  red  sand- 
stones on  Dunnet  Head — or  travelling  to  Reay,  the 
Dorery  Hills,  or  Strath  Halladale.  His  journeys  to 
Morven  were  usually  made  on  the  fast  days,  which 
gave  him  a  day  extra. 

He  lost  his  business  principally  through  excessive 
competition.  When  he  first  went  to  Thurso,  there  was 
only  another  baker  besides  himself.  He  was  then  com- 
fortable enough, — though  he  did  all  his  work  himself, — 
never  employing  either  a  journeyman  or  an  apprentice. 
Two  more  bakers  commenced  business  in  1856.  Each 
of  these  took  a  certain  share  of  his  trade  ;  and,  of 
course,  his  business  fell  off.  Writing  to  his  sister  in 
May  1856,  he  said:  "  The  mischief  done  me  can  never  be 
repaired  here.  I've  lost  much,  and  am  still  losing ;  and 
what  is  worst  of  all,  I  am  losing  my  health.  I  have 
not  had  a  day's  health  since  February  last,  and  good- 
ness knows  that  if  I  had  to  take  to  my  bed  all  would 
be  over.  And  is  it  not  very  hard,  and  a  poor  reward 
for  the  twenty-five  years  of  toil  and  privation  that  I 
have  had  ?  Very  hard  indeed !  I  wish  I  could  get 
away ;  but  where  to,  or  what  to  labour  at,  I  know  not. 
To  go  abroad  seems  ridiculous  in  every  way,  as  I  would 
either  have  to  try  to  be  a  shepherd  or  a  day-labourer. 
Sometimes  I  think  I  might  contrive  to  work  in  a  malt- 
kiln,  but  perhaps  I  could  not  get  that  even  if  I  tried. 

"  And  thus  my  existence  is  embittered.    Years,  many 


314  GETS  DOWN-SPIRITED.  CHAP.  xix. 

years  ago,  I  saw  the  dark  clouds  gathering  close  about 
me ;  and  now  it  has  all  come  true.  Often  was  I  on  the 
point  of  leaving.  But  infatuated  procrastination  always 
whispered,  '  Try  again.'  I  did  '  try  again,'  but  it  was  of 
no  use.  It  only  led  to  further  loss.  And  losing,  and 
losing  slowly  though  surely,  in  spite  of  all  my  toil  and 
care,  until  my  small  means  are  so  reduced  that  I  hardly 
now  dare  to  look  into  the  future.  0  if  I  had  only  gone 
away  four  years  ago !  If  I  had  gone  then,  I  should 
have  been  stronger  in  Means,  stronger  in  Health,  and, 
above  all,  stronger  in  Will  and  determination.  Alas  ! 
I  feel  that  by  and  by  I  shall  be  as  soft  as  a  piece  of 
boiled  fish ! " 

Though  still  engaged  in  finding  fossil  fishes  for  Hugh 
Miller,  and  collecting  botanical  specimens  from  the 
grasses,  ferns,  and  mosses  of  Caithness,  the  thought  was 
constantly  in  his  mind  of  how  he  could  get  away  from 
his  losing  business.  At  one  time  he  thought  of  getting 
admitted  to  the  Coastguard  service ;  but  he  found  that 
he  was  too  old  for  the  position.  But  could  he  not  yet 
remove  from  Thurso,  and  set  up  as  a  baker  elsewhere  ? 
Muckart,  a  village  near  Kinross,  was  mentioned  to 
him ;  but  he  said,  that  "  no  man  in  his  senses  would 
set  his  foot  there."  Then  Bannockburn,  near  Stirling, 
was  mentioned  :  would  that  do  ?  "  No,"  said  he  ;  "I 
have  a  dread  of  weaving  places.  "Weavers  often  suffei 
great  misery,  and  a  stoppage  of  trade  is  clean  ruin." 
Another  place  was  mentioned,  where  a  business  was  for 
sale.  But  he  had  not  the  means  of  buying  or  carrying 
on  the  trade.  And  thus  he  was  left  at  Thurso,  to  "  try 
again  "  ! 


INCREASE  OF  BAKERS.  315 


Matters  became  worse  and  worse.  Mo're  bakers  ap- 
peared in  Thurso,  and  his  trade  again  diminished.  Some 
of  them  sold  whisky  and  groceries,  besides  carrying  on 
the  baking  business.  Whisky  was  a  great  competitor ; 
for  Caithness  folks  are  very  drouthy.  The  Eeverend 
William  Smith  of  Bower,  whose  members,  and  even 
whose  elders,  were  much  addicted  to  the  use  of  spiritu- 
ous liquors,  once  addressed  his  congregation  as  follows  : 
— "  My  brethren,  we  are  told  in  the  Scriptures  that  the 
ciders  of  old  were  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit ;  but  now- 
a-days,  they're  filled  with  John  Barleycorn ! "  One 
may  guess  the  wind-up  of  his  sermon. 

Dick  was  thus  very  heavily  handicapped,  as  he 
lived  by  baking  alone.  He  then  thought  of  carrying 
on  a  tea  business,  and  thus  adding  to  his  income.  But 
the  idea  was  abandoned.  One  of  the  whisky  and  gro- 
cery bakers  determined  to  undersell  all  the  bakers  in 
Thurso.  He  did  so,  and  afterwards  became  a  bank- 
rupt. But  Dick  gained  nothing  from  that.  In  the 
contest  he  was  nearly  ruined. 

"How  many  bakers,  think  you,"  he  writes  to  his 
sister  in  1862,  "  are  now  in  Thurso  ?  Six  master  bakers, 
and  thirteen  apprentices  !  All  doing  well,  they  say ! 
Who  rises  earliest  ?  Dick.  Who  is  the  oldest  ?  Dick. 
And  yet  Dick  has  not  made  a  fortune !  I  wish  I  had 
left  here  in  1843, — that  is,  eighteen  years  ago.  There 
is  no  use  in  repining.  Yet  how  manfully  I  have  battled, 
no  one  knows.  You  see,  from  one  of  the  papers  you 
sent  me,  that  a  baker's  wife  at  Alva  drowned  herself  in 
Devon  river,  r^nd  that  a  baker  at  Cupar-in-Fife  baa 
hanged  himself.  It  did  not  surprise  me." 


316  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THURSO.     CHAP.  xix. 

His  sister  offered  to  send  him  money  and  clothing. 
Kobert  refused  the  help.  "  Things  have  not  come  so  far 
as  that  yet,"  he  said.  "  If  they  had,  I  should  need  a 
strait  jacket.  To  those  who  have  to  struggle  by  their 
labour  for  a  living,  the  prescription  of  coddling  and  nurs- 
ing is  about  the  worst  treatment  imaginable.  It  is  neither 
good  nor  profitable  in  any  way.  When  any  man  or 
woman  consents  to  receive  such  things  as  you  spoke  of, 
and  for  such  a  purpose,  then  adieu  to  all  self-dependence 
and  self-respect.  Then,  ten  to  one,  the  individual  would 
become  degraded  and  useless.  You  have  no  idea  how 
injurious  it  is,  both  to  soul  and  body,  to  wear  next 
your  skin  what  one  never  toiled  for.  Besides,  your 
income  is  little  enough  for  yourself." 

And  yet  Thurso  was  improving.  Many  new  in- 
habitants were  added  to  the  town,  but  very  few  of 
them  came  to  Dick's  counter  for  bread.  Pavement- 
cutting  had  superseded  herring-fishing.  Many  new 
flag  quarries  had  been  opened  out,  and  those  who  had 
fished  for  herrings  now  cut  flags  for  pavement.  Many 
of  the  old  Highland  cottars,  who  had  been  driven  from 
their  homes,  also  resorted  to  Thurso  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. 

"  In  fact,"  said  Dick,  "  the  flag-trade  here  is  every- 
thing ;  *  and  the  town  increases  from  day  to  day,  chiefly 
by  additions  from  the  surrounding  country.  The 

*  When  the  author  was  in  Thurso  he  was  introduced  by  name  to  an 
eminent  flag-cutter.  "  You  will  know  this  gentleman  by  his  works  ? " 
"Ay;  where  are  they?  I  never  heard  o'  them."  "I  mean  his 
literary  works."  "  Ou,  is  that  it?"  Thus  flags,  not  books,  rule  tha 
Thurso  world. 


CAITHNESS  COTTARS 


317 


town  is  all  new-streeted  and  new-  41 
roaded.  No  dirty  water  runs  along  ^ 
them  now.  There  are  three  policemen  to  keep  down 
dunghills.  We  have  three  new  churches,  two  new 
banks,  and  a  gaswork.  There  is  a  fine  statue  of  Sir 
John  Sinclair  in  front  of  the  Moderate  Kirk,  alias 
the  Establishment.  We  have  a  new  hotel,  a  new 
court-house,  and  new  shops.  Whole  rows  of  new 
houses  have  been  built.  We  have  a  steamer  to  Orkney, 
a  steamer  to  Leith,  and  a  din  about  a  railway.*  In 
fact,  nearly  everything  has  been  changed,  except  the 
fields  round  the  town.  These  remain  very  much  the 
same,  being  fenced  with  flagstones  set  on  end.  When 
I  came  first  to  the  county,  many  of  the  poor  people 
never  saw  the  sun  until  they  came  out  and  sat  down  at 
the  ends  of  their  cots.  But  now,  there  are  very  few 
houses  without  windows  to  be  seen,  though  there  are  as 
many  swine  as  ever.  Poor  cottars  are  now  dressed  like 


The  railway  has  smoe  been  made. 
15 


318  ANNIE  MACK  AY.  CHAP.  xix. 

ladies  and  gentlemen — nothing  but  silks  and  parasols. 
'  Jack's  as  good  as  his  master,'  and  sometimes  he  thinks 
himself  a  good  deal  better.  A  dreadful  place  for  money- 
gathering,  all  coupled  with  a  tremendous  thirst  for  ser- 
mons and  prayer-meetings.  Notwithstanding  this,  we 
have  scraping  and  lying  all  the  week  through." 

None  of  this  prosperity  affected  Dick.  His  business 
was  steadily  falling  off.  And  yet  "the  weary  siller" 
must  be  worked  for.  He  was  now  getting  old,  and  felt 
himself  unfitted  for  entering  upon  any  new  occupation. 
He  would  have  emigrated,  but  he  had  not  the  means. 
Nor  could  he  remove  to  any  other  place,  for  the  same 
reason.  He  was  bound  like  a  limpet  to  its  rock.  But 
for  his  love  of  nature,  it  must  have  been  a  lonely  life 
that  he  led.  He  seems  to  have  had  few  friends  to 
whom  he  could  communicate  his  joys  or  his  sorrows. 
At  least  he  never  mentions  them  in  his  letters  to  his 
sister,  in  which  he  mentioned  all  that  he  knew,  and  all 
that  he  was  doing.  The  principal  person  about  him 
was  his  old  housekeeper,  Annie  Mackay,  whose  half- 
Highland,  half-Scotch  conversations,  he  sometimes  men- 
tions to  his  sister.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  specimen : — 

"Och  hane!  I'm  thinkin'  it's  yeersel  that's  in  the  star- 
vation countrie,  wi'  yeer  eggs  at  saxteen  pence  the  dizzen, 
and  yeer  coos'  butter  at  twenty  pence  the  new  pund ! 
Och  a  nee,  the  like  o'  that's  a  farlie !  Fat  gars  ye 
spike  that  waa,  and  consither  a  firlot  little  when  she's 
muckle  ?  Eh-a  ?  I  dinna  see  yeer  mistaaks,  and  hoo 
ye  read  yeer  paper  upside  doun.  Fan  yeer  wark  is 
cleen,  ye  gang  oot  by  an'  kill  yeersel  and  no  be  sorrin 


CHAP.  xix.  DICK'S  GENEROSITY.  319 

at  the  fyre.  That's  fat  ye  sud  dee,  an'  if  ye  dinna, 
ye  kenna  fat's  the  consequence,  nor  hoo  a'  study  wearies 
the  flesh.  Forbye,  ye  tak  cauld,  and  get  giddy  in  yeer 
head,  loss  understanding  and  coup  ower,  an'  mistaks, 
damage  things,  and  brak.  Fat  wye  ?  Fat  sense's  that  ? 
I  dinna  see  ony  intill't. 

"  I  canna  see  hoo  ye  see,  I  canna  mak  oot  hoo  ony 
Christan  genlm  is  to  gang  oot  in  mires,  brakin  stanes 
amang  snaw,  and  seekin'  whistles  in  a  moor  hill-side. 
Na,  na ;  he's  fustlin'  eneugh  in  Lonon  [this  must  refer 
to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison],  sittin  in  a  chair  toastin'  his 
taes,  and  lookin  at  Africa  wye  two  thousin  lochs  amang 
mountains.  Forbye  ye  mistak  sair  a'  the  warl's  wyes, 
an  hoo  anither  thing  says  one  thing  is  meant.  An'  foo, 
unless  yeer  astonishmen'  is  greet,  yeer  need  to  spike  is 
little." 

Dick  seems  to  have  been  much  amused  by  the  con- 
versation of  his  housekeeper.  She  was  a  very  careful 
woman.  She  never  wasted  a  farthing's  worth  of  her 
master's  goods.  When  beggar  children  came  to  the 
door,  she  was  firm  in  her  resistance  to  their  entreaties. 
"  The  breed  wuna  hers,  but  the  maister's."  The  bairns 
waited  until  the  maister  was  at  home,  and  then  they  had 
their  serving.  For  Dick  was  always  generous  to  hungry 
children.  "  My  kin'  maister,"  said  Annie, "  was  very  fond 
o'  bairns  that  wud  be  clean  an'  tidy.  Mony  a  time  he 
gaed  a  piece  ta  ony  poor  bodie  that  cam  to  the  door." 

Another  thing  that  kept  Dick  poor  was  his  honesty. 
He  gave  full  weight — full  measure  and  running  over. 
He  never  scrimped  any  poor  person  of  his  bread.  His 


320  HONESTY  THE  BEST  POLICY.     CHAP.  xix. 

quarter-loaf  always  contained  four  pounds  full;  whereas 
the  loaves  of  many  of  the  other  bakers  were  short  by 
about  four  ounces.  Their  two-pound  loaves  were  short 
by  about  two  ounces.  Thus,  cheating  had  the  advan- 
tage over  honesty,  of  six  per  cent  on  every  loaf  of 
bread  sold.  That  was  a  profit  by  itself;  but  few  people 
had  the  means  of  weighing  their  bread,  to  detect  the 
honesty  or  dishonesty  of  their  baker,  and  therefore  the 
cheating  went  on — to  Dick's  ruin.  Yet  he  never 
relaxed  his  principle  of  giving  full  weight.  "  Honesty's 
the  best  policy,"  continued  to  be  his  maxim.  He  felt 
that  it  was  better  to  die  than  be  dishonest. 

In  a  letter  written  to  his  sister  at  this  disconsolate 
period  of  his  life,  he  says : — 

"  I  have  not  much  of  a  hopeful  kind  around  me,  and 
yet,  as  I  have  a  sun  and  moon  of  my  own,  I  am  gener- 
ally very  cheerful.  I  often  take  some  hearty  laughs 
when  no  one  is  near  me.  I  am  nearly  indifferent  to  the 
whole  world.  But  that  won't  do  either.  I  keep  always 
moving — never  indulging  in  idleness  or  lying  in  bed  in 
the  morning.  Up  at  four  o'clock,  or  half-past  four  at 
latest ;  sometimes  at  three  o'clock. 

"There  is  a  baker  here  that  lies  in  his  bed  till  seven 
or  eight,  and  his  two  apprentices  keep  knocking  at  his 
door  until  he  rises.  He  goes  dabbling  on  till  eight  or 
nine  at  night.  Besides  parridge,  wife,  and  bairns,  he 
knows  no  more.  That's  not  worth  living  for.  People 
came  into  the  world  for  something  better. 

"I  am  working  at  my  plants  perseveringly ;  and 
whatever  is  to  be  the  end,  I  keep  moving.  .  .  .  Nor  am 


CHAP.  xix.          MOSSES  BY  MOONLIGHT.  321 

I  ignorant  that  all  my  toil  is  vanity,  in  one  sense,  and 
perhaps  in  every  sense.  I  am  indifferent  nearly  to 
everything.  Hope  of  any  real  happiness  in  this  world 
is  out  of  the  question." 


"  I  have  been  poring  every  spare  minute  over  dried 
mosses.  I  have  been  so  engaged  during  the  last 
month.  Not  long  since,  I  had  the  eager  curiosity  to 
walk  out  one  night,  when  I  picked  up  a  very  nice  moss 
by  the  light  of  the  moon !  You  may  ask,  how  could  I 
do  that  ?  Thanks  be  praised,  I've  got  my  eyesight,  my 
feelings,  and  I  can-  grape*  too.  It  was  a  very  frosty 
night,  and  hailstones  lay  thick  upon  the  bog ;  but  I 
knew  the  exact  spot  where  the  mosses  grew.  I  had 
taken  a  look  at  them  some  six  weeks  before,  and  found 
them  in  prime  condition.  The  world  was  asleep. 
Mosses,  not  Moses.  I  often  consult  Moses'  writings. 
How  fine  that  is  about  the  scapegoat  sent  into  the  wil- 
derness, with  the  cord  about  his  horns,  bearing  a  burden 
that  he  did  not  feel.  Splendid  Bible  that ! 

"  If  any  friend  asks  you  about  your  brother  Eobert, 
you  may  say  that  he  inherits  the  blessing  of  Jacob's 
son.  If  they  inquire  which  son,  you  may  say  the  one 
who  was  likened  to  an  ass  '  stooping  down  between  two 
burdens' — with  this  difference,  that  instead  of  two, 
your  brother  has  a  score  or  two  of  burdens.  He  knows 
by  sad  experience  that  'rest  is  good.'  But  he  is  at 
times  so  wearied  and  sore  that  he  cannot  find  rest. 
And  further,  the  person  who  said  that  '  the  harder  the 
*  Grape— Search  with  the  hands  in  the  dark. 


322  LOSING  HIS  EYESIGHT.  CHAP.  xix. 

work  the  sweeter  the  rest,'  never  toiled  hard  in  his  life. 
But  there  is  nothing  for  the  machine  that  has  been 
long  in  use  but  to  keep  it  going,  otherwise  it  would  fall 
to  pieces.  So  I  always  keep  in  motion,  though  the 
battle  is  not  half  won  yet." 

One  of  his  troubles  was  that  his  eyesight  was 
becoming  defective.  "  You  see,"  he  said  to  his  sister, 
"  that  I  am  on  the  decline — not  in  bodily  strength, 
for  I  can  walk  sixty  miles  without  a  rest — but  in 
eyesight.  I  have  to  use  spectacles  with  candlelight, 
either  in  reading  or  writing.  I  am  employing  my  spare 
time  in  working  at  my  plants.  I  have  arranged  four- 
teen hundred  specimens,  but  I  may  say  that  I  have 
three  thousand  specimens  altogether,  because  of  the 
varieties." 

His  sister  sent  him  a  new  pair  of  spectacles,  bought 
expressly  for  him  at  Edinburgh,  but  they  did  not  suit 
his  eyes.  "  It  is  a  sad  annoyance  to  me,"  he  said 
in  reply,  "that  I  cannot  read  with  them — the  more 
especially  as  I  can  hardly  live  without  books,  and  my 
time  for  reading  is  principally  in  the  evening.  As  it  is, 
I  must  endure  the  drawback.  Tew  and  scanty  are  my 
pleasures ;  indeed  they  are  such  as  are  usually  despised 
by  thoughtless  people.  I  will  surely  try  to  live  an 
inoffensive  life,  though  I'm  no  favourite  with  anybody. 
I  have  a  great  deal  of  unknown  grief.  This  world's 
people  have  almost  left  me,  and  I  struggle  hard,  very 
hard." 

His  sister  at  once  sent  him  a  new  pair  of  spectacles, 
and  they  suited  him  better ;  but  he  said,  "  It  is  rheu- 


GROWING  OLD.  323 


matism  that  has  been  troubling  me,  and  giving  me  that 
dreadful  pain  in  the  eyes.  .  .  .  Your  petting  is  not 
good  for  me.  I've  been  so  long  accustomed  to  rough 
usage,  that  your  kindness  seems  quite  unnatural.  I 
have  laid  my  own  specks  aside,  and  am  trying  your 
pair,  but  there  is  no  abatement  in  the  rheumatism — not 
one  hair.  I  pay  for  reading  as  dear  as  ever.  It  is 
certainly  rather  hard  that  there  should  be  any  tax 
whatever  on  the  means  of  acquiring  knowledge. 

"  I  am  pretty  indifferent  to  the  thought  of  growing 
old,  if  I  could  only  read  as  freely  as  I  used  to  do. 
Nothing  like  the  natural  eyesight.  I  never  wearied 
then.  I  did  not  need  to  squeeze  my  eyeballs  or  my 
eyelids,  to  get  relief.  If  the  pain  were  constant,  I 
should  be  truly  miserable.  But  as  yet  the  infliction 
merely  comes  and  goes." 

In  the  autumn  of  1862,  Professor  Wyville  Thomson, 
then  of  Queen's  College,  Belfast,  called  upon  Mr.  Dick 
at  his  bakehouse,  and  had  some  conversation  with  him 
as  to  the  fossil  fishes  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  The 
Professor  was  introduced  by  Charles  Peach,  and  was 
therefore  made  cordially  welcome.  After  some  conver- 
sation about  fossils,  Dick  turned  to  the  subject  of 
Botany,  and  the  Professor  promised,  so  far  as  he  could, 
to  furnish  him  with  the  specimens  of  dried  plants  of 
which  he  was  still  in  want.  On  his  return  to  Belfast, 
he  sent  Dick  a  list  of  British  plants,  and  asked  him  to 
mark  those  which  he  required  for  his  herbarium. 

Sir  Wyville  Thomson  has  favoured  us  with  the  fol- 
lowing recollection  of  his  visit : — 


324  SIX  WYVILLE  THOMSON         CHAP.  xix. 

"My  acquaintance  with  Kobert  Dick  was  very 
slight,  but  I  was  greatly  struck  with  all  I  saw  of  him, 
I  had  been  working  at  the  Old  Eed  beds  in  Orkney 
with  William  Watt,  another  very  remarkable  man, 
somewhat  of  the  same  character ;  and  crossing  over  by 
Thurso,  I  spent  two  or  three  hours  with  Dick,  whom  I 
knew  about  through  my  old  friend  Peach.  I  was 
specially  interested  at  the  time  in  the  structure  of 
Coccosteus,  and  had  got  some  fine  specimens  in  Orkney, 
with  all  the  outer  armour  plates  capitally  preserved; 
but  I  remember  Dick  showing  me  some  curiously 
preserved  examples  from  beds  of  a  different  character 
near  Thurso,  which  threw  a  good  deal  of  light  upon  the 
form  of  the  cartilaginous  part  of  the  skeleton. 

"  Dick  was  a  singular  man — very  shy  and  retiring, 
and  not  very  easy  of  access  in  his  bakehouse.  Peach 
had  a  very  great  regard  for  him.  He  was  intelligent, 
and  fairly  well  read  on  all  matters.  One  fancy  he  had 
was  for  Egyptian  antiquities,  and  his  bakehouse  was 
all  over  with  Egyptian  hieroglyphs.  He  was  a  good 
botanist,  and  a  very  intelligent  geologist.  He  did  not, 
however,  believe  in  the  succession  of  species,  and  would 
never  have  done  for  a  Darwinian.  His  firm  conviction 
was,  that  all  living  creatures  had  been  on  this  earth  at 
the  same  time." 

The  result  of  the  visit  was,  that  Dick  promised  to 
resume  his  researches  into  the  fossil  fish  beds  near 
Thuiso,  and  to  send  the  result  of  his  findings  to  Pro- 
fessor Wyville  Thomson  at  Belfast.  Winter  was 
approaching,  and  the  days  were  shortening.  Thus 


CHAP.  xix.       CORRESPONDS  WITH  DIC&'  325 

some  time  elapsed  before  he  could  further  communicate 
with  the  Professor.  He  thus  described  the  result  of 
his  labours  to  his  sister : — 

"My  spare  time,"  he  said,  "is  very  limited;  and 
seeking  fossil  fish  in  stones  at  this  season  (February  9, 
1863)  is  like  playing  at  Blind  Man's  Buff — all  a-groping 
in  the  dark ;  and  it  is  at  the  same  time  attended  with 
the  severest  labour.  As  yet,  I  have  found  nothing 
extraordinary.  I  am  fairly  in  for  a  search  amongst  the 
rocks  until  the  first  of  April.  While  the  weather  is 
cold,  I  don't  mind  smashing  away  with  a  hammer  on 
the  rocks ;  but  when  the  air  grows  mild,  the  toil 
becomes  too  much — and  all  for  amusement ! " 

In  the  meantime,  a  letter  arrived  from  Professor 
Thomson  (February  18,  1863)  congratulating  Dick  upon 
recommencing  his  labours  among  the  rocks.  "I  will 
try  to  be  careful,"  he  said,  "  but  there  is  great  pleasure 
in  change.  An  old  fact  looks  so  fresh  when  you  look 
at  it  through  a  nice  new  green  theory !  At  all  events, 
I  am  right  glad  that  you  have  taken  to  the  old  fishes 
again.  I  never  saw  in  my  life  a  little  set  from  which 
such  a  lot  of  information  could  be  extracted  as  from 
yours.  I  think  I  must  come  north  again  for  a  longer 
look  at  them. 

"  You  have  one  specimen  which  could  throw  a  deal 
of  light  upon  a  question  I  am  working  at  just  now — a 
dorsal  plate  of  Coccosteus,  which  has  a  sort  of  double 
appearance,  as  if  there  had  been  a  thick  plate  of 
cartilage  below  the  bone.  I  was  more  taken  up  at  the 
time  with  Asterolepis;  so  I  just  glanced  at  it.  But 
15* 


326    RESEARCHES  AMONG  THE  ROCKS.    CHAP,  xix 

now,  when  I  am  writing  about  Coccosteus,  it  comes 
back  to  my  memory.  I  do  not  remember  the  size 
of  the  specimen,  but  it  would  be  a  great  favour  if 
you  could  lend  it  to  me  for  a  few  days.  I  do  not  know 
if  you  ever  do  such  a  thing,  but  it  is  a  common  practice 
among  us  working  men." 

"  Can  you  tell  me  anything  new  about  Coccosteus  ? 
All  information  would  be  most  thankfully  received  at 
present.  The  next  set  I  mean  to  take  up  is  Astero- 
lepis." 

Encouraged  by  this  letter,  Dick  proceeded  with  his 
researches  among  the  Thurso  rocks.  After  the  lapse  of 
a  month,  his  sister  wrote  to  him  to  inquire  what  new 
fossils  he  had  found;  and  he  thus  (March  10,  1863) 
described  the  results  of  his  labours : — 

"When  I  promised,"  he  said,  "to  look  out  for  speci- 
mens for  Professor  Thomson,  I  had  faint  hopes  of 
finding  anything.  I  had  overhauled  almost  every 
accessible  rock  from  Portskerra  to  John  o'  Groat's 
House ;  and  that  too  so  very  patiently,  that  I  knew,  or 
thought  I  knew,  that  very  little  presented  itself  on  the 
external  surface  worthy  of  the  toil  of  digging.  I 
resolved,  however,  to  try  the  sea-shore.  I  there  noted 
all  the  changes  that  had  occurred  since  the  date  of  my 
last  visit. 

"A  furious  storm  had  been  hammering  upon  the 
rocks  since  then.  Storms  make  havoc  of  stronger 
things  than  ships.  What  power  a  stormy  sea  has !  Its 
incessant-  thunderings  upon  the  shores  often  make  a 
new  section  of  the  land.  It  washes  away  the  bitumen. 


CHAP.  xix.         NEW  STRATA  EXPOSED.  327 

and  leaves  new  strata  exposed,  so  that  they  may  be 
traced  in  layers,  one  above  the  other.  I  now  found  many 
large  blocks  of  rock,  which  a  hundred  men  could  not 
move,  tossed  about  as  a  strong  man  would  toss  a  foot- 
balL 

"As  the  sea  had  gone  thundering  along  over  the 
rocky  ledges,  the  waves  had  torn  up  and  removed  many 
of  the  lesser  masses,  thus  exposing  to  the  curious  eye 
numerous  fresh  surfaces.  I  ran  eagerly  to  examine 
them ;  for  there,  if  anywhere,  I  knew  that  I  might  have 
a  chance  of  finding  fossils.  My  luck  was,  however,  very 
ordinary.  I  found  many  scales  of  the  size  of  half- 
pennies ;  bits  of  bones ;  bits  of  fins ;  and  little  sea-shells. 
I  found,  also,  bits  of  plants,  hard  and  black.  In  one 
spot,  a  large  stone  had  been  driven  along,  and  by  its 
weight,  as  it  grated  on  the  rocks,  had  exposed  what,  to 
the  inexperienced  eye,  would  seem  a  trifling  bit  of  bone. 
I  saw  it,  and  laughed  aloud.  /  knew  it !  I  knew  it, 
though  not  more  than  the  breadth  of  a  penny-piece  lay 
exposed  !  The  rest  was  under  the  stone. 

"I  returned  home,  but  not  without  marking  many 
wonders.  On  the  following  day  I  returned  to  the 
stone,  with  my  hammer  and  chisels.  After  fully  an 
hour's  hard  kbour,  I  dug  out  the  bone,  and  carried  it 
home  with  me.  I  afterwards  cut  it  neatly  with  a  saw. 
It  now  awaits  Professor  Thomson.  No  one  can  give 
him  such  another  bone.  A  truth !  I  have  a  few  small 
fishes,  fish-heads,  plants,  shells,  and  sundry  other  things, 
for  the  Professor,  and  I  expect  more ;  but  'tis  awful  hard 
work." 


328        HAMMERING  IN  A  SNOWSTORM.     CHAP.  xix. 

Dick  also  gave  the  following  account  of  Professor 
Thomson's  visit  to  a  geological  friend  in  London  :  "  The 
Professor  very  kindly  offered  to  assist  me  with  a  few 
of  my  desiderata  in  dried  British  plants.  I  thought  I 
would  try  to  get  a  fossil  or  two  for  him  in  return, 
before  I  drew  upon  his  kindness ;  and  this  notion  sent 
me  with  renewed  zeal  to  all  my  old  haunts  by  the 
shores.  .  .  .  Since  two  weeks  after  New  Year's  day, 
I  have  been  working  at  intervals.  My  hardihood 
has  been  put  to  a  severe  enough  test.  Only  think  of 
my  hammering  at  the  rocks  for  fossils  in  a  snowstorm  !  " 

Unfortunately,  the  fossils  which  Dick  had  intended 
for  Professor  Thomson  were  not  sent  to  him.  The 
reason  of  that  omission  will  be  explained  in  the  next 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  XX. 
DICK  COMPELLED  TO  SELL  HIS  FOSSILS. 

AT  the  very  time  that  Dick  was  writing  the  pre- 
ceding letter  to  his  sister,  a  circumstance  occurred 
which  brought  him  almost  to  the  verge  of  ruin. 

He  had  ordered  from  his  flour  merchants  at  Leith 
twenty-three  bags  of  fine  flour.  They  were  shipped  by 
the  steamer  "  Prince  Consort "  in  the  month  of  March 
1863.  The  steamers  from  Leith  to  Thurso  usually  call 
at  Aberdeen  and  Wick  on  their  way  northward.  On 
entering  the  harbour  of  Aberdeen,  the  "  Prince  Consort " 
struck  the  platform,  and  ran  along  the  North  Pier, 
where  the  passenger5*  were  taken  off.  It  must  have 
been  a  lubberly  affair,  as  there  was  no  heavy  sea  on  at 
the  time.  It  was  said  that  the  person  who  steered  the 
ship  was  half-drunk. 

When  the  passengers  were  taken  off,  it  was 
attempted  to  float  away  the  vessel,  but  as  the  tide 
was  ebbing,  that  could  not  be  done.  The  sea  eventually 
broke  her  in  two.  The  water  entered  the  hold;  and, 
though  part  of  the  cargo  was  saved,  Dick's  flour  was 
thoroughly  drenched.* 

*  The  front  part  of  the  ship  was  floated  oft  some  weeks  after.  The 
hull  was  got  together  again.  It  was  patched  up  and  lengthened  ;  but 
the  "  Prince  Consort "  finally  came  to  grief,  and  was  totally  wrecked. 


LOSS  OF  DICK'S  FLOUR. 


The  ship  was  insured,  but  Dick's  flour  was  not. 
Though  the  bill  of  lading  intimated  that  the  flour  was 
to  be  delivered  in  good  order — "  the  act  of  God,  the 
Queen's  enemies,  fire,  and  all  and  every  other  dangers 
and  accidents  of  the  seas  excepted  " —  yet  it  was  found 
difficult  to  prove  that  the  disaster  occurred  through  the 
negligence  of  those  who  managed  the  vessel.  Those 
whose  goods  had  been  lost  or  damaged  had  therefore  to 
sustain  the  loss.  To  Dick  it  was  ruinous. 

The  cost  of  the  flour  was  only  £45  : 13  : 6 ;  but,  small 
though  the  sum  was,  Dick  had  not  the  money  at  his  com- 
mand. What  was  he  to  do  ?  He  had  never  been  in  debt 
in  his  life.  And  yet,  not  only  must  this  debt  be  paid  for, 
but  he  must  order  more  flour  in  order  to  carry  on  his  busi- 
ness. He  had  been  slowly  going  to  ruin  for  years  past. 
He  had  lost  £120  of  his  former  savings  ;  and  now,  to  use 
his  own  words,  the  loss  of  £45  made  him  "  next  thing 
to  a  beggar."  His  only  property  consisted  in  his  books, 
his  collection  of  fossil  fishes,  his  botanical  specimens, 
his  slender  stock  of  furniture,  his  old-fashioned  clothes, 
'and  his  little  store  of  linen.  These  were  of  little  value. 
They  could  not  be  sold  in  time  to  save  him.  He  must 
turn  to  some  one  else.  Then  he  bethought  him  of  his 
affectionate,  generous-hearted  sister.  She  had  offered 
him  money  a  few  years  before,  which  he  had  refused, 
because  "coddling  and  nursing  was  about  the  worst 
treatment  imaginable." 

But  alas !  the  time  had  come  when  he  could  no 
longer  refuse  her  generous  offer.  He  wrote  to  her, 
pouring  out  his  griefs,  and  telling  her  how  he  had  been 
reduced  almost  to  the  brink  of  ruin. 


CHAP.  xx.  BORROWS  MONEY.  331 

"  Have  you  still,"  he  asked,  "  that  spare  money  ? 
Would  you  be  willing  to  lend  it  to  me  in  hope  of  getting 
it  back  again  ?  Should  you  wish  it,  I  would  pay  you 
interest  for  it.  I  have  long  felt  the  necessity  of  getting 
away  out  of  this  miserable  place.  There  is  no  trade,  and 
the  risk  is  very  great.  I  have  had  a  sore  struggle,  and 
have  often  been  sadly  grieved ;  but  this  is  the  saddest  ill 
that  has  ever  come  to  me.  ...  I  am  injured  for  ever. 
I'll  never  make  an  extra  farthing  by  my  trade  here. 
The  bakers  are  in  swarms  now.  I  am  old,  and  my 
strength  and  sight  fail  me.  Before,  I  had  hardships 
quite  enough ;  but  now,  this  crowns  everything.  I  am 
stupid  with  grief." 

Dick's  sister  earnestly  sympathised  with  him.  She 
told  him  to  cheer  up — to  put  his  shoulder  again  to  the 
wheel,  and  that  all  might  yet  go  well  with  him.  She 
sent  him  £20  of  her  spare  money.  She  did  so  at  consi- 
derable sacrifice,  as  she  required  the  money  at  that 
time  for  special  purposes.  But  she  could  not  stand  the 
piteous  entreaties  of  her  brother,  and  sacrificed  her  own 
requirements  for  his  good. 

Dick  plucked  up  heart  again.  He  replied  to  his 
sister :  "  I  am  not  easily  put  down.  I  am  neither  in- 
active nor  desponding.  I  am  trying  a  way  of  recover- 
ing my  loss.  Your  brother  Robert  is  the  most  active 
and  laborious  person  in  the  county,  and  could  not  live 
in  idleness  for  one  week.  He  does  not  entertain  a  single 
thought  of  being  beat." 

The  "way  of  recovering  his  loss,"  to  which  Dick 
alluded,  was  by  selling  his  fossils.  He  had  now  a  very 


332  JOHN  MILLER,  F.G.S.  CHAP.  xx. 

fine  collection ;  but  when  such  things  are  offered  in  the 
market,  they  are  likely  to  bring  very  little  indeed.  Still, 
he  was  of  opinion  that  if  his  collection  was  offered  to 
some  scientific  man,  he  might  be  able  to  realise  enough 
to  pay  his  debts. 

One  of  Dick's  geological  friends  was  Mr.  John 
Miller,  F.G.S.,  a  gentleman  of  independent  property. 
He  belonged  to  Thurso,  but  lived  for  the  most  part  in 
London.  He  had  a  great  respect  for  Dick,  and  took  a 
deep  interest  in  his  fossil  researches.  When  at  Thurso, 
Mr.  Miller  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  the  bakehouse,  and 
had  many  keen  discussions  with  Robert  Dick  and 
Charles  Peach  about  geological  subjects.  He  was  him- 
self a  collector,  and  employed  a  Mr.  Budge  to  obtain 
for  him  new  specimens  of  fossil  fishes.  He  often  con- 
sulted Dick  as  to  their  interest  and  value. 

When  the  thought  occurred  to  Dick  of  selling  his 
fossils  to  Mr.  Miller — knowing  that  he  was  buying  them 
from  Budge — he  addressed  to  him  the  following  letter : — 

"  Some  years  since  you  saw  that  I  was  distressed, 
and  you  offered  to  relieve  me.  I  put  your  proffered 
kindness  aside.  Since  then  you  have  had  many  oppor- 
tunities of  knowing  and  seeing  me;  and  I  think  you 
will  allow  that  anything  like  complaining  was  very  far 
from  me.  A  recent  event,  however,  has  ruined  me. 
The  '  Prince  Consort,'  on  attempting  to  enter  Aberdeen 
Harbour,  has  become  a  total  wreck.  I  had  flour  on 
her,  uninsured,  to  the  amount  of  £45  : 13  : 6. 

"Enclosed  is  a  note  to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison, 
stating  the  matter,  and  promising  to  send  him  every 


CHAP.  xx.          DICK'S  INDEPENDENCE.  333 

Old  Bed  fossil  in  my  possession,  if  he  would  in  pity 
undertake  to  do  anything  among  the  London  geologists 
by  way  of  making  up  my  loss.  Will  you  in  kindness 
hand  my  note  to  him  in  a  quiet  way,  and  I  will 
be  ever  grateful  to  you  ?  If  you  dislike  handing  my 
note  to  Sir  Roderick,  put  it  in  the  fire,  and  also  this 
one  to  yourself." 

We  have  not  Mr.  Miller's  reply  to  Dick's  letter. 
Very  likely  it  may  have  been  intended  to  cheer  him 
up.  At  all  events  it  seems  to  have  contained  some 
reference  to  Dick's  "  independence,"  for  here  is  Dick's 
reply,  27th  March  1863  :— 

"  It  is  all  very  good  to  talk  to  me  aboat '  independ- 
ence.' I  have  laboured  among  flour  bags  for  the  last 
thirty-eight  years,  but  I  never  yet  knew  an  empty  bag 
to  stand  upright. 

"  An  honest  well-meaning  man  once  kept  his  horse 
on  short  allowance,  and  boasted  that  he  had  brought 
him  to  live  on  a  straw  a  day.  But  when  he  had 
accomplished  his  object,  the  horse  died. 

"  A  very  kind  and  a  very  discerning  public  have,  for 
the  last  eighteen  years,  set  me  down  as  independent, 
and  fed  me  with  chopped  straw;  and  now  those 
drunken  blackguards  of  the  steamer  have  ruined  me. 
I  am  a  beggar,  not  in  word,  but  in  fact. 

"  Previous  to  writing  to  you,  I  applied  to  my  sister 
at  Haddington.  She  at  one  time  offered  me  £48.  I 
would  not  take  the  money.  I  thought  that  she  might 
still  have  it.  She  wrote  at  once,  saying  that  she  had  it 
yet,  but  was  about  to  use  it.  I  told  her  never  to  mind 


334  SIR  RODERICK  MURCHISON.        CHAP,  xx 

me,  and  just  to  use  it  in  the  way  intended.  She 
replied  again,  and  sent  me  £20. 

"  The  steamer  people  have  sent  me  twelve  bags,  out 
of  twenty-three  bags  of  my  flour.  I  have  laboured 
hard  and  sifted  it  out,  and  made  out  six  bags  of  spoilt 
flour  I  With  my  sister's  £20,  and  with  what  the  flour 
may  do,  and  perhaps  other  resources,  I  will  try  and 
manage  to  pay  my  bill. 

"You  will  please  to  give  orders  to  the  National 
Bank  accordingly.  Reverse  your  order.*  I  have  not 
gone  to  the  bank,  and  do  not  intend  to  go  on  the  errand 
you  speak  of. 

"  As  to  my  relations  with  Sir  Roderick  Murchison, 
I  am  already  his  debtor  for  two  hundred  dried  plants, 
and  rather  than  be  turned  out  on  the  wide  world,  I 
would  not  hesitate  one  moment  in  being  indebted  to  his 
goodness  still  further." 

He  followed  this  letter  with  another  written  on  the 
next  day: — 

"  On  trial,"  he  said,  "  I  find  that  the  flour  saved,  after 
much  labour,  is  mixed  with  sand ;  consequently  it  will 
have  to  go  for  little  or  nothing. 

"  In  my  last  to  you,  I  thought  that  I  would  get  on 
without  troubling  any  one ;  but  now  I  find  it  all 
hopeless. 

"  I  have  written  to  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison  offering 
to  sell  my  fossils.  I  have  asked  his  permission  to  send 

*  We  infer  from  this,  that  Mr.  Miller  had  directed  the  National 
Bank  to  pay  Dick  a  certain  sum  on  his  account.  The  italics  are 
Dick's. 


CHAP.  xx.  SELLS  HIS  FOSSILS.  335 

them  up  to  Jermyn  Street  Museum,  that  he  might  give 
for  them  whatever  he  thinks  them  worth. 

"  Surely  there  is  no  degradation  in  this  idea.*  It 
was  altogether  out  of  the  question  to  allow  the  amount 
of  my  loss  to  fall  upon  you.  No !  I  will  not  do  that. 
But  if  you  put  in  a  good  word  for  me  with  Sir 
Eoderick  about  these  fossils,  I  shall  feel  grateful  to 
you. 

"  The  fossils  are  not  many,  but  they  are  such  as  Sir 
Eoderick  has  not  in  his  Museum. 

"  P.S. — If  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  declines  to  pur- 
chase my  fossils,  I'll  not  be  beat,  but  will  offer  them  to 
some  other  person." 

At  last  the  matter  was  pleasantly  settled.  Mr. 
Miller  at  once  agreed  to  purchase  the  fossils,  and  sent 
Dick  an  order  on  the  National  Bank  for  £46, — the 
amount  of  his  loss  by  the  shipwrecked  flour.  Dick 
cordially  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  Mr.  Miller's 
letter  :— 

"I  thank  you  most  sincerely.  I  have  to-day  (4th 
April)  received  a  note  from  Sir  Roderick  Murchison. 
He  will  take  the  fossils ;  but  I  have  settled  it  in  my 
mind  to  give  them  to  you.  I  am  afraid  that  I  grieved 
you  by  refusing  your  gift,  but  I  could  not,  poor  as  I  am, 
take  so  much  money  for  nothing.  I  will  give  all  my 
fossils  to  you — every  one  of  them — shells  of  the  boulder 
clay  and  all.  There  are  two  or  three  which  Hugh 


*  Sir  Roderick  had  asked  Dick  several  years  before  to  sell  come  of 
his  rarer  fossils  to  the  Museum,  but  Dick  preferred  making  a  present 
of  them. 


336  HIS  HEAVY  HEART.  CHAP.  xx. 

Miller  gave  me,  and  these  I  will  add  to  my  own  collection 
of  fossils.  I  will  also  give  you  all  those  which  I  had  got 
for  Professor  Thomson,  and  my  blessing  along  with  them. 

"Of  course  £46  is  too  much  for  them;  but  the 
fossils  are  worth — what  they  are  worth;  and  I  must 
just  be  contented  to  stand  indebted  to  your  friendship 
for  the  rest.  I  will  label  on  the  fossils  the  localities  in 
which  they  were  found,  and  also  pack  them  carefully. 

"  I  am  to  write  to  Sir  Roderick  by  this  same  post, 
telling  him  that  you  had  heard  of  my  distress,  that  you 
had  made  a  most  liberal  offer  to  me  for  the  fossils,  and 
that  I  had  given  them  to  you.  I  know — at  least  1 
trust — that  Sir  Roderick  will  see  meet  not  to  be 
offended  at  me  for  giving  you  the  preference.  Sir 
Roderick  will  get  plenty,  and  so  will  you.  But  one 
thing  you  know,  that  some  of  my  fossils  are  altogether 
rare,  and  not  in  the  possession  of  any  other  person." 

And  thus  ended  the  sale  of  Dick's  fossils.  He 
parted  with  them  with  a  heavy  heart.  But  he  was  now 
enabled  to  pay  his  bill  for  the  lost  flour,  which  he  did 
on  the  29th  of  April  following.  How  he  regretted  the 
loss  of  his  fossils  may  be  inferred  from  a  letter  to  his 
brother-in-law: — "Unhappily,"  he  said,  "I  have  now 
no  fossils.  I  have  given  them  all  away.  Alas!  how 
often  has  my  heart  beat  proudly,  when  looking  over  the 
figures  of  jaws  in  Duff's  and  Dr.  Buckland's  books,  and 
saying, '  0  yes,  these  are  very  fine,  but  humble  as  I  am, 
I  have  finer  than  either.'  But  that  is  over,  and  they 
are  all  away.  They  exist  only  in  remembrance,  and  I 
never  hope  to  find  the  like  again." 


CHAP.  xx.         PREACHING  AND  STIPEND.  337 

Again  he  felt  his  business  falling  off.  Unfortunately, 
he  had  tried  to  make  bread  of  the  sifted  flour  saved  from 
the  wreck ;  but  the  bread  was  not  good,  and  more 
customers  left  him.  "  They  might  have  borne  with  me," 
he  said,  "  a  little  longer,  if  they  had  only  known  of  my 
suffering  and  distress."  Afterwards,  he  said,  "  If  I  had 
only  half  as  much  work  as  I  could  do,  I  should  be  the 
happiest  of  men.  I  have  more  biscuit  beside  me  than  I 
shall  be  able  to  sell  in  three  months.  I  would  toil 
willingly,  but  all  is  overdone  here.  It  is  very  difficult 
to  get  work  at  all.  He  is  a  happy  man  who  can  make 
his  living.  Shoals  of  masons  and  house-wrights  are 
leaving  here  by  steamer. 

"  Men  are  failing  rapidly.  One  is  said  to  have  failed 
for  £3000.  He  hasn't  preached  according  to  his  stipend. 
You  know  the  story.  An  elder  went  to  his  minister, 
and  said,  '  that  his  preaching  was  rather  poor ;  that's 
what  people  said.'  '  Of  what  do  they  complain  ?'  asked 
the  minister.  '  Weel,  sir,  they're  saying  that  ye  dinna 
preach  half  weel.'  '  So,'  said  the  minister, '  but  ye  dinna 
consider  that  ye  dinna  pay  half  weel.  I  preach 
according  to  my  stipend.  P#y  me  better,  and  I'll  preach 
better ! '  And  so,  had  the  people  bought  better,  the 
merchant  would  have  sold  better,  and  not  a  breath  would 
have  been  heard  about  his  failure." 

Though  Dick  said  that  his  customers  were  leaving 
him,  and  that  he  was  thought  less  of  than  ever,  there 
was  still  some  comfort  left  him.  "  Nobody  heeds  me," 
he  said ;  "  and  yet  Nature  is  as  kindly  as  ever."  The 
spring  was  approaching.  Fine  balmy  days  wooed  him 


338  THE  SPRING  FLOWERS.  CHAP.  xx. 

to  the  fields,  or  led  him  along  the  sea-shore.  He  watched 
nature  with  the  eye  of  a  lover.  He  longed  for  the  coming 
of  spring ;  and  when  she  came  he  was  unspeakably  glad. 
He  looked  anxiously  for  every  favourite  plant,  and  knew 
it  at  once  as  it  put  its  first  stem  above  the  ground. 

The  spring  was  later  in  1863.  At  the  end  of  April 
the  fertile  stems  of  the  common  Field  Horsetail  were  not 
yet  above  ground.  He  had  seen  only  one  rumpled 
straggler.  Neither  Drummond's  Horsetail,  nor  the  Wood 
Horsetail,  had  made  their  appearance.  It  was  not  until 
about  the  middle  of  May  that  he  found  them  above 
ground, — excepting  Drummond's  Horsetail,  which  was 
always  late. 

"  I  went  out  last  Sabbath  morning,"  he  said,  "  up  the 
river-side,  and  found  the  common  Field  Horsetail  and 
Wood  Horsetail.  The  Water  Horsetail  was  by  the  river- 
side. The  prevailing  flowers  are  dog-violets  and  yellow 
primroses.  I  found  about  six  specimens  of  a  rare  plant 
peculiar  to  the  north.  It  is  Ajuga  pyramidalis — a  plant 
I  have  sent  alive,  as  well  as  dried,  to  the  south.  It  is 
a  great  prize  with  botanists.  Of  course,  I  look  on  them 
now  with  very  different  feelings  from  what  I  once  did. 
I  found  also  the  early  Purple  Orchis  by  sixes  and  sevens. 
Also  a  species  of  chickweed  which  I  never  saw  before. 
It  is  a  larger  and  showy  species.  No  other  flowers  have 
come  up  as  yet.  But  they  will  come.  And  when  they 
come,  short  will  be  their  stay,  and  all  will  be  again 
desolate." 

A  few  days  later,  he  again  goes  up  the  river-side,  and 
found  and  plucked  numerous  specimens  of  the  far-famed 


CHAP.  xx.  THE  DAISY.  339 

grass — Hierochloe  borealis.  By  this  time  Dick  had 
received  communications  from  botanists  in  nearly  every 
part  of  the  country,  asking  for  dried  specimens  of  the 
grass.  He  also  went  to  the  cliffs  on  Dunnet  Head,  to  his 
ferneries  on  Ben  Dorery  and  the  Eeay  hills,  to  see  how 
the  ferns  were  growing  that  he  had  planted — ferns  that 
would  still  be  growing  when  he  and  his  friend  Peach 
"  were  both  out  of  time." 

"  I  have  discovered,"  he  says  one  day,  "  another  plant 
wonder  !  Some  time  ago  I  found  a  new  daisy.  I  have 
now  found  another.  It  has  twenty-four  little  heads, 
and  the  stalks  are  longer  than  the  other.  I  sought  all 
over  the  grass  field  on  which  it  grew,  and  could  not  find 
another.  I  never  read  of  such  a  daisy  being  found  wild. 
A  daisy  with  thirteen  heads,  and  another  with  twenty- 
four  heads,  are  most  extraordinary.  But  '  little  things 
are  great  to  little  minds/" 

To  his  brother-in-law  he  said  : — "  So  you  have  been 
amongst  gardeners,  and  found  a  daisy.  Still,  the  wild 
one  is,  I  think  much  finer.  It  is  tall,  and  being  single, 
it  makes  a  more  natural  show.  I  have  hastily  pencilled 
it  off  [giving  a  drawing  of  the  wild  daisy].  I  could  have 
done  it  much  better, — only  it  is  Saturday  afternoon,  and 
I  am  busy. 

"  The  daisy  is  a  great  favourite  with  the  poets ;  Burns 
speaks  of  it  as  the  '  wee,  modest,  crimson-tipped  flower.' 
Another  says  of  it,  '  the  bright  flower,  whose  home  is 
everywhere.'  Another — 

" '  The  rose  has  but  a  summer  reign, 
The  daisy  never  dies.' 


340  MARINE  PLANTS.  CHAP,  xx 

And  still  another  : — 

"  '  Not  worlds  on  worlds,  in  phalanx  deep 
Need  we,  to  prove  a  God  is  here ; 
The  daisy,  fresh  from  winter's  sleep, 
Tells  of  His  Power  in  lines  as  clear.'  " 

As  far  on  as  the  month  of  June,  the  weather  was  cold 
and  wet.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  hail,  and  one  day  of 
almost  continuous  snow.  It  is  true,  the  snow  melted 
as  it  fell,  and  did  no  other  harm  than  giving  the  grass  a 
brownish  colour ;  though  the  country  folks  said  the  dis- 
tant hills  were  covered  with  snow. 

Dick  went  to  Loch  Duran,  some  seven  miles  off,  to 
see  the  Bullrush,  rather  a  rare  plant  in  the  far  north ; 
and  besides  the  Lake  Bullrush  he  found  a  much  rarer 
plant,  the  Lapland  Eeed.  He  could  find  the  plant  no- 
where else.  Six  miles  inland  he  also  found  the  Baltic 
Rush.  "  How  it  got  there,"  he  said,  "I  cannot  make  out." 

He  was  recommended  to  try  his  hand  among  the 
marine  plants.  "I  have  little  doubt,"  he  observed, 
"that  something  new  might  be  discovered  among  the 
weeds  along  the  sea-shore.  Solomon  says,  '  All  things 
are  full  of  labour.'  But  I'm  ower  auld  for  the  labour, 
and  as  for  the  honour,  if  I  get  a  splitting  headache  and 
a  sweating  cough  for  my  pains  whilst  dabbling  in  a  salt- 
water pool,  perhaps  the  cost  to  me  would  be  greater 
than  the  honour.  The  poor  animal  is  overladen  already, 
and  to  put  on  more  weight  would  probably  squeeze  the 
life  out  of  him  altogether." 

"  In  fact,"  he  says  to  Mr.  John  Miller,  "  I  fear  that  in 
pursuing  researches  among  the  rocks  I  have  not  been 


CHAP.  xx.  NA  TIVE  ROSES.  341 

half  cautious;  for  during  June  I  have  been  suffering 
severely  from  rheumatism, — to  an  extent  greater  than 
ever  I  did  before.  '  The  vengeance '  has  got  hold  of  both 
my  feet, — so  much  so  that  I  have  a  difficulty  in  walking. 
That,  you  may  be  sure,  was  gloomy  for  me.  I  grumbled 
to  be  compelled  to  walk  slow,  especially  when  the  spirit 
within  said,  Forward" 

And  yet,  when  sufficiently  well,  Dick  immediately 
went  to  the  fields  again  to  gather  ferns,  grasses,  plants, 
and  wild  roses.  One  day  he  says  to  his  brother-in-law, 
"I  have  had  a  ramble  sixteen  miles  out  and  sixteen 
miles  home  again  for  a  small  fern  not  so  long  as  your 
little  finger.  I  would  not  have  gone  so  far,  but  that  the 
fern  would  not  come  to  me.  I  had  another  ramble 
twelve  miles  away  and  twelve  miles  home  again,  and  all 
for  nothing.  The  plant  I  went  to  get  was  not  growing 
for  want  of  moisture." 

Dick  had  many  applications  for  native  roses.  He 
sent  a  number  of  them  to  Professor  Babington  of  Cam- 
bridge ;  but  he  thought  that  the  professor's  opinion  as 
to  the  species  to  which  they  belonged  was  not  quite 
correct.  Writing  to  a  friend  he  said,  "  The  genus  Rosa 
is  a  difficult  one,  even  for  the  most  experienced  botanist. 
It  is  hardly  possible  to  tell  the  different  species  by  their 
leaves  alone.  Their  fruit  is  a  far  better  test.  For 
example,  the  leaves  of  the  spiny  or  thorny  rose  may  be 
found  of  various  sizes — from  an  eighth  of  an  inch  to 
more  than  an  inch  long.  They  differ  so  much  in  their 
hairiness  and  smoothness  that  it  would  almost  puzzle  a 

conjuror  to  define  which  was  which.     Some  years  since 
16 


342  A  SPERM  WHALE.  CHAP.  xx. 

I  sent  a  packet  of  dry  roses  and  leaves  to  Professor 
Balfour,  who  sent  them  to  Professor  Babington  in 
England.  The  latter  gave  the  best  verdict  he  could, 
and  yet  I  have  no  faith  in  it.  For  example,  he  told  me 
that  he  believed  one  of  them  to  be  Rosa  involuta. 
Now,  Rosa  involuta  is  found  in  the  Western  Isles,  and 
a  stranger  might  conclude  readily  enough  that  the  plant 
grew  in  our  neighbourhood.  I  have  ever  since  been 
watching  the  bush  from  which  I  took  the  specimen  ;  but 
I  cannot  form  any  other  opinion  than  that  it  is  a  variety 
only  of  the  Rosa  spinosissima,  or  the  Thorny  Eose.  The 
leaves  of  the  said  bush  might  pass  for  the  leaves  of  Rosa 
involuta,  but  the  fruit  will  not.  The  fruit  is  invariably 
the  fruit  of  the  Thorny  Eose." 

In  September  1863,  Dick  received  a  letter  from 
Professor  Owen,  stating  that  he  had  been  informed  that 
a  large  sperm  whale  had  been  cast  ashore  near  Thurso, 
and  that,  as  he  should  like  to  secure  the  bones,  he  would 
feel  obliged  to  Mr.  Dick  if  he  would  make  the  necessary 
inquiries  about  the  nature  of  the  whale — whether  it  was 
a  sperm  whale  or  not.  He  added  that  Sir  Eoderick 
Murchison  had  informed  him  that  Mr.  Dick  was  the 
most  likely  man  in  Thurso  to  help  him  on  the  occasion. 

It  seems  that  the  whale  was  cast  ashore  at  Sandside, 
about  thirteen  miles  from  Thurso.  Dick  worked  all 
night  with  the  object  of  starting  on  foot  next  morning. 
But  at  two  o'clock  it  began  to  rain,  and  it  rained  con- 
tinuously for  about  a  fortnight.  What  with  his  pains 
and  his  rheumatism,  he  could  scarcely  go  out  of  doors 
during  the  interval.  "  Even  if  I  went  there,"  he  said, 


CHAP.  xx.        DICK'S  CORRESPONDENTS.  343 

"  it  would  only  have  been — to  guess.  But  I  gathered 
all  the  information  I  could  get  about  the  whale,  and  sent 
it  to  Professor  Owen." 

Dick  still  kept  up  a  considerable  correspondence, 
though  it  was  for  the  most  part  forced  upon  him.  He 
was  indisposed,  amidst  his  troubles,  to  open  new  corre- 
spondence; though  those  who  had  corresponded  with  him 
once,  would  not  allow  him  to  forget  them :  his  letters 
were  so  interesting,  humorous,  and  instructive.  He  was 
often  invited  to  pay  visits  far  from  home ;  but  that  was, 
of  course,  impossible.  Few  of  his  correspondents  knew 
of  his  poverty.  Very  likely,  many  of  them  thought  him 
to  be  a  man  of  independent  position.  Mr.  Notcutt  of 
Cheltenham  thought  that  Dick  wished  the  correspondence 
with  him  to  cease.  But  he  wrote  to  him  again  and 
again,  until  he  replied.  "I  shall  ever  feel  grateful  to 
you,"  said  Mr.  Notcutt,  "  for  the  noble  series  of  Old  Eed 
fossils  which,  through  your  liberality,  I  possess.  I 
append  a  list  of  most  of  the  things  (dried  flowering 
plants)  which  I  have  for  you."  And  at  length  Dick 
was  thawed  into  continuing  the  correspondence.  Of 
course  Mr.  Notcutt  knew  nothing  of  the  pecuniary 
struggles  that  Dick  was  then  passing  through. 

Numerous  requests  were  made  to  Dick  for  exchanges 
of  plants  and  fossils.  Amongst  his  correspondence  we 
find  letters  from  Dr.  L.  Lindsay,  lichen ologist,  Perth; 
Mr.  John  Sim,  botanist,  Perth ;  Mr.  Roy,  botanist, 
Aberdeen ;  Mr.  Alfred  Bell,  Bloomsbury  Street,  London ; 
Mr.  John  Backhouse,  York ;  Mr.  Henry  Coghill,  Liver- 
pool ;  Mr.  George  Henslow,  son  of  Professor  Henslow  • 


344  MR.  PRINGLE'S  LETTER.  CHAP.  xx. 

and  from  Mr.  Tarrison  of  the  Eegistrar-General's  Office, 
Melbourne.  The  principal  applications  made  to  him 
were  for  fossils  from  the  Old  Bed  Sandstone,  and  for 
specimens  of  the  Hierochloe  'borealis  which  Dick  had 
discovered  so  many  years  before  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  Thurso.  Mr.  Pringle  of  the  Farmer's  Gazette, 
Dublin,  in  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  a  specimen, 
addressed  Dick  in  the  following  letter : — 

"I  gave  the  specimens  of  the  Holy  Grass  to  Dr. 
Moore  of  the  Botanic  Gardens.  He  expressed  himself 
much  gratified  with  the  same,  and  stated  that  he  would 
like  to  correspond  with  you.  I  send  by  book-post  a 
copy  of  his  Notes  of  a  Botanical  Tour  in  Norway  and 
Sweden,  which  will  likely  interest  you.  I  must  repeat 
what  I  said  to  you — that  I  think  it  is  a  great  pity,  nay 
more,  a  shame,  that  a  man  of  your  abilities  and  research 
should  be  buried  alive,  as  you  are  and  have  been.  Why 
not  come  out  as  an  author  on  those  subjects  with  which 
you  are  so  conversant  ?  I  hope  yet  to  see  Robert  Dick's 
name  taking  its  proper  place  among  the  list  of  British 
scientific  men — far  above  the  names  of  some  who  oc- 
cupy a  large  share  of  public  attention,  but  whose  chief 
claim  to  notoriety  consists  in  an  unbounded  com- 
mand of  cheek,  and  of  a  still  more  unenviable  gift  of 
the  gab." 

But  it  was  too  late  for  Eobert  Dick  to  give  his 
thoughts  to  the  world  in  writing.  For  one  thing,  he 
was  too  modest.  He  was  about  the  last  person  to  wish 
to  see  his  name  in  print.  He  was  always  complaining 
of  the  smallness  of  his  knowledge,  even  about  subjects 


LAST  VERSES.  345 


that  lie  had  studied  the  most.  "  The  more  I  know,"  he 
said,  "the  more  I  feel  my  ignorance.  Knowledge 
seems  to  retreat  before  me."  He  often  quoted  the 
words  of  Athena's  wisest  son — "  The  most  I  know  is, 
nothing  can  be  known."  And  yet  he  said,  "  There  is  a 
satisfaction  in  getting  on  in  knowledge,  which  those 
only  can  imagine  who  have  risen  early  in  searching  for 
it." 

He  still  continued  to  write  verses,  probably  as  a 
relief  from  business  troubles.  Mr.  Peach  says  that  he 
wrote  verses  down  to  the  end  of  his  life.  The  following 
are  extracted  from  some  verses  written  in  1863,  when 
in  the  midst  of  his  sorrow  and  poverty.  The  verses 
commence,  "  0  waft  me,  o'er  the  deep  Hue  sea  I "  and  pro- 
ceed to  the  seventh  stanza,  which  thus  begins : — 

"  O  waft  me  o'er,  and  let  me  roam 

Her  untilled  plains,  her  fertile  soil, 
Where  weary  wanderers  find  a  home, 

And  live  by  honest,  manly  toil! 
By  manly  toil  they  rear  a  home — 

Nor  curst  with  want,  nor  crushed  by  care; 
Nor  grasping  greed,  nor  grinding  down, 

Nor  sad  and  weary  struggle  there. 

"  0  waft  me  o'er !  0  waft  me  o'er ! 

In  yon  fair  land  there's  peace  and  rest, 
And  toiling-room  for  thousands  more, 

With  blissful  Hope  to  soothe  the  breast. 
With  grief,  with  care,  by  sorrows  prest, 

Of  fruitless  toil,  my  heart  is  sick. 
O  endless  dreams,  in  horrors  drest, 

Of  cruel  want,  when  old  and  weak! 


346  THE  SLEEPLESS  MAN.  CHAP.  xx. 

"  O  waft  me  o'er !  O  waft  me  o'er ! 

Yon  ship  is  strong ;  the  sea  is  still ; 
Nor  care  I  though  a  tempest  roar, 

And  every  billow  rolls  a  hill ! 
Let  swelling  sea-waves  roar  their  fill, 

And  dash  till  crested  white  with  foam, 
"Tis  sweet  as  murmuring  mountain  rill, 

To  soothe  a  weary  spirit  Home." 

During  his  troubles  Dick  was  a  sleepless  man.  He 
wandered  up  and  down  the  little  town  at  night,  looking 
in  at  the  little  burying-ground  of  St.  Peter's,  where  the 
fathers  of  Thurso  lay  buried.  The  town  was  asleep. 
Not  a  footstep  was  to  be  heard,  save  those  of  the  sleep- 
less man  plodding  round  the  graveyard,  and  from  thence 
to  his  neighbouring  bakehouse  in  Wilson's  Lane.  Night 
was  always  a  time  of  thought  for  Dick.  "  It  is  so 
pleasant,"  he  says  in  one  of  his  letters,  "  getting  up  at 
nights  to  see  the  stars.  Last  night  was  beautiful,  and 
the  moon  was  a  great  pleasure.  It  is  impossible,  when 
looking  at  it,  to  prevent  oneself  falling  into  a  dream  of 
a  far  better  world  than  ours." 

"Do  you  know,"  he  said  to  his  brother-in-law, 
"  that  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  unseen  world  ?  Mil- 
lions of  spiritual  creatures  walk  the  earth  unseen,  both 
when  we  wake  and  when  we  sleep.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  they  exercise  a  watching  care  over  us,  and  often 
warn  us  of  coming  evil.  Since  my  sister  Jane  died,  I 
never  dreamt  of  this  but  once.  What  people  think 
often  about,  they  commonly  dream  of.  On  that  occa- 
sion, my  sister,  I  thought,  came  to  me,  clothed  from 
head  to  foot  with  roses  !  I  smiled  when  I  saw  her,  with 


THE  UNSEEN  WORLD. 


347 


pleasure,  and  awoke  with  the  reflection  that  my  sister, 
knowing  my  taste  for  flowers,  had  chosen  that  way  of 
expressing  her  happiness.  .  .  .  You  may  smile  at 
this,  and  set  it  down  as  Eobert's  silly  superstition ;  but 
of  one  thing  you  may  be  assured,  that  unseen  beings 
care  for  you,  and  that  nothing  can  happen  to  you  with- 
out the  permission  of  our  heavenly  Father." 


KUl.N.S   OF   ST.    PETERS,    THUl 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
DICK  RECOMMENCES  A  COLLECTION  OF  FOSSILS. 

"  I  AM  not  beat  yet!"  said  Dick.  "  I  have  resolution, 
will,  and  ability  to  work.  Let  me  try  again." 

His  flour  was  wrecked  on  the  9th  of  March.  A 
few  months  later  (May  18th),  we  find  him  by  the  sea- 
shore, about  six  miles  east  of  Thurso,  where  he  had  found 
his  last  fossil  fish.  He  had  to  a  certain  extent  got  rid 
of  his  rheumatism.  "  I  have  got  the  use  of  my  feet,"  he 
says,  "  and  am  blest  in  comparison.  It  was  terrible  to 
be  hampered  like  a  hen  with  a  string  round  its  leg. 

"  Though  I  did  not  discover  much,  yet  I  am  sur- 
prised that  I  found  so  much.  I  have  dug  out  of  the 
rocks  what  no  one  else  ever  got  out  of  them.  It  is 
cheerless,  cold  work.  Lonely  work  too.  But  no  good 
work  can  be  done  in  company." 

He  next  visited  a  hill  near  Thurso,  from  two  to  three 
hundred  feet  high,  where  at  one  spot  the  fossil  fish  lie 
by  the  score,  fish  over  fish,  packed  like  herrings  in  a 
barrel.  With  the  insight  of  the  poet,  he  saw  the 
sepulchres  of  the  past  beneath  his  feet. 

"  Tell  me,  thou  dust  beneath  my  feet, 

Thou  dust  that  once  had  breath, — 
Tell  me  how  many  mortals  meet 
In  this  small  hill  of  death. 


CHAP.  xxi.      THE  WORLD  A  GRAVEYARD.  349 

"  By  wafting  winds  and  flooding  rains, 

From  ocean,  earth,  and  sky, 

Collected  here,  the  frail  remains 

Of  slumbering  millions  lie. 

"  Like  me,  thou  elder-born  of  clay 

Enjoyed  the  cheerful  light ; 
Bore  the  brief  burden  of  a  day, 
And  went  to  rest  at  night."  * 

"  For  my  own  part,"  he  says,  "  I  would  never  have 
sought  after  these  fish,  did  not  a  feeling  of  wondrous 
astonishment  take  possession  of  me.  Every  time  I 
think  of  them,  I  can  scarcely  understand  how  they  are 
there."  And  again,  "  I  often  feel  very  much  puzzled 
about  those  dead  fish.  I  mean  as  to  whether  they  lived 
before  or  since  the  creation  and  fall  of  man.  Did 
Death  exist  before  man's  disobedience  ?  .  .  .  One  thing 
is  certain :  the  present  habitable  world  is  a  graveyard ! " 

The  fossil  fish  heretofore  discovered  had  for  the  most 
part  been  broken.  Bucklers,  scales,  bits  of  fish  of 
various  kinds,  had  been  found  fossilised,  and  from  these 
drawings  had  been  made;  but  parts  of  the  drawings 
were  guess-work.  Dick  determined  to  find,  if  he  could, 
an  entire  fossil  fish,  and  proceeded  to  make  many 
searches  for  it.  He  thus  picturesquely  describes  one  of 
his  journeys  for  this  purpose  : — 

"  On  Monday  I  made  a  large  day's  work  (that  is,  of 
bread  and  biscuit  making  and  baking),  intending  to  set 
out  early  on  Thursday  morning.  The  morning  was 
rainy,  but  by  eleven  o'clock  I  was  able  to  set  out  on 

*  Montgomery. 
16* 


350  A  PLATFORM  OF  DEATH.         CHAP.  xxi. 

my  two  hours'  walk  to  the  neighbouring  hill-top.  After 
a  brief  interval  I  cleared  off  the  rubbish,  and  began  to 
turn  up  dead  fish.  They  were  all  rotten.  Many 
thousands  had  died  and  been  buried  here  a  long  time 
ago.  The  mud  had  choked  them,  and  buried  up  their 


DISTANT  VIEW  OF   MORVEN   AND   MAIDEN   PAP. 

bodies,  fish  over  fish,  in  whole  myriads.  Thousands  of 
thousands  must  have  died  at  the  same  time.  '  This 
platform  of  death,'  as  Hugh  Miller  phrases  it,  extends 
for  many  miles. 

"  Standing  upright  and  looking  round,  I  can  see 
"VVeydale  some  miles  away;  and  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  the  beds  of  fish  on  this  hill  and  Weydale 


CHAP.  xxi.  A  DISTANT  VIEW.  351 

are  one  and  the  same.  It  is  true,  they  have  been  cut 
across,  and  the  rocks  have  been  disturbed  and  lifted  up 
— twisted,  broken,  bent,  and  what  not — in  a  thousand 
different  ways ;  and  yet  I  have  no  doubt  they  were  once 
continuous.  What  numbers !  I  turned  them  up,  rotten, 
by  twos  and  threes.  .  .  . 

"  I  stood  up  to  rest  me,  and  looked  around.  It 
was  a  beautiful  day.  The  sun  was  shining  brightly. 
Far  south  I  saw  Skerry  Ben  and  Morven.  Skerry  Ben 
had  hardly  any  snow  wreaths  on  it,  and  thin  vapour 
seemed  to  be  rolling  away  from  its  summit.  Looking 
over  all  the  intervening  space,  the  country  seemed  very 
bare.  Nothing  broke  the  uniformity  of  the  prospect 
until  the  eye  rested  on  the  Dorery  Hills,  and  these 
seemed  black  and  uninteresting. 

"  Seaward,  all  was  in  motion.  The  Orkney  hills  on 
the  north  were  capped  by  clouds,  which  rolled  along 
their  summits.  Not  very  far  west  frowned  a  dark 
precipice,  at  least  200  feet  high,  at  whose  base  the  sea 
waves  were  toiling  and  grinding. 

"  I  went  to  work  again, — raising  up  thin  layers  of 
rock,  and  turning  out  rotten  fish ;  but  nothing  of  any 
worth.  As  I  got  down  the  stone  got  firmer,  and  the 
fish  were  sounder.  But  where  was  my  dream  ?  I  had 
fancied  that  I  should  find  the  big  fossil.  I  knew  that 
part  of  it — indeed  two  parts  of  it — were  found  in  this 
neighbourhood;  and  I  thought  that  perhaps  I  might 
alight  on  a  whole  one.  But  no !  There  was  no  fossil 
for  me,  such  as  I  wanted ;  and  having  raised  up  a  stone 
with  three  tolerably  good  fishes  on  it,  I  thought  that  I 
had  better  wend  my  way  home." 


352  DEAD  FISH.  CHAP.  xxr. 

Disappointed  but  not  baffled,  Dick  continued  his 
researches.  "  On  Monday  morning,  after  my  work  was 
over,  I  walked  out  some  two  miles  to  a  quarry  by  the 
side  of  the  road,  where  I  knew  fish  bones  abounded. 
It  is  not  a  regular  quarry,  but  a  hole  out  of  which  stone 
for  road-metal  had  been  taken. 

" '  Imperious  Caesar,  dead  and  turned  to  clay, 
Might  stop  a  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away.' 

Who  knows  ?  One  thing  is  certain — it  is  so  with 
the  poor  fish.  Nearly  all  the  houses  in  Thurso  are 
built  of  dead  fish.  All  the  ploughed  fields  are  fields  of 
the  dead.  The  living  plants  feed  on  the  dead,  and  so  it 
is  everywhere.  Was  it  ever  otherwise  ?  Once  I  believed 
in  a  world  without  death — hideous  death.  .  But  it  is  a 
sad  thought  that  death  exists  over  all  creation.  Some, 
however,  say  that  death  is  necessary  and  a  blessing; 
because,  without  it,  there  could  be  no  progress.  Alas ! 
is  death  then  a  necessity  ? 

"I  went  to  the  quarry  by  the  road-side,  and  was 
grubbing  away  for  old  bones,  to  the  no  small  amusement 
of  the  passers-by.  No  doubt  they  thought  me  mad. 
Some  looked  curious  ;  some  looked  pitiful.  At  last  one 
of  them  came  and  planted  himself  opposite  me. 

"'Hae  ye  lost  onything  there?'  'No.'  'Then 
what  are  ye  seeking?'  'Auld  banes.'  'Auld  banes?1 
'  Ay,  auld  fish-banes.'  '  0,  there's  none  o'  them  there  : 
I'm  the  man  that  quarried  the  hole :  there's  nae  fish- 
banes  there.'  '  If  ye  like  to  believe  me,  gudeman,  the 
banes  are  abundant.'  'Na!'  'Oh  yes;  it's  an  auld 
bury  ing-ground.'  'Eh!'  '  Yes ;  look  at  that.' 


CHAP.  xxr.     ANCIENT  BURYING-GROUND.  353 


"  At  this  the  man  came  running  up  the  brae,  and  I 
handed  him  a  stone  all  covered  with  scales.  '  Eh !' 
said  he,  and  then  he  took  the  stone.  He  looked  at  it. 
'Weel,'  he  at  length  observed,  'that's  trash — nothing 
but  trash.'  '  It's  an  auld  burying-ground,  I  assure  ye/ 
said  I;  'it's  of  great  antiquity.'  He  threw  down  the 
stone  and  walked  away  solemnly.  I  have  no  doubt  he 
thought  me  crazy — perhaps  something  worse. 

"  I  got  so  many  heads,  jaws,  Coccosteus  bones,  and 
such  like,  that  I  nearly  killed  myself  in  carrying  home 
the  stones.  My  arms  are  still  sore,  and  my  breast  is 
sore.  For  all  that,  I  would  carry  as  heavy  a  load  to- 
morrow." 

A  few  days  later  he  says  : — 

"  I  have  again  been  to  the  limestone  quarry  on  the 
hill,  and  have  brought  thence  one  fossil  fish  and  some 
half-dozen  of  broken  bits  of  other  fossils,  and  only  one 
moss  from  the  waterfall. 

I  half  filled  my  hat  with  the  Fern  Blechnum,  boreale, 
or  Northern  Hard  Fern,  which  I  found  growing  in  beauty 
in  sheltered  spots. 

"  I  saw  tree  stumps  in  peat  banks,  molehills,  muir- 
fowl,  and  lapwings, — and  snow  wreaths  on  hill-sides 
and  around  lochs.  I  had  a  long,  long,  beautiful  walk. 

"  Hugh  Miller,  to  his  dying  day,  insisted  that  nothing 
organic  lived  in  the  north  of  Scotland  previous  to  the 
deposition  of  the  Old  Red  conglomerate.  The  Old  Bed  con- 
glomerate was  to  him  the  fossiliferous  base  in  the  north. 
He  knew  and  acknowledged  the  Silurians  of  the  south  of 
Scotland;  but  he  argued  that  Durness  limestone  was  of 


354  HUGH  MILLER'S  "  BASE."         CHAP,  xxi, 

Old  Eed  age.  Professor  Nicol  said  it  was  of  mountain  lime- 
stone. Sir  Roderick  Murchison  has  classed  it  Silurian. 

"  When  Hugh  Miller  was  in  Orkney  he  saw  the  Old 
Eed  conglomerate  at  Stromness,  and  followed  the  fos- 
siliferous  rocks  along  the  sea-shore  upwards,  until  he 
found  a  fossil  bone,  which  he  termed  the  "  Nail,"  and 
he  counted  how  many  feet  this  "nail"  was  above  the 
Old  Red  conglomerate.  He  considered  this  "  nail "  the 
oldest  bone  in  Scotland.  So  he  said.  He  knew  of  none 
older  at  that  time.  The  Durness  fossils  being  all  shells 
and  molluscous  animal  remains,  Hugh  probably  thought 
that  nothing  of  a  bony  nature  existed  in  Scotland  older 
than  his  Stromness  "  nail."  And  this  bone  was  a  fish 
remain,  many  hundred  feet  above  the  Old  conglomerate. 

"But  what  would  Hugh  have  thought  of  fish 
underlying  Old  Red  conglomerate?  Fish  remains  older 
than  conglomerate  ?  Alas,  poor  Hugh !  such  is  actually 
the  case.  The  other  day  I  turned  up  and  brought 
home  with  me  to  Thurso  the  remains  of  fish  that  had 
lain  buried  below  the  Old  Red  conglomerate !  But 
Hugh  had  seen  the  '  Base '  in  many  places,  and  pre- 
ferred retaining  the  old  opinion. 

"  I  believe  the  opinion  entertained  by  our  highest 
geologists  is,  that  there  is  Old  Red  conglomerate  of 
many  ages ;  whereas  Hugh  Miller  considered  it  as  of 
one  age — one  great  formation.  He  says  that  it  extends 
from  the  Grampians  to  Orkney,  and  from  Peterhead  to 
the  Western  Isles ;  that  it  lies  in  a  continuous  stratum 
of  variable  thickness;  and  that  no  fish  lived  then  in 
what  is  now  Scotland.  A  great  mistake ! 


STILL  FINDING  FOSSILS. 


"  I  have  found  pieces  of  clay  slate  in  the  Old  Red 
conglomerate;  that  is,  the  slate  was  in  existence  before 
the  other  was  formed. 

"  Those  fish  I  found  the  other  day  lived  before  the 
Old  Eed  conglomerate  was  wholly  made.  A  bed  with 
rolled  granite  ground  down  into  sandy  gravel  overlies  a 
bed  of  limestone,  and  the  limestone  deposit  overlies  a 
bed  of  limy  clay,  which  contains  the  fish  remains. 

"  It  is  a  beautiful  spot  where  the  dead  fish  he  buried. 
All  is  quiet  and  still.  No  sound  of  any  kind,  but  the 
wind  whistling  along  the  heather.  In  summer  time  the 
royal  eagle  comes  to  build  beside  the  waterfall,  and  to 
prey  upon  the  muirfowl.  Death's  doings  are  still 
about  us,  and  who  knows  how  long  it  is  since  they  first 
began?" 

A  few  days  later,  he  says  : — "  Some  time  ago,  one  of 
the  flagmen  showed  me  a  fossil  which  he  did  not  under- 
stand. It  was  a  fine  one,  and  only  your  humble  servant 
knew  what  it  was.  I  had,  twenty  years  ago,  furnished 
Hugh  Miller  with  such  a  fossil,  and  this  was  the  only 
instance  of  another  turning  up  anywhere.  This  was 
found  in  the  quarries.  I  sent  word  to  London,  and  Mr. 
John  Miller  bought  it.  It  gave  me  pleasure  to  find 
Hugh's  word  corroborated.  I  have  not  the  least  doubt 
that  the  entire  fish  will  some  day  turn  up,  and  then  it 
will  be  seen  who  was  speaking  truth." 

Dick  also  searched  the  rocks  at  Murkle  Bay,  where 
he  had  found  the  big  fossil  buckler.  One  day  he  dis- 
covered a  rather  large  bone  sticking  out  of  the  mass, 
He  went  at  it  with  his  hammer  and  chisel.  He  laboured 


356  AN  ENTIRE  FISH  WANTED.      CHAP.  xxr. 

for  nearly  four  hours,  and  then  he  left  it  to  return 
again  on  the  following  day.  To  get  it  out,  required 
several  weeks  of  hammering  and  chiseling.  He  had  to 
go  to  the  bottom  of  the  bone  to  get  it  out.  He  did  not 
mind  the  amount  of  labour  he  gave  to  a  fossil,  provided 
he  could  get  it  out  whole.  He  once  worked  at  a  parti- 
cular bone  for  six  months.  The  fossil,  on  this  occasion, 
was  a  prize.  It  measured  one  foot  two  inches  long,  by 
six  inches  across. 

"  At  the  same  time,"  he  said,  "  I  don't  neglect  my 
employment.  Whether  I  get  out  the  bone  or  not,  I 
always  make  sure  of  doing  my  day's  work  first.  I  never 
yet  trifled  a  moment  for  anything.  If  I  want  playing 
at  fossils,  I  merely  rob  myself  of  my  rest  and  sleep. 

"It  is  now  twenty  years  in  March  last  (his  letter 
was  dated  7th  September  1863)  since  I  found  a  bone  so 
large.  And  not  only  have  I  got  so  large  a  bone,  but 
what  is  a  step  in  advance,  something  new.  ...  I 
have  sawn  the  four  sides  of  the  stem,  and  also  taken 
four  inches  off  the  bottom  thickness.  It  is  now 
portable.  It  can  be  lifted.  Before,  it  could  not  be 
moved  without  taking  with  you  the  immense  rock  in 
which  it  was  imbedded. 

"  It  is  very  odd,  that  in  twenty  years  I  have  never 
found  an  entire  fish.  At  that  time  I  found  two  of  those 
fishes,  but  much  broken  up.  Hugh  Miller  was  satisfied 
that  they  were  the  same  as  he  figured  in  his  book. 
That  idea  is  doubted  now  by  some  London  men ;  and 
here  am  I  laughing  at  them  and  wishing  that  I  could 
find  another  fossil  fish.  Amen !  may  it  come  soon." 


CHAP.  xxi.    DIGGING  AMONGST  THE  ROCKS.          357 

Two  months  later  he  wrote  to  his  brother-in-law : — 

"  Perhaps  you  are  thinking  that  I  am  busy  with 
those  bones  on  the  rocks  here;  but  no!  the  last  bone 
nearly  killed  me  with  fatigue  and  cold.  Besides,  I  cut 
my  hands,  and  cut  my  little  finger.  Qf  all  the  labour  I 
ever  tried,  there  is  none  like  digging  on  the  sea-shore — 
crouching  down  on  one's  knees  in  a  hole,  bothered  with 
incoming  water,  and  hammering,  and  picking,  and 
sawing  all  the  while. 

"  I  have  got  another  curious  evidence  about  that  fish, 
which  Hugh  Miller  never  saw.  Perhaps  he  dreamt  of 
it.  Most  certainly  he  spoke  of  a  time  when  the  bone 
which  he  figured  would  yet  be  found. 

"  After  all,  there  will  be  no  satisfying  of  those  men's 
doubts,  until  a  whole  fossil  fish,  of  that  particular  kind, 
turns  up.  I  wish  I  was  the  lucky  finder  of  it ;  then  I 
would  laugh ! 

''Indeed,  I  don't  think  I  understand  the  fossil 
myself.  How  little  do  we  really  know ;  above  all,  how 
little  do  we  know  accurately !  No  entire  fish  has  turned 
up  yet;  only  broken  and  disjointed  pieces.  And  such 
pieces !  Bones  a  foot  and  four  inches  across.  No  one 
can  credit  it,  unless  he  sees  them.  Perhaps  I'll  yet 
turn  up  a  whole  fish!  .  .  .  Similar  bones  to  these 
two  bones  beside  me  no  human  eye  ever  looked  upon 
until  August  1863." 

Dick  continued  at  his  digging.  On  the  31st  October 
he  writes : — "  During  the  bypast  week  I  have  been 
unexpectedly  no  less  than  three  different  times  digging 
amongst  those  dead  fish  and  plants  in  the  rocks  on  the 


358  SEARCH  FOR  A  BONE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

shores  here.  I  had  no  intention  of  being  there  more 
than  once ;  but  once  at  it,  I  could  not  get  off  without 
suffering  a  great  deal.  ...  I  can  walk  for  miles 
upon  miles  over  these  dead  fish,  almost  without  drawing 
a  sigh !  Once  I  .felt  differently.  I  was  then  lost  in 
wonder  and  mute  astonishment.  Now 'it  is  quite  an 
everyday  affair.  If  I  think  at  all,  I  think  they  are 
part  of  the  still  existing  creation. 

"  Many  years  ago,  when  Hugh  Miller  was  alive  and 
in  his  glory,  I  had  seen  in  a  pool  of  water,  bound  fast 
in  the  rock,  a  bone.  It  was  a  broken  bone.  The  pool 
was  connected  with  three  other  pools  of  salt  water. 
To  get  at  the  bone  at  the  bottom  of  the  pool  it  was 
necessary  to  throw  out  the  water  from  all  the  pools.  I 
boggled  at  the  labour.  .  .  .  On  Monday  last  I  got 
up  at  midnight,  toiled  at  my  work,  and  was  off  by 
midday  to  the  sea-shore.  After  half  an  hour's  walking, 
I  arrived  at  the  place,  took  off  my  hat,  my  coat,  my 
neckcloth,  tucked  up  my  sleeves,  and  with  the  assist- 
ance of  a  flat  stone  I  threw  out  the  water.  This  took 
me  an  hour's  incessant  work. 

"Well,  I  cut  out  the  fossil  bone,  and  another  frag- 
ment of  bone.  Strange  to  tell,  under  that  bone  I 
found  indications  of  another  bone.  I  toiled  away  and 
cleared  off  the  stone — saw  that  the  bone  was  a  good 
bone,  and  hoped  that  it  was  something  new.  Beturned 
to  it  a  second  day;  cut  deep  round  the  bone;  got 
wearied  out;  tried  to  force  it  up,  and  broke  my  pick 
handle. 

"  I  returned  to  it  two  days  after,  and  spent  about  an 


CHAP.  xxi.          DIGGING  IN  DECEMBER.  85'J 

hour  in  throwing  out  the  salt  water.  I  was  awfully 
tired.  I  had  to  go  down  upon  my  knees  on  the  hard 
stone,  and  was  bothered  with  the  salt  water,  and  the 
wind  and  rain  too.  Well,  I  dug,  and  dug,  and  dug,  and 
at  last  the  stone  and  the  bone  rose  up  of  themselves. 
I  could  hardly  convey  them  home.  I  was  tired  and 
sore ;  but  I  am  as  well  as  ever  again." 

He  still  went  on  digging  among  the  rocks  as  late  as 
the  month  of  December.  "  The  weather,"  he  says,  "  has 
been  very  stormy  and  wet.  I  have  been  fretting  rather 
impatiently.  I  had  settled  it  in  my  mind  to  go  out  and 
get  a  fossil  out  of  the  rocks  in  order  to  vindicate  the 
truth  told  by  Hugh  Miller,  or  rather,  my  own  truth ; 
for  it  was  from  me  that  Hugh  got  his  fossils.  It  is  true 
that  I  did  not  name  them.  Hugh  Miller  did.  He 
called  this  fossil  Asterolepis,  a  fish  intermediate  between 
Glyptolepis  and  Holoptychius. 

"  Since  Hugh  died,  some  cantankerous  people  have 
printed  and  made  known  that  the  scales  figured  by 
Hugh  belonged  to  Glyptolepis,  and  the  head  bones 
belonged  to  Coccosteus — thus  plainly  intimating  that 
Hugh  had  blundered,  or  that  I  had  misled  him ;  not 
knowing  that  in  so  doing  they  proclaimed  their  own 
ignorance, — that  the  head,  bones,  scales,  and  fin-rays 
were  found  together — stuck  together  ;  and  thus  proving 
indisputably  that  they  belonged  to  one  fish.  It  is 
amazing  what  ignorance  these  London  men  exhibit. 
They  get  their  views  from  books.  They  should  study 
nature  on  the  spot.  They  did  not  know  that  Hugh 
came  to  Thurso  and  examined  and  saw  the  fossils  in 


360  ORDER  OF  CREA  TION. 


their  beds  for  himself.  He  saw  one  of  those  fish  lying 
in  a  rocky  ledge,  but  boggled  at  the  toil  necessary  to 
raise  it  up.  However,  after  he  went  to  Edinburgh  he 
wrote  to  me  and  asked  me  to  raise  it  up,  which  I  did ; 
and  he  tells  it  in  his  Book.  And  yet  ignorance  says 
that  Hugh's  scales  belonged  to  one  fish,  and  the  head 
bones  to  another ! 

"  Four  days  ago  I  read  in  an  Edinburgh  paper  a 
paragraph  in  which  it  was  said  that  a  Mr.  Salter  had 
been  lecturing  'on  the  Order  of  Creation.'  Towards 
the  close  of  the  paragraph  Mr.  Salter  is  represented  as 
saying :  '  Notwithstanding  what  had  been  said  by  the 
lamented  Hugh  Miller,  no  true  evidence  of  the  existence 
of  a  fish,  or  any  vertebrate  animal,  was  to  be  found  in 
rocks  below  the  level  of  the  Old  Eed  Sandstone.'  Now, 
this  was  not  fair.  All  that  Hugh  said  was  on  the 
authority  of  those  who  said  they  knew.  The  bones  I 
found  in  August  vindicate  the  truth  as  stated  by  Hugh, 
and  also  the  bones  I  found  in  October.  I  sent  Sir 
Roderick,  in  May  1863,  one  of  the  same  bones  with  the 
same  kind  .of  scale  sticking  on  it.  I  sent  him  also  two 
jaws,  with  many  scales  sticking  on  them." 

A  few  days  later  he  says  : — "  I  am  not  satisfied 
with  that  paragraph  in  the  Edinburgh  paper.  It  surely 
could  not  be  Mr.  Salter  that  inserted  it.  No  one  is 
better  acquainted  with  geological  matters  than  he  is. 
Sir  Roderick's  right-hand  man !  What  am  I  to  think  ? 
Has  Agassiz  been  imposed  upon  ?  Has  Sir  Eoderick 
published  a  dream  ?  '  No  true  evidence  of  a  fish  or  any 
vertebrate  animal  in  rocks  at  a  lower  level  than  the  Old 


CHAP.  xxi.         WORKING  AMONGST  ICE.  361 

Red  Sandstone!'  Has  some  reporter  erred?  Or  is 
there  an  error  in  the  classification  of  the  rocks  ?  There's 
the  point. 

"  Well,  in  vain  did  poor  Hugh  toil,  and  believe  in 
many  creations.  How  sad  to  think  that  he  ruined  his 
health  for  a  shadow.  And  yet,  three  thousand  years 
ago,  all  was  said  to  be  Vanity. 

"  I  am  anxious  for  a  trial  for  a  fossil  fish  to  elucidate 
the  point  called  in  question ;  but  I  am  not  sheep  enough 
to  strike  a  single  blow  in  wind  and  rain.  And  yet  I 
am  very  anxious  to  get  out  at  the  rocks.  I  shall  have 
to  carry  a  weighty  hammer  and  wedges,  and  to  work 
hard  besides." 

So  soon  as  the  storm  abated,  Dick  resumed  •  his 
researches  among  the  rocks.  He  went  out  with 
"  hammers  and  chisels  and  a'."  He  began  on  the  4th 
of  January  1864.  It  was  hard  frost.  The  rocky  ledges 
were  covered  with  thick  ice,  while  long  ice-pillars  hung 
from  every  cliff.  The  sea  was  hushed  and  smooth,  its 
ripples  quietly  laving  the  shore.  Dick  worked  for  three 
hours  at  the  place  where  he  had  settled  down,  but  he 
got  nothing  important — only  three  fish  snouts,  some  half- 
heads  of  fish,  jugular  plates,  gill  covers,  and  fish  scales  in 
any  quantity.  All  these  he  had  known  twenty  years 
before. 

Two  days  after  he  returned  to  the  rocks.  It  was 
still  hard  frost.  He  found  nothing  new,  only  fish  jaws, 
a  half-head,  and  scales  innumerable.  He  returned  on 
the  12th  and  14th  of  January,  changing  his  ground 
from  time  to  time ;  but  the  results  were  the  same.  He 


362  STILL  SEARCHING.  CHAP.  xxi. 

found  the  smiddy  hammer  very  heavy,  especially  after 
working  with  it  for  some  hours.  But  still  he  went  on. 

On  the  20th  of  January  he  made  his  fifth  trial.  He 
was  on  the  rocks  before  daylight.  It  was  still  hard 
frost.  "  I  had  chosen,"  he  says,  "  new  ground.  I  had 
great  expectations.  The  tide  was  ebbing  fast;  and 
thundering,  great,  long,  high  rolling  breakers,  were  dash- 
ing themselves  on  the  rocks.  And  then  what  foam  !  I 
was  obliged  to  wait  until  the  sea  had  gone  down.  In 
the  meantime  I  tried  a  new  place.  I  raised  three  large 
lumps  of  rock.  I  split  them,  and  found  three  rusty, 
ugly  heads  of  Dipterus  and  scales.  Nothing  new. 
Then  I  went  back  to  the  real  place. 

"  When  I  got  there,  I  laid  down  my  weights  and 
reconnoitred.  Alas !  I  saw  no  hope.  The  ledges  were 
rotten.  I  worked  until  one  o'clock  at  midday,  and  got 
only  scales,  two  rotten  heads,  a  bit  of  plant,  and  a  bit 
of  bone.  On  my  way  home  I  tried  another  and  a  very 
hard  spot.  I  worked  there  until  two  o'clock,  but  found 
only  scales,  fin-rays,  and  gill-covers.  I  was  now 
chagrined,  tired,  and  hungry!  So  I  returned  home, 
weary  and  heavy  laden."  Next  morning  he  was  up  at 
four,  working  at  his  trade. 

In  this  way  did  Dick  go  on,  trying  to  perfect  the 
knowledge  with  which  he  was  already  partially 
acquainted,  and  also  trying  to  acquire  new  knowledge 
by  his  persevering  labour  among  the  rocks,  with  hammer, 
and  pick,  and  chisels,  from  day  to  day.  He  thus 
gradually  accumulated  a  new  store  of  fossils.  The 
Asterolepis  which  he  discovered,  and  which  afterwards 


CHAP.  xxi.        ARRANGEMENT  OF  ROCKS,  363 

became  the  property  of  Mr.  John  Miller,  F.G.S.,  was 
the  finest  that  was  ever  found  * 

Dick  continued  to  read  the  papers  on  geology  which 
appeared  in  the  newspapers,  and  particularly  in  the 
Athenceum.  He  could  no  longer  afford  to  huy  books, 
but  he  was  not  a  man  to  believe  passively  in  the  views 
of  others,  especially  when  they  seemed  to  be  contrary 
to  his  own  observation  of  facts.  He  had  a  keen  eye, 
and  believed  what  he  saw  rather  than  what  he  read. 
He  had  many  a  hard  fight  with  Peach  and  Mr.  Miller 
of  London,  as  to  the  order  of  creation. 

"  There  has  been  no  new  arrangement,"  he  says,  "  of 
the  rocks  in  which  the  fossil  fish  have  been  found.  Sir 
Eoderick  has  figured  the  new  fish  as  Silurian  fossils,  -and 
the  Silurian  rocks  are  older  than  Old  Eed  Sandstone; 
that  is,  they  exist  at  a  lower  level.  ...  It  is  true  that, 
after  the  Durness  discoveries,  Hugh  Miller  for  a  time 
resisted  the  views  of  Sir  Eoderick  as  to  a  new  classi- 
fication of  the  rocks  of  the  north-west  of  Scotland. 
Hugh  could  not  bear  the  idea  of  his  favourite  Old  Eed 
giving  way  to  the  Cambrian — a  deposit  older  even  than 
the  lower  Silurian. 

"  For  my  own  part,  I  care  not  much  what  name  or 
names  geologists  may  give  to  the  various  rocks,  or  the 
time  that  was  occupied  in  the  accumulation  of  their 
respective  strata.  They  were,  doubtless,  made  in  suc- 
cession, after  longer  or  shorter  intervals  of  time.  About 
eleven  miles  from  Thurso  there  is  a  small  precipice 
which  clearly  illustrates  the  subject.  Standing  in  front 
*  We  state  this  fact  on  the  authority  of  Dr.  Traquair. 


364          ROLLED  PEBBLES  ON  MORVEN.    CHAP.  xxi. 

of  it,  I  can  see  with  my  eyes  and  handle  with  my  hands 
the  successive  strata  of  which  it  was  originally  com- 
posed. First,  close  at  my  feet,  is  a  bed  of  rolled  pebbles. 
That  is  the  lowest  exposed  formation.  Next,  over  that, 
is  a  bed  of  limestone.  Then  a  bed  of  the  ordinary 
Caithness  flagstone;  and  over  that  a  bed  of  boulder 
clay. 

"  Now,  on  looking  attentively  at  the  rolled  pebbles, 
I  find  that  they  are  similar  to  the  rock  on  which  they 
rest.  Consequently  the  hills  hereabout  were  as  much 
stone  as  they  are  now  before  the  pebbles  were  rolled. 
Next,  we  can  see  that  these  pebbles  were  rolling  about 
in  the  lime,  for  they  are  crusted  with  lime  just  as  almond 
sweetmeats  are  with  sugar.  Consequently  the  lime- 
stone was  once  soft  and  loose,  and  the  pebbles  had  sunk 
amongst  the  lime,  which  now  lies  above  them.  Then  a 
soft  muddy  clay  was  brought  by  water,  and  laid  above 
the  lime.  The  whole  was  hardened  into  stone.  Was  it 
beneath  or  above  the  water  ?  That  is  a  question ;  but 
stone  it  became. 

"And  then  another  change  occurred.  Some  great 
power  came  into  action,  breaking  up  the  rocks,  and 
making  clay  out  of  them,  in  some  places  a  hundred  feet 
thick.  We  know  that  the  clay  had  become  stone,  foi 
we  often  find  great  lumps  of  stone  amongst  the  boulder 
clay,  which  forms  the  surface  soil  of  the  county." 

There  was  another  thing  that  excited  Dick's  observa- 
tion. When  at  the  top  of  Morven,  2331  feet  above  the 
sea,  he  was  much  struck  by  the  bed  of  rolled  pebbles  that 
graces  its  top  and  north  front.  "How  long  had  they 


-HAP.  XXT.         CLIFFS  OF  STONY  CLA  YS.  365 

been  there  ?  How  high  the  sea  must  once  have  stood 
if  they  were  rolled  up  by  it  yonder!  Otherwise,  the 
hill  must  have  got  a  great  lift  since  it  was  at  sea- 
level!" 

All  these  things  surprised  and  astonished  Dick.  He 
pondered  them  over  in  his  mind.  They  spoke  of  a  long- 
past  era,  when  the  sea  had  washed  its  billows  over 
Caithness,  and  tossed  about  the  rocks  as  if  they  were 
playthings.  Morven  had  been  submerged,  or  its  summit 
had  formed  but  a  little  island,  along  which  the  sea  had 
laid  down  its  bed  of  rolled  pebbles. 

"  I  have  examined  attentively,"  he  said,  "  the  cliffs  of 
stony  clays  along  the  valley  in  which  the  river  Thurso 
runs.  They  are  so  stern-looking,  so  bare,  so  densely 
compacted,  that  a  man  working  with  pick  and  shovel 
could  make  but  small  progress  there.  Indeed,  they  are 
almost  as  hard  as  solid  rock.  Hence  it  is  that  fossil 
shells  still  exist  undecayed  in  those  clays.  They  are 
perfectly  impervious.  No  moisture  penetrates  them. 
No  decay  goes  on.  And  then  every  stone,  and  piece  of 
stone,  is  all  grooved  and  scratched,  and  furrowed  and 
polished,  in  a  way  that  running  water  alone  could  never 
have  done.  No  tossing  of  waves,  though  ever  so  violent, 
could  do  it.  No !  If  ice  and  icebergs  did  not  do  it,  what 
did  ?  None  can  tell.  One  thing  is  certain,  that  those 
clays  are  formed  out  of  the  rocks  on  which  they  lie. 
And  many  pieces  of  rocks  are  found  among  them  that 
have  travelled  far, — rocks  from  as  far  as  Skye ! " 

A  lecture  having  been  delivered  at  Haddington  on 
geology  by  Mr.  Finlayson,  a  copy  of  the  newspaper  con- 


866  METAMORPHIC  ROCKS.          CHAP.  xxi. 

taining  the  report  was  sent  to  Dick,  on  which  he  made 
the  following  observations : — 

"  I  fear  that  he  does  not  hit  the  assertors  of  '  the 
development  hypothesis '  so  very  hard  as  he  imagines. 
He  must  know  that  no  geologist  says  or  imagines  that 
all  the  metamorphic  rocks  *  were  so  formed  at  one  and 
the  same  period  of  time.  Though  life  may  be  oblite- 
rated over  wide  areas, — when  the  fiery  tempest  was  over 
in  one  sea  or  part  of  a  sea,  the  organisms  would  again 
find  their  way  back  to  their  old  abodes.  The  meta- 
morphic rocks  are  of  many  ages ;  and  no  one  can  say 
that,  though  the  mud  was  changed  and  became  siliceous, 
the  overlying  water  was  unfit  to  support  life.  It  was 
the  dead  they  are  supposed  to  have  obliterated;  the 
living  might  have  lived  on,  either  in  that  locality  or  in 
some  other. 

"  Hugh  Miller  tells  us  of  a  ship-captain  who  sailed 
for  days  through  a  shoal  of  dead  floating  haddocks ;  but 
haddocks  are  still  caught  and  sold.  Hugh  Miller  was 
a  splendid  writer,  but  he  was  so  highly  imaginative  as 
to  be  rather  unsafe  to  rely  upon.  Besides,  one  soon  gets 
tired  of  all  geological  reasoning.  There  is  nothing  on 
which  the  mind  of  the  reader  can  lay  hold  upon  and 
rest.  'What  is  truth?'  is  an  old  question;  but  no 
man  in  his  senses  would  seek  for  it  in  the  books  of 


"  Metamorphic  action  has  arisen  from  many  produc- 

*  Metamorphic,  literally  changed  in  form  ;  applied  to  rocks  and  rock 
formations  which  seem  changed  from  their  original  condition  by  some 
external  or  interna1  agency.  — PAGE'S  Handbook  of  Geology. 


CHAP.  xxi.       CHANGES  OF  SUBSTANCE.  367 

ing  causes.  There  have  been  changes  from  the  action  of 
heat,  and  changes  without  heat.  To  understand  changes 
from  the  effects  of  heat,  I  suppose  we  must  go  to  Ice- 
land. To  understand  changes  without  heat,  we  have 
only  to  look  around  us. 

"  Last  summer,  I  went  one  evening  down  to  Murkle 
Bay.  At  one  corner  of  the  shore,  at  the  west  side  of  the 
bay,  was  a  pile  of  sand.  It  had  been  accumulated,  and 
lay  on  the  land  in  a  mass,  blown  up  gradually  in  old 
times — no  one  knows  how  old.  The  sand  was  mixed 
with  broken  shells  and  small  pebbles.  Water  had  been 
finding  its  way  through  and  amongst  the  sand.  The 
shells  had  partly  decayed.  The  lime  [of  the  shells]  had 
set,  and  bound  the  sand  and  pebbles,  in  some  places, 
into  a  solid  mass.  In  fact,  it  had  became  a  stone — a 
rock.  It  required  a  smart  blow  of  a  hammer  to  break 
it.  And  in  much  the  same  way  many  a  deposit  of  sand 
has  thus  become  sandstone  or  freestone. 

"  Some  years  ago,  I  saw  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Robert 
Chambers  of  Edinburgh  a  piece  of  siliceous  quartzite. 
It  had  been  taken  from  one  of  the  metamorphic  hills  of 
Sutherland.  It  had  evidently  at  one  time  been  a  mass 
of  loose  sand.  In  fact,  it  still  resembled  sandstone 
more  than  typical  quartz.  How  it  became  a  mass  of 
flinty  stone  I  know  not;  but  evidently  not  from  the 
effects  of  heat. 

"  Some  years  ago  there  was  a  great  talk  of  liquid 
silica,  or  liquid  flint — flint,  in  fact,  as  thin  as  water. 
Many  public  buildings,  it  was  said,  had  been  built  of  a 
material  so  loose  that  under  weather  influences  they  were 


«C8  FLINT  FOSSILS. 


falling  to  pieces.*  It  was  proposed  to  wash  their  fronts 
with  this  siliceous  white  wash,  and  thus  preserve  them  from 
further  decay.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  a  fact  that  they 
can  render  the  softest  stone,  even  soft  sand,  as  hard  as 
flint.  They  do,  in  fact,  manufacture  stones.  There  is 
actually  such  a  thing  as  liquid  flint.  Man  makes  it, 
and  nature  makes  it.  Now,  you  have  only  to  suppose 
an  irruption  of  liquid  flint  into  soft  strata,  and  very 
soon  after  the  rock  becomes  metamorphic. 

"  I  saw,  with  Mr.  Peach  of  Wick,  many  of  his  Dur- 
ness  Silurian  fossils — both  from  the  limestone  and 
quartzite.  Hugh  Miller  knew  of  fossils  in  quartzite, 
found  to  the  west  of  Thurso,  such  as  Worm  Holm.  The 
hard  metamorphic  quartzite  had  once  been  loose  sand, 
and  under  the  action  of  the  weather  had  become  sand 
again. 

"Many  of  Mr.  Peach's  limestone  fossils  were  of 
flint.  Indeed,  all  that  I  saw  were  flint  casts.  The  shell 
had  decayed ;  silica  had  gradually  filled  up  the  place  of 
the  shell ;  and  you  saw  a  form  like  it.  Others  were 
interior  casts.  But'  the  limestone  was  not  equally  hard. 
Now  these  were  from  metamorphic  rocks — rocks  changed 
without  fire,  or  any  heat. 

"No  doubt  there  have  been  outbursts  of  fiery  or 
molten  matter.  The  gneiss,  or  metamorphic  rocks,  to  the 
south  of  Caithness  have  all  veins  of  quartz  and  veins 
of  red  granite.  These  veins  are  thought  to  have  been 
molten  or  hot,  and  injected  into  them.  Of  course,  their 
action  was  to  change  the  nature  of  the  rocks  into  which 
*  The  Houses  of  Parliament  form  an  instance. 


CHAP.  xxr.     DESTRUCTIONS  AND  CREATIONS.       369 

the  veins  of  molten  matter  were  driven.  But  how,  no 
one  can  tell.  There  is  a  slow  metamorphic  action,  as 
well  as  a  rapid  one. 

"Yet  no  one  has  any  reason  to  think  that  such  a 
thing  as  a  universally  destructive  action  ever  occurred 
since  life  began.  There  might  be  death  from  irruptive 
forces  in  the  sea  at  Norway  or  Iceland,  yet  none  at 
Caithness  or  Leith.  No  one  supposes  that,  though  all 
fossils  may  have  been  obliterated  in  metamorphic  strata, 
all  life  was  destroyed  at  the  same  time  in  the  over- 
lying waters. 

"Agassiz  and  Hugh  Miller  believed  in  many  de- 
structions of  life,  and  in  many  new  creations.  But 
Hugh,  before  he  died,  knew  that  it  was  not  so.  In  his 
Testimony  of  the  Hocks,  he  traced  existing  forms 
backwards,  through  all  the  various  deposits,  and  found 
no  break  until  he  came  to  the  Chalk.  '  If  even  then, 
he  said.  By  the  expression  '  If  even  then,'  he  referred 
to  the  microscopic  animals  of  the  chalk, — found  to  be  still 
alive  in  the  North  Sea,  and  in  the  seas  between  America 
and  Britain. 

"  In  dredging  for  a  platform  for  the  submarine  cable, 
microscopic  shells,  with  flesh  on  them,  were  brought 
up  from  a  depth  of  a  mile  and  a  half.  Ehrenberg, 
Humboldt,  and  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison  have  said,  that 
those  shells  brought  up  from  the  deep  sea  bottom  are 
the  same  animal  as  those  found  entombed  in  chalk 
hills  in  millions. 

"  All  metamorphic  rocks  are  not  of  the  same  age ; 
neither  are  all  Silurian.  Neither  are  Old  Eed  Sandstone, 


370  DICK'S  LETTERS.  CHAP.  xxi. 

Coal,  or  any  other  of  the  great  deposits.  life,  in  my 
opinion,  was  never  wholly  obliterated  since  it  first  began. 
Some  creatures  have  died  out ;  but  there  are  no  proofs  of 
any  new  creation." 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  the  letters  in  which 
these  observations  occur,  were  written  without  the 
slightest  idea  of  their  ever  coming  under  the  notice  of 
the  public.  They  were  mostly  written  for  the  information 
and  amusement  of  his  sister  and  his  brother-in-law  at 
Haddington.  He  required  of  his  eldest  sister,  that  his 
letters  to  her  should  be  burnt  as  soon  as  read.  They 
were  therefore  destroyed.  Fortunately,  the  letters  to 
his  youngest  sister  have  been  preserved.  They  have 
furnished  us  with  some  of  the  best  descriptions  of  the 
scenery  of  Caithness.  They  have  described  much  of 
Dick's  scientific  investigations,  and  also  some  of  his 
domestic  history. 


CHAPTER 

DICICS  FRIENDS— FOSSILISING  AND 
MOSS-HUNTING. 

THE  Thurso  people  surrounded  Dick  with  a  considerable 
degree  of  mystery.  But  the  mystery  was  very  much  of 
their  own  making.  They  could  not  understand  what 
"  the  man  "  was  about.  What  could  he  mean  by  walk- 
ing to  Morven  and  Dorery,  and  bringing  home  only  a  few 
tufts  of  moss  ?  What  could  be  the  reason  of  his  digging 
with  a  pickaxe  in  old  quarries,  or  pounding  on  the  rocks 
by  the  sea-shore  with  a  smiddy  forehammer  ?  Ordinary 
people  were  grinding  away  for  a  living,  working  hard  at 
flagstones,  or  competing  with  each  other  for  increased 
trade,  whereas  the  half-daft  baker  was  wandering  about 
Caithness  in  his  by-hours,  gathering  stones,  ferns,  and 
grasses.  The  whole  thing  was  a  mystery ! 

The  boys  no  longer  dogged  him  about,  as  if  he  had 
been  the  local  idiot  of  the  place.  They  rather  kept  out 
of  his  way ;  for  people  spoke  of  him  as  "  uncanny,"  and 
"a  wee  thocht  wrang."  When  he  came  down  the 
middle  of  the  street,  on  his  way  home  from  Dun  net 
Head  or  Banniskirk,  they  merely  stood  to  one  side,  and 
looked  after  him  until  he  turned  down  Wilson's  Lane. 
He  was  often  bedrabbled  about  his  feet  and  trousers 


372  DICK  MISUNDERSTOOD.         CHAP.  xxn. 

He  had  been  out  since  one  o'clock  in  the  morning ;  but 
his  long  walk  did  not  seem  to  have  tired  him,  as  he  went 
on  his  way  down  the  street  in  his  long  swinging  walk. 

He  still  dressed  himself  in  his  antediluvian  garments 
He  still  wore  his  swallow-tailed  coat  and  his  chimney- 
pot hat.  He  could  not  afford  much  money  for  clothing 
The  only  things  he  renewed  from  time  to  time  were  his 
trousers  and  his  hob-nailed  boots.  Dress  was  very  little 
to  him.  And  yet  he  was  a  handsome  man  too,  though 
he  never  thought  of  that.  Dr.  Shearer  says  his  appear- 
ance reminded  him  of  another  of  nature's  enthusiasts — 
Mungo  Park.  He  had  the  same  compact  round  head 
and  face,  with  "ambrosial  clusters"  curled;  and  the 
same  genial,  unaffected,  and,  to  the  last,  remarkably 
juvenile  expression. 

If  the  Thurso  people  did  not  understand  Dick's  outer 
man,  they  still  less  understood  his  inner  man.  What 
was  he  ?  What  occupied  his  thoughts  ?  What  was  his 
belief?  What  was  his  religion?  That  was  a  great 
point  in  a  Scotch  town,  where  everybody  knows  every- 
body ;  and  where  men  are  judged  very  much  according 
to  the  kirk  that  they  attend.  The  opinions  entertained 
about  Dick  on  the  latter  subject  were  very  unfavourable. 
Perhaps  they  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  falling- 
off  in  his  business. 

Many  a  petty  inquisition  was  held  about  Dick  in 
Thurso.  What  did  he  think  about  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  ?  What  did  he  think  about  the  Flood  ?  Was 
he  "  soond  "  in  his  scriptural  views  ?  Like  wiser  men, 
he  held  his  tongue.  And,  after  all,  why  should  thej 


CHAP.  xxir.          HIS  INNER  THINKINGS.  373 

know  anything  of  his  inner  thinkings  ?  Why  this  per- 
petual inquisitioning  into  the  things  that  thoughtful 
and  conscientious  men  think  and  believe  ?  "  Wait  till 
you  are  of  my  age,  and  wearing  spectacles,  and  then  I 
will  talk  to  you,"  was  his  answer  to  an  inquiring  young 
friend.  He  might  have  added — "Wait  till  you  have 
acquired  wisdom  and  experience ;  wait  till  you  have 
laboured  and  searched  as  I  have  done,  and  waited 
patiently  for  more  light ;  and  then  we  will  talk  about 
the  mysteries  of  the  by-past  world." 

After  all,  what  do  we  really  know  ?  It  is  but  a  mere 
speck  in  the  infinite  of  knowledge.  "  No  man  can  find 
out  the  work  that  God  made  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end."  To  use  the  words  of  Dr.  Parker — "  We  live  as  in 
a  twilight  of  knowledge,  charged  with  revelations  of 
order  and  beauty.  We  stedfastly  look  for  a  perfect 
light,  which  shall  reveal  perfect  order  and  perfect 
beauty."* 

But  whatever  the  Thurso  people  might  think  about 
Dick's  religious  belief,  there  could  be  no  doubt  as  to  his 
character.  He  was  a  kindly,  cordial,  honest,  high-prin- 
cipled man.  Everybody  acknowledged  that.  They 
might  call  him  what  names  they  pleased,  but  they 
could  not  fail  to  recognise  the  dignity  and  purity  of  his 
mind.  He  did  his  duty  honestly  by  all  men.  Hence  he 
enjoyed  the  friendship  of  some  of  the  best  men  in  the 
place.  The  young  students  almost  worshipped  him. 
He  was  constantly  referred  to  as  an  authority  on  scien- 
tific subjects;  and  no  one  could  be  more  kind  and 

*  Morphology  of  the  Skull,  p.  363. 
17* 


374  HIS  THOROUGHNESS.  CHAP,  xxit 

obliging  when  consulted,  or  more  lavish  in  communi- 
cating the  results  of  his  careful  observation  and  gar- 
nered thought  of  so  many  studious  years. 

Men  who  did  not  know  him,  thought  him  to  be  a 
morose  man — strange,  abstracted,  and  rather  unsociable. 
But  those  who  did  know  him,  and  were  admitted  to  the 
sanctum  of  his  bakehouse,  found  him  the  very  reverse. 
There  he  was  kindly,  sociable,  humorous,  full  of  infor- 
mation, sometimes  full  of  fancy,  and  always  ready  to 
communicate  everything  that  he  knew  about  the  fossil- 
bearing  strata,  the  botany,  and  the  natural  history  of 
Caithness. 

"  On  one  occasion,"  says  Dr.  Shearer,  "  a  point  was 
raised  and  settled  rather  dubiously  on  Mr.  Dick's  own 
ipse  dixit.  Without  giving  us  any  reason  to  suppose 
that  he  suspected  any  incredulity,  he  made  his  appear- 
ance at  my  father's  house  in  his  baker's  dress  within  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  afterwards,  bringing  with  him  an 
armful  of  books,  from  which  he  proceeded  to  quote  in 
rapid  succession,  and  then  went  away,  leaving  us 
amazed  at  his  zeal  and  thoroughness.  For  it  was  one  of 
his  peculiarities — as  it  is  with  most  enthusiasts — to 
believe  that  every  person  must  be  as  deeply  interested  in 
his  subject  as  he  was  himself." 

It  was  not  often,  however,  that  Dick  went  into  any 
person's  house  in  Thurso.  He  declined  invitations  to 
breakfast  with  Sir  George  Sinclair,  when  he  had  dis- 
tinguished men  with  him;  and  he  declined  all  other 
invitations.  When  a  public  breakfast  was  given  in 
honour  of  Hugh  Miller,  during  one  of  his  short  visits  tc 


CHAP.  xxn.     DICK'S  ONLY  EXTRAVAGANCE.  375 

Thurso,  Dick  did  not  make  his  appearance.  On  that 
occasion  it  was  suggested  that  a  geological  museum 
should  be  established  in  Thurso,  and  Dick,  though 
absent,  was  suggested  as  the  only  person  likely  to  obtain 
and  to  classify  the  specimens.  But  Dick  was  unwilling, 
— perhaps  he  had  not  the  time  necessary  to  undertake 
the  work ;  and  he  declined  the  offer. 

As  he  did  not  accept  the  entertainments  of  others, 
neither  did  he  entertain  others  in  his  own  house.  The 
only  exception  was  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Peach.  The  fol- 
lowing extract  is  from  Mr.  Peach's  diary  : — "  Rose  at  5 
A.M.  After  disposing  of  many  matters,  I  went  to  see 
Dick.  What  pleasure  it  is  to  meet  him !  This  day, 
for  the  first  time,  I  ate  and  drank  with  him.  I  asked 
him  for  a  cup  of  tea.  '  By  all  means,'  he  said.  I  was 
much  amazed  with  him  and  his  housekeeper,  Annie 
Mackay.  There  was  no  cloth  on  the  table.  The  poor 
body  was  sadly  put  about.  Dick,  manlike,  laughed  at 
her  dismay.  This  is  the  first  time  that  I  partook  of 
food  with  him.  He  would  often  have  asked  me.  He 
was  dashed,  because  the  first  time  I  saw  him  he  asked 
me  to  take  wine;  and  because  I  refused  (being  a 
teetotaller),  he  thought  I  was  above  eating  and  drinking 
with  him.  He  was  much  mistaken.  He  did  not  then 
know  me." 

Throughout  his  life,  Dick  was  careful  and  abstemious. 
He  lived  frugally,  spending  very  little  upon  himself. 
His  only  extravagance  if  such  it  can  be  called,  was 
books.  These  he  would  have  of  the  best  editions,  beauti- 
fully bound.  His  brother-in-law  once  offered  to 


376  DICK'S  COMPANIONS.  CHAP.  xxii. 

him  some  prime  whisky.  "  No  "  said  he  in  reply,  "  but 
I  thank  you  all  the  same.  Spirits  never  enter  this 
house,  save  when  I  cannot  help  it."  His  brother-in- 
law  then  offered  to  send  him  some  money.  "  God 
grant  you  more  sense!"  was  his  reply.  "I  want  no 
sovereigns.  It  is  of  no  use  sending  anything  down 
here.  Nothing  is  wanted.  Delicacies  would  only 
injure  health.  Nothing  like  hard  fare  in  going  through 
the  world.  My  old  woman  neither  smokes,  snuffs,  nor 
drinks.  She  is  just  as  tough  as  a  rigwoodie,  and  can 
almost  do  without  sleep.  I  must  not  pamper  myself. 
'  Hardy '  is  the  word  with  working  people.  Pampering 
does  no  good,  but  much  evil.  No,  no !  no  pampering." 

We  have  said  that  Dick  was  a  solitary  man.  He 
delighted  in  the  companionship  of  books,  and  enjoyed 
with  them  the  solitude  of  his  own  thoughts.  He  never 
married.  He  had  no  family  enjoyments,  nor  family 
cares.  His  only  inmate  was  his  Highland  housekeeper, 
with  whom  he  could  have  little  mental  communion. 
His  only  companion  was  his  sister,  though  she  was  far 
away.  With  her  he  corresponded  regularly  to  the  close 
of  his  life.  He  told  her  his  joys  and  sorrows,  his  dis- 
coveries among  the  rocks,  his  finding  of  ferns  at  Dunnet 
Head  and  among  the  Eeay  hills,  and  all  the  little 
events  of  his  daily  life. 

Here,  for  instance,  is  a  little  bit  of  one  of  his  letters 
to  her,  written  on  the  26th  December  1863  : — 

"  As  the  weather  wore  a  fair  face,  I  got  up  and  away 
off  to  a  spot,  nearly  five  miles  off,  to  gather  ferns  ! 
What  ?  Ferns  at  the  end  of  December  ?  Yes,  ferns.  I 


CHAP.  xxn.  THE  FERNS— PERI!  377 

walked  to  a  rocky  precipice,  and  gathered  about  a  dozen 
ferns.  They  must  have  been  Peri  ?  Yes,  they  were 
Peri  I  The  longest  was  about  fifteen  inches.  Three  oi 
them  were  beautiful  and  green — finely  cut  and  lobed. 
In  fact,  I  never  saw  prettier  plants,  and  I  was  very 
proud  of  them — the  more  so,  as  I  gathered  them  at  the 
end  of  December.  I  knew  that  the  Sea  Spleenwort  was 
green  all  the  year  round  at  the  cliffs  of  Dunnet  Head, 
as  I  had  gathered  it  there  in  winter,  but  I  did  not  know 
that  the  inland  ferns  were  green  at  the  end  of  Decem- 
ber." 

Here  is  another  extract  from  a  letter  to  his  sister  : — 
"  I  observe  that  your  husband  is  a  rifleman.  Tell 
him  that  I  never  fired  off  a  gun  in  my  life,  and  scarcely 
ever  handled  one.  There  are  a  great  many  riflemen 
here.  They  have  two  targets.  Not  long  since  I  was 
nearly  shot.  I  was  on  the  shore,  and  some  green  hands 
had  come  out  to  practise.  They  stood  aslant,  and  not 
hitting  the  target,  their  balls  came  pinging  through  the 
air  repeatedly.  At  length,  one  ball  hit  a  ledge  near  me, 
raising  smoke  and  dust.  I  thought  it  time  to  be  off, 
and  got  out  of  the  way." 

His  sister  was  then  lying  on  her  deathbed,  but  he 
continued  to  write  to  her,  endeavouring  to  cheer  her  up. 
He  sent  to  her  husband  a  long  account  of  his  digging 
up  a  fossil,  at  the  end  of  1863.  He  said,  "Tell  my 
sister  that  I  have  written  all  this,  hoping  that  it  may 
amuse  her."  His  sister  died  about  two  months  later. 
It  need  not  be  said  how  much  he  lamented  her.  She 
was  the  last  of  his  family — his  nearest,  dearest  friend. 


378  DEA  TH  OF  HIS  SISTER.          CHAP.  xxn. 

And  he  was  soon  to  follow  her.  When  informed  of  her 
death,  he  wrote  to  her  husband  : — 

"My  sister's  death  affects  me  much.  I  miss  her 
now,  and  feel  a  want.  I'll  feel  it  more  by  and  by.  I 
know  that  all  must  die  ;  but  we  have  the  hope  that, 
though  we  die,  yet  we  will  live  for  ever.  Yes  !  we  hope 
to  meet  again."  Three  months  later,  he  again  wrote :  "  I 
have  not  lifted  a  hammer  since  Jane  died.  I  think  of 
her  every  day.  .  .  They  venerate  the  dead  the  most,  who 
live  as  they  desired." 

Amongst  those  who  sought  the  acquaintance  of 
Dick  in  later  years  was  a  young  gentleman  connected 
with  a  bank  in  Thurso.  He  knew  of  Dick's  solitariness, 
and  of  his  dislike  for  new  acquaintanceships.  He 
wished  much  to  meet  him,  but  feared  a  repulse.  At 
length  he  determined  to  make  the  attempt.  After 
Dick's  day's  work  was  over,  he  looked  in  at  the  window, 
and  then  he  entered  the  baker's  shop.  The  scene  he 
saw  was  characteristic.  The  only  light  in  the  house 
proceeded  from  a  candle  placed  on  a  chair  in  the  side 
room,  where  Robert  Dick  was  deeply  engaged  in  reading 
a  book.  He  was  in  his  working  clothes;  his  shirt 
sleeves  were  tucked  up ;  and  his  appearance  indicated 
that  he  had  been  at  his  baking  bench  only  a  few  moments 
before.  What  first  filled  the  spectator's  eye  was  the 
shadow  of  his  massive  head  thrown  upon  the  wall.  The 
particular  way  in  which  he  happened  to  be  sitting 
caused  the  shadow  to  be  very  large,  and,  being  well 
defined,  and  showing  some  of  his  features,  it  looked  a 
striking  object. 


CHAP.  xxii.       INTERVIEW  WITH  DICK.  379 

Dick,  hearing  the  sound  of  footsteps,  rose  up  with 
the  candle,  and  taking  it  with  him  entered  the  shop  by 
the  back  way.  The  visitor,  scarcely  knowing  what  to 
say,  asked  for  some  of  his  biscuits.  He  said  that,  being 
a  stranger,  he  had  heard  that  Mr.  Dick's  biscuits  were 
the  best  in  town.  The  biscuits  were  given,  and  still  the 
stranger  hung  about.  He  entered  into  conversation 
with  Dick,  and  he  asked  whether  he  could  not  see  some 
of  his  specimens.  Dick  said  that  he  had  at  that  time 
little  that  was  worth  seeing — in  fact,  he  had  already 
sold  his  fossils  to  Mr.  Miller — but,  if  he  would  call 
again,  he  would  with  pleasure  show  him  all  that  he  had. 
Dick  fixed  the  hour,  stating  that  his  visitor  must  be 
punctual  to  the  minute.  He  explained  that  he  had  to 
stick  to  rigorous  rules  in  that  way,  as  he  had  to  support 
himself  by  his  business,  and  also  because  he  was  at 
times  interrupted  by  persons  calling  for  their  own  plea- 
sure while  he  was  engaged  at  his  work. 

The  introduction  being  thus  successfully  accom- 
plished, the  visitor  again  called  on  Eobert  Dick  to 
inspect  his  treasures.  He  was  taken  upstairs  to  the 
museum — a  little  bedroom  or  parlour — of  which  Dick 
carefully  kept  the  key.  Its  appearance  indicated  that 
no  duster  or  broom  was  plied  there  without  his  special 
permission.  The  chairs  were  laden  with  books,  or 
specimens  of  plants  or  fossils.  In  a  corner  was  laid 
his  herbarium — consisting  of  numerous  books  in  which 
his  dried  plants  had  been  preserved.  One  part  of  the 
room  might  be  likened  to  a  quarry  bed,  because  of  the 
specimens  of  rocks  lying  there. 


380  DICK'S  HERBARIUM.  CHAP.  xxn. 

Pointing  to  a  board  laid  across  a  chair,  and  bearing 
a  considerable  number  of  stone  slabs,  cut  and  polished  to 
an  equal  size,  he  said,  "  Now,  that's  Caithness."  "  How 
is  that  ? "  said  the  visitor.  "  These  are  the  specimens  of 
all  the  rocks  of  the  county,  from  the  most  ancient  :•: 
the  most  recent,  and  they  are  arranged  accordingly." 
The  localities  were  indicated  from  which  the  rocks 
had  been  taken,  from  Portskerra  to  Duncansby,  from 
Morven  to  Dunnet  Head.  Dick  then  proceeded  to 
show  his  collection  of  ferns,  and  a  beautiful  sight  they 
were. 

Dick  was  most  careful  in  preparing  his  herbarium. 
Not  a  single  imperfect  specimen  was  admitted.  The 
way  in  which  they  were  attached  to  the  leaves  of  his 
books  showed  the  artistic  turn  of  his  mind.  The  fine 
natural  curves  of  the  plants,  grasses,  and  ferns,  were 
carefully  preserved.  The  very  hairs  about  the  stalks 
and  leaves  were  spread  out  at  the  correct  angle ;  and 
the  whole  presented,  as  much  as  possible,  the  living 
character  of  the  plants.  All  indicated  an  immense 
amount  of  labour,  care,  and  observation.  He  wished  to 
preserve  them  as  he  found  them,  in  a  state  of  nature. 
All  their  habitats  were  carefully  attached  to  the  Caith- 
ness plants. 

To  resume  the  visits  of  his  friend. — On  one  occasion, 
when  he  passed  through  the  shop  and  entered  the 
bakehouse  behind,  he  found  the  occupant  merrily  singing 
"  The  Soldier's  Eeturn."  He  immediately  joined  in  the 
song.  "  Ah,"  said  Dick,  suddenly  looking  up  from  his 
dough,  "  you've  caught  me."  "  I  did  not  know  you  could 


CHAP.  xxn.       HIS  INTEREST  IN  EGYPT.  381 

sing,  Mr.  Dick."  "  Sing ! "  said  he,  "  I  believe  I  was 
born  singing." 

The  visitor  proceeded  to  inspect  the  walls  of  the 
bakehouse.  Like  many  others,  he  was  struck  by  the 
firm,  correct  drawing  of  the  figures  on  the  walls. 
Though  Dick  had  never  studied  drawing,  he  had  a  great 
love  for  the  fine  arts.  He  cultivated  his  taste,  and  was 
able  not  only  to  delineate  plants  with  delicacy  and 
neatness,  but  to  draw  in  spirited  outline  the  figures  of 
men,  and  animals,  and  gods.  He  thus  converted  his 
bakehouse  into  a  chamber  of  imagery. 

The  smooth  plaster  was  his  canvas,  and  on  it  he 
portrayed  the  creations  of  his  fancy.  At  one  time 
the  walls  would  be  resplendent  with  Cherubim  and 
Seraphim  and  the  angelic  host.  At  another — for  he 
often  varied  his  drawings — they  would  exhibit  the 
strange  and  weird-like  forms  of  the  animals  that 
inhabited  the  ancient  world.  Sometimes  there  was  a 
medley  of  figures — Egyptian  kings  and  hieroglyphics — 
winged  bulls  and  Assyrian  gods  from  the  sculptures  of 
Nineveh — and  in  the  midst  of  them,  happy  children 
"  disporting  nude." 

Dick  was  intensely  interested  in  Egypt  and  the  old 
Eamesian  period.  He  read  every  book  he  could  find  on 
the  subject.  In  one  of  his  letters,  he  says — "  I  am  much 
delighted  and  fairly  lost  in  Egypt — wandering  in  imagi- 
nation amongst  those 

"  '  Temples,  palaces,  and  tombs  stupendous, 
Of  which  the  very  ruins  are  tremendous.' 

"  It  was  a  rainy  morning,  and  I  had  to  be  content  with 


382  THE  GODS  OF  EGYPT.  CHAP.  xxn. 

staying  at  home.  I  turned  to  and  sketched  in  an 
outline  of  one  of  the  gods  of  Egypt.  It  had  a  ram's 
head  on  a  human  body.  I  worked  away  from  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning  until  two  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, when  I  got  it  finished.  I  passed  the  rest  of  the 
evening  in  reading.  In  the  midst  of  this  evil  weather,  I 
have  been  reading  a  number  of  books.  I  have  read  a 
volume  on  the  Polar  Seas  and  regions,  another  on 
Africa,  another  on  Egypt,  another  on  Nubia  and 
Abyssinia,  and  I  propose  to  go  on  with  Palestine, 
Arabia,  Persia,  India,  and  New  Zealand." 

But  amidst  all  his  multifarious  reading,  ancient 
Egypt  stood  first  in  point  of  interest.  "  It  seems,"  he 
said,  "  that  these  old  people  are  not  yet  properly  under- 
stood by  our  wisest  men,  and  we  fall  into  many  mistakes, 
and  put  many  constructions  on  their  ancient  works. 
They  seemed  to  have  recognised  an  Evil  One  or  prin- 
ciple, which  they  named  Typhon — a  god,  Osiris — a 
goddess  Isis,  and  a  whole  multitude  of  '  gods  many  and 
lords  many ' — 

"  '  Every  garden  was  o'errun  with  gods.' 
One,  or  rather  two  of  the  figures  which  I  have  stuck  up 
on  the  wall,  exhibit  a  representation  of  the  union  of 
the  Brute  and  the  Human — that  is,  a  cat's  head  on  a 
human  body.  Cats  were  venerated  in  Egypt  long  ago. 
There  may  have  been  something  satirical  in  this  god. 
Very  probably  cat-witted  people  loved  then  as  well  as 
now.  Then  again,  they  had  their  ram-headed  gods,  and 
their  hawk-headed  gods;  and,  by  your  leave,  we 
all  those  sort  of  living  people  yet." 


CHAP.  xxn.  DICK'S  BAKEHOUSE.  382 

The  visitor  to  Dick's  bakehouse  saw  the  numerous 
figures  occupying  the  walls.  Amongst  them  was  a 
spirited  and  well-executed  figure  of  the  beautiful  Greek 
boy  drawing  the  thorn  from  his  foot.  This  was  over 
the  fireplace.  Beside  it  were  two  figures  of  Egyptian 
idols.  On  the  side  of  one  of  the  windows  there  was  the 
figure  of  an  ape,  excellently  drawn.  What  Dick  thought 
of  the  development  hypothesis  may  be  understood  from 
his  figures  of  the  Greek  boy  and  the  ape.  They  could 
be  seen  at  the  same  glance  from  the  door  of  the  apart- 
ment, and  presented  a  striking  contrast,  quite  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  idea  of  even  a  remote  identity.  When 
questioned  on  the  subject,  Dick  humorously  indicated 
the  presence  of  the  two  drawings.  He  pointed  to  them, 
but  said  nothing. 

With  respect  to  the  Egyptian  idols,  he  said  of  a 
friend  who  had  called  upon  him  and  looked  at  them, 
"  Perhaps  he  did  not  understand  my  Egyptian  mytho- 
logical divinities.  Strange  figures  are  these  gods  of 
Egypt,  and  yet  they  had  a  hidden  meaning  which  no  one 
nowadays  rightly  understands.  Egypt  was  once  the 
first  of  the  nations,  but  the  glory  of  its  palaces  has  gone 
for  ever.  And  all  must  perish  but  Truth.  That  alone 
is  eternal ! " 

When  the  weather  was  fine,  Dick  again  went  to  the 
fields  or  to  the  sea-shore.  He  was  still  anxious  to  find 
his  whole  big  fish.  Hence  he  continued  to  dig  away  at 
the  rocks.  Towards  the  end  of  1864,  Mr.  George 
Henslow,  son  of  the  late  Professor  of  Botany  in  Cam- 
bridge, wrote  a  letter  to  Dick,  asking  if  he  could  send 


384  THURSO  HARBOUR.  CHAP.  xxn. 

him  some  specimens  of  fossil  fish  in  exchange  for 
botanical  specimens.  To  gratify  his  request,  Dick 
searched  along  the  shore ;  and,  after  an  hour's  labour 
with  his  heavy  hammer,  his  wedges,  and  his  chisels,  he 
found  a  good  fossil  fish  quite  whole.  Whether  this  was 
sent  to  Mr.  Henslow  we  know  not,  as  no  further  refer- 
ence is  made  to  the  subject. 


MOUTH  OF  THUBSO  KIVER. 

About  the  same  time  Dick  discovered  another  singular 
object.  "  A  recent  spate,"  he  says,  "  laid  bare  part  of 
the  skeleton  of  a  whale,  which  apparently  had  been 
buried  many  hundreds  of  years.  It  was  very  much 
decayed.  It  lay  near  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Most 
probably  some  of  the  old  Caithness  cannibals  feasted  on 
the  monster." 

A  Society  for  the  study  of  Natural  History  was 


CHAP.  xxn.  *  NATURAL  HISTORY  SOCIETY.  38J 

established  in  Thurso  in  1865.     Dick  refers  to  it  in  the 
following  terms : — 

"  Macculloch  said  that  an  uglier  country  than  Caith- 
ness was  hardly  to  be  seen.  God  save  the  mark !  is 
that  true  ?  A  fine  natural  history  society  has  been  got 
up  here,  and  in  their  wisdom  they  have  thought  proper 
to  dub  me  an  '  honorary  member.'  They  go  to-day  on 
an  excursion  to  Dunnet  Hills.  I  wish  they  may  not 
drown  themselves." 

On  the  following  day  he  says  : — "  I  am  very  glad  that 
I  did  not  consent  to  go  a-gowking  to  Dunnet  Hills.  The 
party  went  off  in  gigs,  single  and  double ;  and  what  they 
saw,  in  crossing  the  sands,  I  know  not.  Certes,  no  one 
ever  heard  of  objects  in  natural  history  being  collected 
in  gigs  !  The  Society  went  to  the  inn  and  had  dinner, 
and  they  did  not  rise  until  it  was  late.  In  coming  back 
across  the  sands,  they  drove  their  gigs  into  the  sea !  .  .  . 
One  lady  was  heard  to  lament  that  Mr.  Dick  was  not 
with  them,  were  it  only  to  keep  them  in  order.  Depend 
upon  it,  if  Dick  the  baker  had  been  there,  the  Society 
would  have  returned  home  before  midnight !  A  fine 
'  honour '  indeed ! 

"  '  A  countra  lad  is  my  degree, 

An'  few  there  be  that  ken  me,  0  ! ' 

"Thurso  had  its  museum  party  once  before,  but  it 
went  to  smoke  chiefly  through  a  want  of  funds,  and  also 
through  a  total  want  of  zeal  amongst  the  people  for 
things  of  that  sort.  A  love  for  those  studies  cannot 
be  forced,  hardly  even  nursed  into  existence.  But  this 
attempt  at  a  Museum  bids  fair  to  prosper." 


MANY  CORRESPONDENTS.      CHAP.  xxn. 


Dick  seems  to  have  had  a  dislike  for  men  who  went 
out  geologising  or  botanising  in  gigs !  After  a  hard 
morning's  work,  and  a  long  ramble  round  the  coast,  with 
hammer  and  chisel,  he  returned,  and  entered  the  follow- 
ing remarks  : — "  On  arriving  at  home,  I  found  Dr.  Hunt, 
from  London,  had  called.  I  met  him  on  the  road,  in  a 
gig  of  course.  I  did  not  know  him,  nor  he  me." 

Dick  continued  to  have  many  correspondents.  They 
addressed  him  from  far  and  near,  asking  him  for  fossil 
fish,  and  specimens  of  the  Holy  Grass.  He  provided 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Brodie,  geologist,  with  some  fossils,  and 
through  his  introduction  several  other  geologists  asked 
for  the  same.  Mr.  George  Roberts,  secretary  to  the 
London  Geological  Society,  asked  him  to  send  some 
typical  specimens  of  the  oil-bearing  shales  for  analysa- 
tion.  "  Some  influential  city  people,"  he  said,  "  are 
quite  willing  to  take  the  matter  up,  if  the  yield  of 
bituminous  oil  promises  to  be  a  paying  one."  Mr. 
Roy,  of  Aberdeen,  wrote  to  him  stating  that  he  would 
propose  him  as  a  member  of  the  Aberdeen  Natural 
History  Society,  provided  he  would  supply  him  with  a 
paper  on  the  natural  history  of  Caithness.  Mr.  Alfred 
Bell,  of  London,  wrote  him  asking  for  a  paper  on  the 
Hierochloe  borealis,  for  insertion  in  his  Natural  History 
Circular. 

Another  of  his  correspondents  was  Mr.  Jamieson  of 
Ellon,  who  sent  him  an  abstract  of  his  paper  on  the 
geology  of  Caithness.  "  I  make  mention,"  he  said,  "  on 
your  authority,  of  the  gravel  hillocks  near  Dirlot,  as 
being  the  only  ones  that  I  had  heard  of.  With  regard  to 


CHAP.  xxn.      MR:  JAMIESON'S  LETTER.  387 

the  valley  gravel,  it  seemed  to  me  to  be  less  developed, 
even  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  rivers,  than  it  is 
in  other  districts.  There  is  some  of  it,  however  ;  and  I 
agree  with  you  in  saying,  as  I  do  in  my  paper,  that  what 
does  occur,  appears  to  be  the  product  of  the  rivers  and 
streams  cutting  through  the  drift. 

"  I  wish  you  would  take  a  run,  some  time,  along  the 
northern  seaboard  of  Sutherlandshire,  and  note  the 
appearances  presented  by  the  valleys  of  the  various 
mountain  streams  that  join  the  sea.  It  would  be  desir- 
able to  ascertain  whether  any  moraine-like  heaps 
present  themselves  in  such  places,  where  you  approach 
the  mountains.  On  going  along  the  east  side  of  Suther- 
land, I  noticed  that  the  features  of  the  county  differed 
from  those  of  Caithness.  Great  piles  of  gravel,  arranged 
in  mounds  and  abrupt  hillocks,  present  themselves  at 
the  entrance  of  the  valleys,  and  come  down  close  .upon 
the  sea, — as  is  well  seen  at  Brora.  Now,  it  would  be 
interesting  to  know  if  similar  phenomena  also  occur 
along  the  north  coast. 

"  The  meeting  of  the  Caithness  plains  with  the  high 
hills  of  Morven,  the  Pap,  and  the  Scarabens,  should  also 
be  investigated,  in  order  to  see  whether  any  drift  from 
north  or  north-west  overlaps  their  base,  or  whether,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  de'bris  of  these  mountains  protrudes 
in  the  form  of  moraine-like  ridges.  Foreign  boulders 
should  also  be  searched  for  on  these  hills.  P^ach  tells 
me  he  saw  hardly  any.  I  walked  along  the  Berridale 
glen  from  the  base  of  the  Scarabens  to  the  sea,  but  did 
not  manage  to  get  round  the  northern  base.  I  will 


388  CONTINUES  HIS  WALKS.        CHAP,  xxu 

send  you  a  copy  of  my  paper  when  it  is  printed,  which 
will  probably  be  some  time  this  year. 

"  The  valves  of  the  Leda  I  got  from  you  are  pro- 
nounced by  Mr.  Gwynn  Jeffreys  to  be  Leda  buccata  of 
Steenstrup,  which  he  seems  to  consider  a  variety  of  Leda 
parmula" 

Here  was  a  large  stroke  of  work  cut  out  for  Robert 
Dick.  But  he  was  too  poor,  too  rheumatic,  too  much 
overborne  by  troubles,  to  undertake  it. 

Nevertheless  he  continued  his  walks  to  within  a 
reasonable  distance  of  Thurso.  He  preferred  walking 
along  the  shore.  Sandside  Bay  was  one  of  his  favourite 
resorts.  There  he  found  old  fishes  in  store,  but  none  of 
them  were  of  the  best  kind.  In  passing  thither,  he 
crossed  the  Forss  Water  by  the  bridge;  and  in  the 
lower  grounds  he  found  a  specimen  of  the  Hierochloe 
borealis  growing.  He  sought  for  it  again,  but  he  never 
found  another.  Besides,  there  were  plenty  along  the 
Thurso  banks, — quite  enough  to  satisfy  his  numerous 
correspondents.  Forss  Water  was  one  of  his  favourite 
spots.  It  rises  in  Shurery  Loch,  and  comes  tumbling 
down  from  rock  to  rock  until  it  reaches  the  sea.  The 
last  fall  is  at  Forss  Mill,  near  where  he  found  the  speci- 
men of  the  Holy  Grass. 

Robert  Dick  continued  his  correspondence  with 
Charles  Peach  to  the  end  of  his  life.*  The  two  had  a 

*  In  1859  the  Geological  Society  of  London  unanimously  granted 
the  WolUston  Medal  to  Mr.  Charles  Darwin,  F.R.S.  ;  but  a  balance 
remained,  which  was  awarded  to  Mr.  Charles  Peach,  for  his  discoveries 
in  Geology.  The  president,  Professor  .1.  Phillips,  on  his  handing  the 


MILL  AT  FORSS. 


CHAP.  xxn.  DICK'S  LAST  VERSES.  389 

hearty,  cordial,  fellow-feeling.  They  communicated  to 
each  other  everything  that  they  found  which  was  new. 
There  was  never  the  slightest  feeling  of  jealousy  between 
them.  The  last  verses  that  Dick  wrote  to  Peach  were 
as  follows : — 

;'  Ye  lang  hae  toddled  roun'  the  land, 
An'  hammer'd  far  and  near  ; 
But  feint  a  fossil  ye  hae  fand 
Your  drooping  heart  to  cheer  ! 

"  A  broken  wee  bit  fish  or  twa, 
.     A  doubtfu'  bit  o'  stane, 

Ye  carried  south,  wi'  muckle  blaw, 
To  chiels,  wha  skeel  had  nane. 

"  A  puff  they  whispered  in  your  lug, 
And  ye  came  laughin'  name, 
Weel  drooked  wi'  the  Hieland  fog, 
And  fand  the  whole  a  dream." 

But  Mr.  Peach  did  find  more  fossils.  In  1863, 
while  working  at  Sarclet,  on  the  Wick  side  of  the 
county,  he  found  part  of  a  fossil  crustacean  in  the  Eed 
Sandstone,  rising  from  beneath  the  flag-beds.*  Sir 

sum  in  a  little  purse  to  Sir  Roderick  Murchisoii,  requested  him  "  to 
assure  Mr.  Peach  of  the  pleasure  which  the  Council  and  Society  had  in 
thus  publicly  acknowledging  the  perseverance,  acumen,  and  love  of 
Natural  History  pursuits  evinced  by  Mr.  Peach,  and  especially  the 
advantages  accruing  to  geological  science  from  his  researches  among 
the  oldest  palaeozoic  rocks,  both  at  the  southern  and  northern  extremi- 
ties  of  the  island,  he  having  been  the  first  to  tiud  fossil  remains  in 
the  old  altered  rocks  of  Sutherlandshire  and  Cornwall." 

*  Mr.  Pe:iuh  says  that  the  first  specimen  of  this  fossil  was  found  by 
Mr.  R.  Shearer,  but  that  he  afterwards  found  two  other  body  segment) 
ft  short  distance  from  the  same  place. 
18 


390  MR.  PEACHES  DISCOVERIES.    CHAP.  xxir. 

Roderick  Murchison,  on  the  authority  of  Professor 
Huxley,  stated  it  to  be  part  of  a  Pterygotus — or  lobster- 
like  crustacean.  Mr.  Peach  also  discovered  some  speci- 
mens of  the  Tristichopterus  alatus  at  John  o'  Groat's, 
which  threw  much  light  on  the  previously  unknown 
points  of  its  structure  as  well  as  on  its  affinities. 

It  would,  indeed,  be  difficult  to  tell  how  much  Mr. 
Peach  found  during  his  residence  in  Caithness.  Among 
his  other  findings,  he  discovered  a  sea-snake.  It  was 
cast  ashore  in  Sinclair's  Bay,  a  few  miles  north  of  Wick. 
The  length  of  the  snake  was  fifteen  feet  six  inches ;  its 
width  about  three  and  a  half  inches.  Its  head  displayed 
a  sort  of  mane  or  pendulous  tuft.  Its  skin  was  of  a 
beautiful  silvery  colour,  with  fine  dark  bands  passing 
from  the  head  to  the  tail.  It  was  found  to  be  a  large 
specimen  of  the  Gymnetrus, — better  known  by  the  name 
of  riband-lath  or  deal-fish.  A  similar  sea-snake  has 
since  been  found  by  Mr.  Trail  at  Dunnet  Bay,  near 
Thurso. 

In  1863  Mr.  Peach  obtained  from  the  rocks  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  John  o'  Groat's  a  fragment  of  a  small 
Pterichthys.  As  this  genus  had  not  before  been  found 
in  Caithness,  he  resolved, — although  the  locality  was 
more  than  eighteen  miles  from  his  residence  at  Wick, — 
to  follow  up  the  discovery ;  and  he  succeeded  in  finding, 
at  different  times,  four  or  five  pretty  good  specimens. 
At  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  at  Dundee,  in 
1868,  Mr.  Peach  read  a  short  description  of  it  to  the 
Geological  Section,  and  named  it  after  his  valued  friend,. 
Pterichthys  Dicki.  But  we  anticipate. 


CHAP.  xxii.  PEACH'S  JOURNEYS.  391 

We  return  to  Charles  Peach's  history.  We  have 
already  stated  that  he  was  stationed  at  Wick  as  Comp- 
troller of  Excise.  Part  of  his  business  was  to  inspect 
the  coast  of  Caithness — from  Wick  round  Noss  Head, 
Duncansby  Head,  John  o'  Groat's,  and  Dunnet  Head,  to 
Thurso,  and  from  thence  to  Cape  Wrath  and  Rhu-Stoir 
in  Sutherlandshire.  The  east  coast,  from  Dornoch 
Firth  north  to  Wick,  was  also  within  his  beat. 

When  he  travelled  by  land,  he  went  by  mail-coach, 
mail-gigs,  or  carts,  whichever  was  most  convenient. 
Sometimes  he  went  by  boats  along  the  coast.  He  was 
often  very  much  exposed,  especially  in  winter,  to  wind, 
frost,  and  snow — always  bitter  cold.  When  he  heard  of 
a  wreck  having  taken  place,  he  was  off  at  once ;  his 
object  being  to  save  the  ship  and  the  crew,  and  to 
reward  those  who  had  been  instrumental  in  saving  life. 
He  communicated  with  the  Wreck  Department  of  the 
Board  of  Trade,  and  recommended  those  who  had  acted 
gallantly.  "I  proposed,"  he  said,  "that  medals  and 
money  should  be  publicly  given,  and  I  am  proud  and 
happy  to  say  that  the  Board  almost  always  attended  to 
my  recommendations.  I  always  pushed  hard  for 
decorations ;  and  many  a  man  has  been  made  proud  of 
his  bravery  for  life."  Amid  such  harassing,  distressing, 
and  dangerous  scenes,  did  Charles  Peach  carry  on  his 
researches  into  the  Geology  and  Natural  History  of  the 
northernmost  counties  of  Scotland. 

Peach  was  now  getting  an  old  man — not  old  in 
spirits,  but  old  in  years.  He  was  constantly  subject  to 
attacks  of  cold  and  bronchitis.  Indeed,  he  was  often 


392         PEACH  RETIRES  FROM  OFFICE.     CHAP.  xxii. 

very  ill.  Dick  wrote  in  one  of  his  letters  that  he 
scarcely  expected  that  he  would  recover.  Nevertheless, 
he  cheered  liini  up  as  usual :  "  I  am  glad  to  hear  you 
are  in  spirits  at  least,  if  not  in  health.  So  many  people 
are  going  that  I  began  to  get  apprehensive  that  you 
were  seriously  ill.  Hope  on  for  ever,  dear  Charlie." 
Peach  had  also  many  troubles  connected  with  death 
and  illness  in  his  own  family. 

At  length,  in  1861,  he  was  under  the  necessity  of 
retiring  from  the  service.  He  was  now  sixty-one.  He 
had  worked  long  and  hard  for  his  retiring  allowance. 
Besides,  a  change  was  about  to  be  made.  The  office  of 
Comptroller,  with  a  view  to  economy  in  the  Customs, 
was  to  be  done  away  with  in  all  the  ports  of  the 
United  Kingdom.  "Mr.  Gladstone's  long  range,"  he 
said,  "  is  about  to  ruin  me."  The  older  men  were  to  be 
placed  on  the  redundant  list,  and  the  younger  ones  were 
to  be  reduced  to  subordinate  offices.  Though  Peach  was 
at  the  top  of  the  list  for  promotion  to  £200  a  year, 
he  refused  to  be  reduced,  and  he  therefore  retired  upon 
a  comparatively  small  amount,  which  lasts  only  during 
his  lifetime,  and  leaves  nothing  for  his  widow.  His  hopes 
were  thus  dashed.  The  change  had  such  a  depressing 
effect  upon  him  that  he  fell  seriously  ill,  and  for 
weeks  was  expected  to  die.  But  in  course  of  time  he 
recovered,  and  set  to  work  again  upon  his  favourite 
studies. 

Mr.  Peach  accompanied  Mr.  Gwynn  Jeffreys  in  his 
dredging  expeditions  along  the  shores  of  the  Shetland 
Islands,  and  he  there  made  a  collection  of  British 


CHAP.  xxii.     PEACH'S  SCIENTIFIC  PAPERS.         -    393 


corals  (Polyzoa),  which  would  otherwise  have 
thrown  away  as  waste.  He  never  forgot  what  his  keen 
eyes  had  detected,  and  he  never  threw  away  what  he 
considered  might  be  turned  to  some  future  account. 
The  last  time  we  saw  Mr.  Peach  *  he  was  engaged  in 
preparing  a  paper  on  these  waste  objects,  to  be  read 
before  the  Linnean  Society.  The  paper  was  entitled 
"  On  Cellepora  cervicomis  of  the  British  Seas." 

Mr.  Peach  left  Wick  in  May  1865,  and  took  up  his 
residence  at  a  house  in  Leith  Walk,  where  he  still 
lives.t  He  says,  "  I  must  work ;  I  should  soon  die  if 
idle.  Work  is  life  to  me."  He  has  consequently  sent 
many  papers  to  the  Linnean  and  other  scientific 
societies.  One  of  these  was  on  the  British  Polyzoa; 
another  (read  at  the  Royal  Institution  of  Cornwall)  on 
Zoophytes  from  the  Cornish  coast. 

Among  his  various  honours  he  was  elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  Physical  Society  of  Edinburgh,  and 
in  his  opening  address  he  discoursed  of  the  history  of 
the  Fossil  Mora  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  the  North 
of  Scotland.  He  was  also  presented  by  the  Royal  Society 
of  Edinburgh  with  the  Neill  prize  for  the  period  1871- 
74,  in  acknowledgment  of  his  extensive  contributions  to 
geological  science.  In  fact,  so  long  as  Mr.  Peach  lives 
— he  is  now  seventy-nine — his  name  will  be  heard  of. 
And  yet  he  says  he  is  not  "  an  old  man."  He  is  still 
an  "old  boy."  That  is  what  his  wife  calls  him.  For 
he  is  cheerful,  communicative,  bright,  and  lively  as 
ever. 

*  April  1878.  f  30  Haddington  Place,  Edinburgh. 


394    .  PEACH'S  PHOTOGRAPH.        CHAP  xxn. 

In  May  1866  Mr.  Peach  sent  Dick  a  photograph  of 
himself,  which  had  been  taken  at  Edinburgh.  Dick 
replied  to  his  letter  as  follows : — 

"  I  scarcely  needed  such  a  memento  of  you,  I  would 
always  have  remembered  you.  And  indeed,  should  my 
memory  have  proved  fallacious,  still  your  plants  would 
have  unceasingly  suggested  an  idea  of  you.  I  was 
amongst  the  Eeay  hills  in  March  last,  and  was  pleased 
to  see  the  fern  (Scolopendrium)  growing  beautifully,  and 
both  there  and  at  Dunnet  Hills  the  plant  will  endure 
and  astonish  some  lonely  wanderer,  long  after  we  are 
both  out  of  time.  Charles !  you  have  thus  reared  an 
undying  memento,  and  it  was  no  vain  thought  which 
prompted  you  to  bring  to  me  so  lovely  an  object. 

"  '  A  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  for  ever.' 

It  will  be  a  joy  to  some  who  will  remain  ignorant  of 
its  history." 


CHAPTEE  XXTTL 
DICK'S  LAST  YEAR— HIS  DEATH. 

LIFE  was  becoming  sad,  and  dreary,  and  full  of  sorrow, 
to  Robert  Dick.  He  was  a  victim  to  rheumatism. 
Sometimes  he  could  scarcely  move.  "  I  am  plagued,"  he 
says,  "  with  rheumatism  in  my  shoulder-blades ;  I  can 
scarcely  lift  my  arm."  The  rheumatism  also  affected 
his  loins  and  feet.  He  could  not  walk  ;  he  could  only 
"hirple."  To  one  who  had  been  so  full  of  life  and 
activity,  this  was  a  great  trouble. 

He  was  also  much  affected  by  his  business.  Competi- 
tion was  mining  half  the  bakers  in  Thurso.  One  man, 
who  afterwards  became  a  bankrupt,  was  underselling 
everybody,  in  bread,  in  tea,  in  groceries  and  everything. 
"  Campbell,"  he  says,  "  even  sent  the  bell  round  forbid- 
ding people  to  drink  milk,  and  recommending  them  to 
patronise  his  ale  and  porter.  He  sells  most  things 
under  cost  price,  to  the  great  injury  of  his  fellow-trades- 
men." 

Dick's  business  again  fell  off  more  rapidly  than 
before.  "  I  am  in  a  state  of  galloping  ruin,"  he  says  to 
his  brother-in-law.  "  I  have  nothing  to  do,  I  have  made 
no  loaf-bread  for  several  weeks.  My  trade  is  suspended. 
To  tell  the  truth,  I  have  worked  hard  for  my  living  for 


396  LOSES  HIS  BUSINESS.         CHAP.  xxm. 

so  very  long,  that  I  am  nothing  save  when  I  am  working 
regularly  ...  I  was  within  a  hairsbreadth  of  being  off 
yesterday  by  steamer  for  Leith.  Idleness  will  never  do. 
If  a  man  like  me,  after  thirty-five  years'  hard  work,  is 
compelled  to  work  as  a  day-labourer,  I  will  try  if  possible 
first  to  get  out  to  Brisbane  or  New  Zealand.  .  .  .  My 
sister  Jane  was  a  good  friend  to  me.  But  the  world 
runs  round ;  and  I  was  a  fool  for  not  being  off  in  time 
from  this  starvation  hole.  Lord  help  us !" 

But  Dick  was  still  the  best  biscuit-maker  in  Thurso. 
Surely  he  could  sell  his  biscuits  !  No;  competition  again 
beset  him.  Campbell  planted  touters  at  the  end  of 
Wilson's  Lane,  and  pressed  the  Highlanders,  when  on 
their  way  home  from  "Wick  to  the  Western  Islands,  to 
take  their  biscuits  from  the  general  competitor.  "  On 
Saturday,"  he  says,  "the  Highlandmen  came  up  from 
Wick  to  go  by  a  steamer  from  Scrabster ;  and  they  con- 
tinue to  come  all  day,  all  yesterday  (Sabbath),  and  kept 
coming  until  one  or  two  this  morning.  I  used  to  sell 
them  on  such  occasions  some  thirty  or  forty  stones  of 
biscuit.  This  time  I  did  not  sell  them  more  than 
twenty  stones.  So  I'll  take  a  run  up  to  the  hills,  to 
complete  my  number  of  county  ferns." 

In  fact,  Dick  could  scarcely  earn  the  wages  of  a  day- 
labourer  by  working  at  his  trade.  The  men  who  worked 
at  flag-cutting  by  the  river-side  made  from  half-a-crown 
to  three  shillings  a  day.  But  Campbell  had  lessened 
Dick's  earnings  by  ten  and  sixpence  a  week ;  and  that, 
said  he,  "  is  a  very  great  deal  to  take  from  a  poor  man 
like  me.  However,  I  must  try  and  starve  it  out,  hoping 
•July  for  a  rcduot^n  in  the  price  cf  f.cur. 


CHAP.  xxin.        REFORM  AND  MOSSES.  397 

His  brother-in-law  having  wished  him  a  "  good  new 
year,"  Dick  replied :  "  So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  I  have 
not  the  smallest  hope  of  seeing  a  good  new  year  any  more 
in  this  world.  That  is  all  over  long  ago.  You  are  young, 
and  hope  is  strong  in  you ;  but  you  will  yet  learn  that 
nothing  satisfactory  exists  here  below.  The  world  is 
turned  all  over  since  I  first  knew  it.  Patience  is  best" 

Yet  Dick  never  lost  his  good  temper,  his  charity,  or 
his  hope.  To  his  brother-in-law,  when  in  trouble,  he 
said :  "  Never  lose  heart.  Always  look  on  the  bright 
side  of  every  cloud ;  and  perhaps  you  may  see  the  bow 
of  hope  beyond."  He  still  went  on  collecting  grasses, 
ferns,  and  flowering  plants, — working,  in  the  evenings, 
at  the  completion  of  his  herbarium.  In  the  meantime 
he  went  on  collecting  mosses. 

"Some  people,"  said  he,  "talk  about  Reform.  I 
observe  that  the  Franchise  is  to  be  reduced  to  £6  and 
£10.  I  wish  the  new  voters  may  derive  all  the  pleasure 
they  expect.  I  never  dabble  in  politics.  It  does  not 
suit  my  nature.  But  other  folk  must  be  tickling  them- 
selves with  straws,  or  grasping  at  shadows,  not  knowing 
that  they  are  themselves  to  blame  for  the  unhappiness 
that  befalls  them. 

" '  Dear  Nature  is  the  kindliest' 

"By  nature  I  mean  plants,  flowers,  and  flowerless 
mosses.  I  am  still  looking  after  and  prying  into  these 
things.  I  think  myself  blest  if  I  can  find  one  moss  in 
the  week.  By  that  you  will  understand  that  the  pur- 
suit of  mosses  is  quite  a  new  study  to  me.  And  yet 
twenty  years  ago  I  was  looking  at  them,  and  picking 

18* 


398  FOSSILS  AND  SHELLS.         CHAP.  xxm. 

them  up,  and  putting  them  aside  wrapt  in  paper,  with 
the  locality  where  found  marked  upon  them. 

"So  I  have  got  great  numbers  to  overhaul.  Last 
winter  I  turned  to  them  in  good  earnest,  and  tired 
myself  a  hundred  times  over, — putting  them  to  one  side, 
and  then  turning  to  them  again.  I  will  get  on  slowly, 
slowly ;  but  perseverance  will  do  it." 

He  went  out  to  the  hills  again.  But  the  rain  often 
stopped  him, — ceaseless,  pitiless,  pelting  rain.  "The  rain," 
he  once  said,  "is  killing  me."  But  so  soon  as  the 
weather  cleared,  he  was  out  again.  "I  have  made  a  ten 
hours'  journey,"  he  said  in  April  1866,  "across  the  hills, 
but  I  got  no  new  mosses.  I  sought  for  sea-shells  about 
nine  miles  inland.  I  only  got  some  little  broken  bits ; 
but  I  found  an  entire  half  of  the  shell  Astarte  borealis. 
It  was  something  to  find  even  that  so  far  away  from  the 
sea.  Many,  many  changes  have  taken  place  since  that 
shell  was  deposited.  A  wood  of  trees  afterwards  grew 
there.  The  wood  perished,  and  peat  moss,  many  feet 
thick,  covers  it  up.  And  underneath  that,  the  shell  was 
found." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  following  month  he  was 
again  searching  for  fossils.  "I  have  got,"  he  says, 
"  some  large  and  very  strong  fossil  bones  from  the  rocks. 
I  have  seen  nothing  similar  for  twenty-three  years. 
The  outlines  of  the  larger  bone  I  have  tried  to  trace  out 
on  this  leaf"  [gives  a  drawing  of  a  fossil  bone,  about 
twelve  inches  across]. 

A  fortnight  later  he  says — "  As  I  cannot  be  idle,  I 
have  turned  over  again  to  break  stones.  I  have  nearly 


CHAP.  xxin.  NOTHING  NEW.  399 

killed  myself  several  times  by  over-exertion ;  and  after 
all,  I  have  found  nothing  new.  The  days  of  great  things 
are  over  for  ever  with  me.  And  yet  I  am  '  first  fiddle,' 
in  all  that  relates  to  the  Old  Fish.  If  you  look  at  the 
latest  edition  of  Hugh  Miller's  Footprints  of  the  Creator, 
you  will  see  figured  there  many  things  of  mine,  which 
I  never  hope  to  see  again.  The  sea  must  wash  down 
the  rocks  for  five  hundred  years  first,  and  by  that  time 
we  shall  all  be  resolved  into  dust  and  ashes. 

"Alas  for  the  old  days!  They  are  gone  for  ever. 
Well,  I  will  return  to  my  plants.  But  even  there,  I 
fag  and  limp  listlessly.  Nothing  new!  With  mosses 
I  still  get  up  the  steam.  But  they  are  so  comparatively 
trifling,  that  I  sometimes  weary  of  them. 

"  To  tell  you  the  truth,  I  am  perfectly  tired  of  this 
insipid,  tasteless,  dull,  motionless  kind  of  existence.  I 
would  willingly  change,  if  I  only  knew  where  to  change 
for  the  better.  All  is  dull  and  tasteless. 

"  On  going  over  the  old  fossil  ground  again,  there  is 
much  need  for  enthusiastic  steam.  The  dreams  of  old 
will  not  return.  All  is  in  vain.  Yet  I  will  try  again, — 
yes,  with  the  aid  of  spectacles.  For  my  eyesight  is  not 
so  sharp  as  it  once  was." 

He  again  went  out  to  the  hills,  to  gather  more  ferns. 
But  he  had  exhausted  the  subject.  "  I  have  overhauled 
so  much  of  the  county  before  now,  that  very  likely  I 
may  find  only  a  repetition  of  former  things.  A  county 
holds  comparatively  few  of  the  British  Flora ;  and  a 
Northern  county  fewer  than  a  Southern  one.  For, 
however  vain  dreamers  may  blow  and  puff,  heat  is 


400  BOULDER  FROM  HELMSDALE.     CHAP.  xxui. 

required  for  all  vegetation.  The  wise  man  said,  thou- 
sands of  years  ago,  that  'nothing  is  hid  from  the  heat 
of  the  sun,'  and  the  wise  man  was  right." 

One  morning,  after  he  had  got  his  work  done,  he 
went  out  at  four  o'clock,  to  revisit  for  the  last  time  a 
selection  of  boulder  clay  by  the  river-side,  about  nine 
miles  from  Thurso.  His  object  was  to  ascertain  whether 
the  late  rains  had  exposed  some  shell  or  other  fossil 
worthy  of  being  collected.  He  had  before  found  shells 
in  the  same  place.  It  was  moonlight,  bright  moonlight; 
and  he  had  a  delightful  walk  by  the  river-side.  When 
the  moon  became  clouded,  the  stars  came  out,  and  they 
were  extremely  lovely. 

During  his  walk,  he  recognised  a  boulder  stone  which 
had  been  brought  by  the  ice  from  Helmsdale,  Suther 
iandshire,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Morven  hills. 

"  And  dost  thou  still,  thou  mass  of  breathing  stone, 
Thy  giant  limbs  to  night  and  chaos  hurled, 
Still  sit  as  on  a  fragment  of  a  world, 
Surviving  all  ? " 

.  These  were  the  lines  of  Eogers  that  floated  through 
nis  imagination.  "  Poor  creatures  that  we  are,"  he  said, 
"speculating  about  things  that  we  know  so  little  of. 
And  look  at  these  stars,  so  far  off  in  the  infinite.  What 
do  we  know  about  them  ?  Are  they  also  suns,  each  the 
centre  of  a  planetary  system?  Do  the  beings  who  live 
there,  enjoy  and  suffer  and  die  as  we  do  ?  Alas !  how 
little  we  know  of  the  world  we  live  in." 

Towards  the  end  of  his  life,  Dick  read  Colenso's 
Pentateuch,  and  the  book  of  Joshua.  It  was  the  work 


BISHOP  COLENSG.  401 

of  a  bishop  of  the  Church  of  England,  who  must  surely 
know  something  about  the  Bible  and  its  origin.  Dick 
was  very  much  struck  by  its  cleverness  and  its  mockery. 
He  likened  the  book  to  Samson  pulling  down  the 
temple  of  the  Philistines.  "  It  is  very  clever,"  he  said  ; 
*  but  what  do  we  gain  by  it  ?  Nothing  whatever ! 
Rather  we  have  lost.  A  little  more  unhappiness  is  all 
the  immediate  result.  Some  of  our  dreams  have  fled, 
and  left  us  groping  in  uncertainty.  Is  there  nothing 
sure  ?  And  yet  there  must  be  such  a  thing  as  truth. 
But  who  is  to  decide,  and  tell  us  what  truth  is  ?  The 
books  of  the  Bible  may  be  full  of  errors,  but  what  would 
become  of  mankind  without  it  ?" 

Dick's  letters  show  that  his  mind  was  much 
depressed  about  this  time.  He  seems  to  have  had  fewer 
friends  than  ever.  He  sometimes  speaks  severely  about 
the  Thurso  merchants;  "but,"  he  adds,  "it  all  arises  from 
a  want  of  business.  Indeed  there  is  only  one  merchant 
in  Thurso  who  has  anything  like  full  employment." 
Dick  may  possibly  have  become  embittered  through  his 
own  want  of  success  in  life. 

"I  have  got,"  he  said  to  his  brother-in-law,  "Mr. 
Carlyle's  fine  oration  at  Edinburgh.  Many  thanks.  I 
have  seen  the  same  gentleman,  and  have  talked  to  him. 
Sir  George  Sinclair  brought  him  to  me,  so  that  I  might 
see  him,  and  he  cojild  look  on  me.  Mr.  Carlyle  said  in 
his  speech  that  labour  was  a  cure  for  every  human 
malady.  He  was  right  so  far ;  and  if  Thurso  folks  had 
more  and  better-paying  employment,  there  would  be 
less  spite  and  malice  among  them.  And  yet,  mark  yon, 


402  PHOTOGRAPHIC  LIKENESS.     CHAP.  xxm. 

they  are  about  the  most  religious  and  professing  people 
on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

"  You  have  been  speaking  of  our  railway  projects. 
Just  as  usual — a  barking  and  bickering  affair.  Thurso 
and  Wick  cannot  agree.  Very  lately  they  were  burning 
here  an  effigy  of  a  man  of  straw,  which  they  named  the 
editor  of  the  Northern  Ensign.  And  the  Wick  folk 
burnt  our  John  George  Sinclair,  son  of  Sir  George 
Sinclair, — all  because  they  differed  in  their  notions  of 
what  was  what." 

His  brother-in-law  having  sent  him  his  photograph, 
Dick  said:  "Of  course,  I  ought  in  return  to  send  you 
'mysel,'  but  there  is  no  one  here  but  a  watchmaker  who 
does  anything  that  way;  and  some  people  have  got 
themselves  made  so  very  unlike  life,  that  I  prefer  not 
trusting  to  be  made  a  mock  of. 

"  Yet  you  may  some  time  or  another  see  me ;  and  in 
the  meantime,  to  assist  your  imagination,  you  can  just 
fancy  a  round-faced,  grey-whiskered,  laughing  fellow. 
Indeed,  so  much  is  that  my  character,  that  a  young 
man,  now  in  New  Zealand,  used  to  say  of  me  that  I 
was  always  laughing.  In  fact,  that  young  man  often 
came  to  me  sad  and  sad  enough,  and  I  always  sent  him 
away  laughing  too.  He  still  remembers  me,  and  sends 
me  the  New  Zealand  papers." 

Dick  was  still  working  at  his  grasses  in  order  to 
complete  his  herbarium  : — "  I  am  anxious,"  he  said,  "  to 
complete  my  British  grasses — no  very  easy  matter,  as 
botanists  generally  despise  grasses.  Why  they  should 
do  so  is  a  mystery  to  me,  for  grasses  are  very  interest- 
ing  plants. 


CHAP.  xxin.  DICK'S  LAST  WALK.  403 

"  A  gentleman  in  Aberdeen  wrote  to  me  about  the 
Holy  Grass.  I  put  in  a  word  for  two  grasses  I  wanted. 
He  sent  me  those  two,  and  in  return  for  them  I  sent 
him  fifty  specimens  of  Caithness  grass. 

"Another  gentleman  in  London  has  asked  me  for 
shells  from  our  shores,  and  I  have  supplied  him  as  far 
as  I  could — on  condition  of  receiving  grass  for  grass." 

Again  he  says  (20th  August  1866)  :— 

"  I  have  not  got  many  rambles  this  summer,  and  I 
blame  that  as  the  cause  of  the  weakness  in  my  stomach. 
I  used  to  be  such  a  great  walker,  and  the  change  is 
telling  on  me," 

Nine  days  after  this  letter  was  written,  Dick  took  his 
last  walk.  He  had  for  some  time  been  complaining  of 
his  health.  At  first  he  thought  that  it  was  indigestion 
that  troubled  him.  "  If  I  eat  I  choke,"  he  says.  Then 
he  complained  of  his  want  of  breath.  Indeed,  few  con- 
stitutions could  have  stood  the  amount  of  toil,  labour, 
and  privation,  which  he  had  endured  during  his  long 
course  of  inquiry  into  the  fossils,  plants,  grasses,  and 
mosses,  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  Caithness.  He 
had  often  walked  from  fifty  to  eighty  miles  between 
one  baking  and  another,  with  little  more  in  his  scrip 
than  a  few  pieces  of  biscuit.  Youth  can  endure  many 
privations,  but  when  a  man  becomes  comparatively 
old — and  Dick  was  now  fifty-five — he  cannot  evade 
with  impunity  the  requirements  of  nature. 

Dick  took  his  last  journey  on  the  29th  of  August 
1866.  He  thus  describes  it : — 

"  A  week  ago  I  went  to  a  quarry  at  noon  to  search 
for  a  fossil,  if  I  could  possibly  find  such  a  thing. 


404  FIGHTS  HIS  WA  Y  HOME.        CHAP.  xxm. 

"  I  felt  a  burning  pain  under  my  breast-bone,  in  my 
stomach  ...  I  was  not  well  at  all  Scorning  to  yield, 
I  pushed  on,  but  only  grew  worse. 

"  I  reached  the  quarry,  but  only  to  become  conscious 
that  I  might  as  soon  think  of  dancing  on  my  crown  as 
to  look  among  the  stones  for  the  dead  or  the  living. 

"  After  sitting  down  a  little,  I  felt  that  my  wisest 
way  was  just  to  go  home  again — if  I  could.  I  was 
hardly  able  to  get  out  of  the  quarry;  I  had  become 
so  giddy. 

"  I  got  out  though,  and  staggered  up  a  hill,  and  sat 
down.  I  then  became  terribly  sick.  '  Ha !  ha !'  said  I, 
'  surely  I  must  be  better  now.'  No ;  I  tried  to  rise  up, 
but  was  so  giddy  that  I  could  scarcely  stand ;  I  could 
not  balance  myself.  But  I  got  up  and  went  a  little, 
and  sat  down.  Up  again,  went  on,  sat  down.  I  got  up 
and  sat  down  nearly  a  dozen  times  in  succession ;  all 
the  while  the  burning  pain  in  my  breast  was  cruel 

"  After  I  had  battled  on  for  two  miles  I  got  sick 
again.  c  This  won't  do,'  said  I ;  '  I  don't  fancy  dying 
amongst  the  heather.'  So  I  tried  to  run.  I  got  on  a 
bit,  in  a  zigzag  way,  and  then  threw  myself  down.  I 
got  up  and  off  again,  and  at  length  found  myself  on  the 
public  road.  I  moved  on  in  a  drunken  sort  of  fashion 
— half-blind  too — and  threw  myself  down  on  a  dyke 
beside  the  river. 

"  After  resting  a  little,  I  got  up  and  made  a  dash  for 
the  river  Thurso,  through  which  I  waded,  just  as  I  was, 
bran  deep.  There's  a  bleaching-green  by  our  river,  and 
many  old  wives  were  there.  I  grew  sick  again  in  the 


CHAP.  xxm.  DICK'S  ILLNESS.  405 

midst  of  them — dreadfully !  No  doubt  they  wondered, 
as  Dick  the  baker  never  drank  whisky. 

"  At  length  I  got  home  and  went  to  bed.  I  have 
slept  none  for  nearly  a  week,  but  the  terrible  burning 
pain  has  left  me.  My  head  is  still  so  giddy  that  I  can 
hardly  go  up  stairs. " 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  Ill  though  he 
was,  he  continued  to  go  on  with  his  daily  work.  His 
legs  began  to  swell,  until,  as  lie  said,  they  were  like  to 
burst.  And  then  his  breath  was  so  bad  that  he 
added,  "  I  am  like  a  broken-winded  horse."  This  was 
extraordinary  to  him,  as  he  used  to  pride  himself  on  his 
"  long  wind." 

He  slept  very  little,  but  when  he  slept  at  all,  he 
woke  "  gasping  for  breath."  Then  he  got  up  and  sat  on 
a  chair,  sometimes  all  night — occasionally  with  his  head 
on  a  table.  He  tried  hunger  and  cold  water.  Indeed, 
he  had  no  appetite.  And  yet  he  did  his  day's  work, 
though  with  much  difficulty. 

One  night  he  prepared  his  work  for  the  following 
morning.  He  wished  to  have  four  hours'  sleep,  but  he 
soon  got  up,  gasping.  He  took  hold  of  the  bed-post  "  to 
blaw."  He  tried  to  sleep  again.  It  was  of  no  use. 
"Nothing  but  suffering."  Then  he  got  up  and  went 
down  to  the  kitchen  fire,  laid  his  head  on  a  table,  and 
tried  to  sleep,  but  he  could  not.  He  accordingly  got  up 
at  one  in  the  morning  and  began  his  day's  work. 
"  Though  want  of  breath  and  want  of  strength  weiv  luml 
on  me,"  he  says,  "  I  battled  away,  and  ultimately  filled 
my  oven  with  capital  bread,  and  my  breathing  got  a 


406  CONTINUES  AT  HIS  WORK.     CHAP.  xxm. 

little  easier.  And  there  it  stands.  I  am  not  at  all 
well,  but  Hope — 

" '  Hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast.' 

"  I  have  sent  you,"  he  said  to  his  brother-in-law,  "  a 
Thurso  paper  full  of  holes — holes  out  of  which  I  have 
cut  words  such  as  '  Thurso,' '  Caithness,'  '  Dunnet,'  etc., 
for  my  plants."  For  he  was  still  working  away  at 
intervals  on  his  herbarium. 

He  got  no  better.  Sometimes  he  was  relieved,  and 
then  he  grew  worse  again.  He  thought  it  was  an 
internal  fever  burning  him  up,  and  causing  an  enormous 
drinking  of  cold  water.  "  I  do  not  say  I  will  go  this 
time,"  he  says,  "  but  my  symptoms  are  much  the  same 
as  Jane's,  my  father's,  and  Ann's."  In  fact,  it  was 
disease  of  the  heart  under  which  he  laboured,  and 
perhaps  of  the  liver.  Hence  his  dropsical  symptoms. 

He  still  continued  his  correspondence,  though  his 
writing  became  weak  and  shaky — like  that  of  a  sick 
man.  He  also  continued  his  daily  work.  On  the  1st 
of  October  he  writes: — 

" '  See  the  wretch,  who  long  has  tossed 
On  the  thorny  bed  of  pain, 
Recruit  his  health  and  vigour  lost, 
And  live  and  walk  again. 

The  blooming  earth,  the  sun,  the  skies, 

To  him  are  opening  paradise/  " 

"  A  solemn  truth ;  and  none  but  those  who  have  been  in 
some  measure  afflicted,  and  tossed,  and  racked,  and 
wearied  out  of  all  patience,  can  know  anything  of  the 


CHAF,  xxin.  THE  DOCTOR.  407 

blessedness  of  the  relief  one  feels  when  the  disease  from 
which  he  has  been  suffering  is  passing  away. 

"  The  fever  has  got  a  check,  and  from  this  time  forth 
a  new  life  will  dawn  upon  me.  I  have  got  relief  in  my 
gasping  for  breath,  and  I  can  now  lie  in  my  bed  at  night 
until  I  choose  to  rise.  I  still  moan  and  complain  a  great 
deal  in  my  sleep,  but  I  don't  get  outrageous  and  wild, 
frightening  the  old  woman,  puir  body !  Indeed,  I  am 
a  good  deal  better,  and  though  quite  impatient  under 
this  dire  affliction,  and  at  times  almost  hopeless,  I  still, 
upon  the  whole,  cherish  the  hope  of  ultimate  recovery." 

But  he  hoped  against  hope.  Death  had  laid  hold  of 
him.  Dr.  Shearer  says  the  disease  of  which  he  died  was 
aneurism,  leading  to  cardiac  complication  and  dropsy — 
a  disease  to  which  his  laborious  calling  and  extraordinary 
exertions  in  travelling  and  climbing  rocks  and  mountains 
would  particularly  predispose  him. 

His  housekeeper  pressed  him  to  send  for  the  doctor. 
"  No,"  said  he,  "  no  doctor.  If  I  am  to  die,  then  I  must 
die."  In  fact,  he  did  not  care  very  much  for  doctors. 
He  thought  their  "  cures "  were  very  much  the  result 
of  happy  guessing.  "  If  it  has  taken  me,"  he  said,  "  a 
lifetime  to  ascertain  the  nature  of  plants  and  animals, 
is  it  likely  that  a  four  years'  curriculum  can  fit  any  man 
to  comprehend  the  mysterious  processes  of  the  living 
human  body?"  Besides,  there  was  the  expense  of 
calling  in  a  doctor ! 

At  length,  after  he  had  been  seriously  ill  for  about 
two  months,  his  friend,  Mr.  John  Miller  of  London,  came 
down  to  Thurso  and  called  upon  Dick.  He  was  amazed 


408  PROGRESS  OF  HIS  DISEASE.      CHAP.  xxin. 

to  find  the  great  change  that  disease  had  made  in  his 
appearance ;  and  he  insisted  upon  Dr.  Mill  being  sent 
for.  As  for  the  expense,  he  would  cheerfully  pay  the 
doctor's  bill.  Dick  expostulated,  but  it  was  of  no  use. 
The  doctor  was  sent  for.  He  put  Dick  under  a  course 
of  treatment  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  the  swelling  in 
his  limbs.  Writing  to  his  brother-in-law  on  the  subject, 
he  said :  "  A  good  deal  depends  on  the  way  in  which  we 
take  these  things.  I  keep  up  my  heart,  and  struggle 
bravely  against  all  my  troubles." 

When  the  doctor  urged  him  to  give  up  work  and 
engage  a  journeyman,  he  said:  "All  buff!  my  only 
chance  is  to  continue  at  my  daily  work."  He  therefore 
continued  at  his  work,  although  his  legs  were  fit  to 
burst.  Indeed,  they  did  burst.  But  he  still  kept  at  his 
work.  About  a  fortnight  before  his  death,  his  brother- 
in-law,  knowing  the  hard  straits  to  which  he  was  reduced, 
offered  to  send  him  some  money.  Dick  answered  :  "  I 
am  no  better.  The  swelling  is  steadily  moving  upward. 
You  offer  to  send  me  a  present  ?  No,  no !  But  I  will 
take  a  present  from  you  of  a  pair  of  spectacles.  My 
present  ones  are  too  weak."  His  friend,  nevertheless, 
sent  him  four  sovereigns  and  a  pair  of  spectacles. 

He  was  scarcely  able  to  write  when  he  received  his 
brother's  kindly  gift.  But  he  did  write,  with  a  very 
straggling  restless  hand.  He  was  now  in  bed,  and  never 
got  up  again.  He  said :  "  Your  kind  favour  of  £4  came 
duly,  and  not  the  spectacles  as  I  had  expected,  for  which 
I  return  you  many  thousand  thanks.  I  am  no  better. 
My  legs  are  running  water,  and  very  disagreeable."  In 


CHAP,  xxiir.       LAST  LETTER  TO  PEACH.  409 

a  postscript,  written  the  day  after,  he  said  :  "  The  spec- 
tacles are  here  this  morning,  but  I  am  no  better.  Many 
thousand  thanks.  Long  life  to  you.  Adieu!" 

He  had  still  one  more  letter  to  write.  It  was  to  his 
dear  friend  Charles  Peach.  Mr.  Peach  did  not  know  of 
Dick's  illness,  but  a  few  days  before  his  death  he  wrote 
him  a  long  letter.  "  Dear  fellow,"  says  Mr.  Peach,  "  what 
could  he  do  more  to  show  the  respect  that  he  bore  for 
me,  than  by  writing  in  his  agony  the  subjoined  letter  ? 
Oh !  how  it  cut  me  to  know  that  we  were  so  soon  to 
part.  Although  the  most  mournful  letter  that  I  ever 
received,  it  is  comforting  to  me  to  find  that  I  was  not 
forgotten  by  him,  even  in  his  entrance  to  the  dark  valley." 

Dick's  last  letter  was  as  follows : — "  Thurso,  15th 
December  1866. — My  dear  Sir — Instead  of  sending  you 
a  long  letter  in  return  for  your  kind  one,  I  fear  that  I 
cannot  write  to  you  at  all.  I  have  been  for  four  months 
unable  to  do  anything  by  swollen  limbs — water  on  the 
chest  in  fact ;  and  lest  I  should  die,  I  only  notice  you. 
I  am  very  poorly,  so  you  will  excuse  me.  I  am  not 
able.  No  rest  night  or  day. — Believe  me  ever  yours 
very  truly,  ROBERT  DICK." 

Mr.  John  Miller  continued  his  kindness  to  Dick  to 
the  end  of  his  days.  He  sent  his  housekeeper,  Mrs. 
Harold,  to  nurse  him.  She  attended  carefully  to  his 
wants.  When  she  first  dressed  his  legs,  he  felt  much 
relief.  He  ejaculated,  "That's  a  blessing.  It's  just 
like  an  angel  sent  from  heaven." 

He  knew  that  he  was  dying.  Mrs.  Harold  said  to 
him,  "  You  may  yet  get  better."  "  No !"  said  he ;  "  the 


410  ROBERT  DICK'S  DEA  TH.        CHAP.  xxm. 

days  of  miracles  are  past."  His  mind  occasionally  wan- 
dered. Once,  in  his  agony,  he  exclaimed,  "  Oh  mother ! 
mother !"  He  thought  he  was  grasping  her  hand. 

One  night  he  thought  that  a  batch  was  in  the  oven. 
He  was  convinced  that  it  was  there,  and  that  the  bread 
must  be  taken  out.  He  insisted  on  being  carried  into 
the  bakehouse  to  see  it.  He  was  taken  to  the  front  of 
the  oven.  The  door  was  opened,  and  it  was  all  black 
inside.  The  bread  was  not  there.  The  oven  was  never 
more  to  be  lighted.  He  looked  round  the  walls,  and 
recognised  his  old  drawings.  He  was  now  ready  to 
faint,  and  was  taken  back  to  his  bed. 

Amongst  those  who  visited  Dick  towards  the  end  of 
his  illness  were  his  excellent  friends  Mr.  John  Miller, 
Sir  George  Sinclair,  Mr.  Wallace  the  coast  missionary, 
Mr.  Brims,  procurator-fiscal,  and  Mr.  Miller  the  respected 
minister  of  the  parish.  Mr.  Miller  prayed  with  him,  and 
read  to  him  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  St.  John.  Christ's 
words  were  a  great  consolation  to  Dick  on  his  bed  of 
death.  Mr.  Miller  says  of  him  that  "  he  was  the  most 
humble  believer  that  he  ever  met." 

Dick  was  ready  to  depart.  He  was  wearied  of  life. 
It  was  better  that  he  should  die.  He  had  been  oppressed 
with  poverty,  and  now  he  was  oppressed  with  agony. 
Why  should  he  remain  a  little  longer  ?  He  had  done 
his  appointed  work,  and  was  now  more  than  resigned  to 
leave  it.  He  longed  to  be  at  rest. 

In  the  morning  of  the  24th  of  December,  Robert 
Dick's  spirit  returned  to  Him  who  gave  it.  Towards 
the  end,  his  sufferings  left  him,  and  he  died  quietly  and 


CHAP.  xxm.         SYMPATHY  FOR  DICK.  411 

peacefully.     He  was  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Wise  and 
Loving. 

Towards  the  end  of  his  life,  much  sympathy  was 
expressed  for  Dick  and  his  condition.  The  few  people 
who  continued  to  deal  with  him,  had  long  known  of  his 
illness.  Four  months  elapsed  between  the  time  when  he 
was  struck  by  death  in  the  quarry,  and  the  day  of  his 
death.  His  customers  saw  him  growing  feebler  and 
feebler,  panting  for  breath,  and  yet  continuing  at  his 
daily  work.  It  was  only  during  the  last  fortnight  of  his 
life,  that  he  finally  dropped  from  their  sight.  Then  they 
heard  of  his  intense  sufferings,  and  of  the  unwearied 
resignation  and  indomitable  fortitude  with  which  he 
bore  them.  The  sympathy  which  his  illness  excited  was 
almost  intense.  The  Thurso  people  felt  that  a  great 
though  comparatively  unknown  man  was  about  to  pass 
away.  At  his  death  there  was  an  almost  universal  sob 
throughout  the  town. 

He  was  also  mourned  by  others  who  had  known  him 
intimately,  and  valued  him  for  his  kindliness,  his  noble- 
ness, and  his  love  of  science.  Amongst  these  was 
Charles  Peach,  of  Edinburgh.  "After  many  years  of 
close  friendship  for  him,"  he  said  to  Sir  Roderick 
Marchison,  "  I  had  come  to  love  him.  He  was  such 
a  cheerful  and  intelligent  companion.  At  the  same 
time,  he  was  as  fond  of  my  pursuits  as  I  was  myself; 
and  thus  a  bond  of  brotherhood  existed  between  us." 

Sir  Roderick  was  then  issuing  the  fourth  edition  of 
his  Siluria  to  the  public.  He  there  says — "Alas!  whilst 


412        MURCHISON  ON  DICICS  DEATH.     CHAP.  xxin. 

these  pages  are  printing,  I  have  to  record  the  death  of 
this  remarkable  man.  Eobert  Dick  was  unquestionably 
gifted  with  genius,  and  possessed  of  great  original 
strength  of  mind.  That  he  had  a  strong  poetic  verve 
was  proved  by  his  having  purchased  fine  editions  of  the 
works  of  Burns,  Scott,  Byron,  and  other  poets,  out  of  his 
scanty  earnings ;  for  he  was  a  baker,  ever  much  engaged 
in  hard  manual  labour.  On  one  of  my  visits  to  Thurso, 
when  we  were  lamenting  over  the  want  of  a  map  of 
Caithness,  he  prepared  for  my  instruction  a  model  in 
flour,  which  he  manipulated  into  hills,  valleys,  and 
watercourses,  and  thus  brought  into  relief  all  the  sur- 
rounding country.  He  was  as  well  acquainted  with 
every  living  British  plant  as  he  was  with  all  the  Caith- 
ness fossils.  Admiring,  as  I  did,  such  energy  and  ability 
in  a  modest  working  man,  I  rejoice  to  know  that  it  has 
been  resolved  to  erect  a  monument  to  his  memory  at 
Thurso."  * 

On  the  day  of  his  death,  Mr.  James  Mill,  chief 
magistrate  of  Thurso,  issued  the  following  announce- 
ment : — "  Mr.  Eobert  Dick  died  at  his  house  here  this 
morning  at  half-past  six  o'clock.  Through  his  vigorous 
and  energetic  study  of  the  Geology  and  Botany  of 
Caithness,  he  has  been  instrumental  in  developing  the 
natural  history  of  our  county,  and  in  attracting  the 
attention  of  the  Scientific  World  to  its  resources  in  no 
ordinary  degree ;  and  when  we  look  back  on  his  labours 
in  the  field  for  the  last  thirty  years,  we  feel  that  Robert 
Dick  merits  from  the  people  of  Caithness  a  Public 

* Siluria.     Fourth  Edition,  p.  269. 


CHAP.  xxin.  A , PUBLIC  FUNERAL.  413 

Funeral,  as  the  most  suitable  way  in  which  they  can 
express  their  gratitude  for  what  he  has  done,  and  their 
sorrow  for  his  removal  from  amongst  us.  We  accord- 
ingly invite  all  who  wish  to  testify  their  respect  for  our 
departed  friend  to  assemble  at  his  house  in  Thurso  on 
Thursday,  the  27th  current,  at  one  o'clock  p.m.,  to 
accompany  his  remains  to  the  New  Burial  Ground  oi 
Thurso." 

Of  all  the  things  that  Eobert  Dick  could  have  desired, 
the  very  last  would  have  been  a  public  funeral.  He  was 
so  modest  in  all  that  he  did,  so  unwilling  to  be  talked  or 
written  about,  so  retired  and  self-sacrificing  in  everything 
— that  carrying  his  remains  to  the  grave  amidst  the 
sound  of  drums  and  trumpets  would  have  been  alto- 
gether revolting  to  him.  But  all  this  was  done  by  the 
Thurso  people  in  respect  for  his  memory,  and  that  it 
might  be  known  that  a  great  though  modest  man  had 
gone  out  from  amongst  them. 

The  funeral  was  largely  attended.  Men  came  from 
Wick  and  Castlehill,  and  from  the  country  far  and  near,  tc 
be  present.  All  the  shops  and  places  of  business  in  the 
town  were  closed  during  the  funeral.  The  procession  was 
led  by  the  bands  of  the  Thurso  rifles  and  artillery  playing 
the  Dead  March  in  Saul.  After  them  were  the  Volun- 
teer Eifle  Corps  and  the  Volunteer  Artillery  Corps. 
Then  came  the  coffin  carried  shoulder-high ;  pall-bearers, 
Sir  George  Sinclair,  Bart.,  James  Mill,  Esq.,  Chief  Magis- 
trate, and  William  Bremner,  Esq.  The  Clergy ;  the 
office-bearers  of  the  Thurso  Scientific  Society  ;  the 
various  trades, — including  the  bakers,  masons,  tailors, 
19 


414  THE  NEW  CEMETERY.  CHAP.  xxm. 

seamen  and  fishermen,  shoemakers,  merchants,  pavement- 
cutters,  and  the  general  public ;  followed  the  remains 
to  the  cemetery.  It  was  one  of  the  largest,  most  impres- 
sive, and  remarkable  funerals,  that  had  ever  been  seen 
in  Thurso. 

The  new  cemetery,  in  which  Eobert  Dick's  remains 
were  laid,  is  about  a  mile  from  the  town.  It  overlooks 
the  banks  of  boulder  clay  on  which  the  geologist  had 
spent  so  much  of  his  time.  The  place  where  he  had 
discovered  the  Hierochloe  borealis  is  near  at  hand,  on  the 
sward  by  the  river-side.  Far  off  is  seen  the  entrance  to 
the  river  Thurso,  the  ships  in  the  offing,  Dunnet  Head, 
and  in  the  distance  the  island  of  Hoy  in  the  Orkneys. 
He  was  laid  in  the  midst  of  the  scenes  which  he  knew  so 
well,  and  where  he  had  spent  so  many  nights  of  patient 
and  toilful  plodding,  while  so  many  others  were  enjoying 
their  peaceful  repose. 

After  the  funeral  came  the  winding  up  of  Dick's 
affairs.  We  have  said  that  he  was  a  poor  man.  At 
his  death  he  owed  a  considerable  sum — over  £72 — to  his 
flour-merchant  in  Leith.  His  mind  was  much  troubled 
before  he  died  about  how  this  amount  was  to  be  paid. 
There  were,however,the  flour  in  his  bakehouse,  the  books 
in  his  library,  and  his  furniture,  such  as  it  was,  as  security. 
He  was  never  able  to  repay  his  sister  the  sum  of  money 
which  he  had  borrowed  from  her  on  the  shipwreck  of  his 
flour ;  but  he  had  the  sum  in  his  clothes-chest,  in  sove- 
reigns of  many  coinages,  which  his  brother-in-law  thinks 
he  intended  to  repay.  But  he  never  found  himself  in  cir- 
cumstances sufficient  to  enable  him  to  return  the  amount, 


CHAP.  XXHI.         SALE  OF  DICK'S  LIBRARY.  415 

If  he  had  been  able  to  leave  anything  to  anybody,  he 
would  have  done  so  to  his  housekeeper,  Annie  Mackay, 
a  worthy,  independent-minded  woman,  who  had  served 
him  faithfully  for  thirty  years.  But  he  died  without 
making  any  will,  as  he  had  nothing  to  leave. 

The  flour,  the  books,  and  the  furniture  were  sold  by 
"public  roup,"  and  they  realised  sufficient  to  pay  his 
ordinary  debts.  The  furniture  of  one  room  was  given 
to  Annie  Mackay,  who  still  lives,  to  laud,  amidst  tears, 
her  kind  and  good  "maister."  How  she  contrives  to 
live  is  a  mystery. 

Dick's  library  was  extensive.  It  consisted  of 
twenty-seven  volumes  on  Geology,  eighteen  volumes  on 
Botany,  eight  volumes  on  Conchology,  nineteen  volumes 
on  Entomology,  thirty-three  volumes  of  the  Naturalist's 
Library,  twenty-seven  volumes  of  the  Penny  Cyclopedia, 
thirty-eight  volumes  of  the  Edinburgh  Cabinet  Library, 
and  two  hundred  and  twenty-nine  volumes  on  miscella- 
neous subjects,  many  of  which  were  of  a  scientific  cha- 
racter,— in  all,  three  hundred  and  eighty-nine  volumes. 
The  whole  of  these  were  sold  for  £32 : 12s.,  or  at  less  than 
two  shillings  a  volume.  But  second-hand  books  never 
sell  well,  even  when  they  are  the  property  of  a  genius ; 
and  especially  when  they  are  of  a  scientific  character. 

While  Dick  lay  ill,  his  kind  friend  Mr.  Miller  asked 
his  consent  to  apply  to  the  Queen  for  a  pension  for  his 
geological  discoveries.  Mr.  Miller's  intention  was  to  ask 
Sir  Eoderick  Murchison  to  use  his  influence  with  scien- 
tific men  in  London,  to  sign  and  support  the  necessary 
memorial  to  her  Majesty  with  that  object.  Dick,  when 


416        A  PENSION  TO  BE  ASKED  FOR.    CHAP.  xxm. 

writing  to  his  step-sister  on  the  7th  November,  said  : — 
"  I  am  not  so  sanguine  on  that  point  as  Mr.  Miller  is ; 
but  I  gave  my  consent  to  allow  him  to  get  a  pension 
little  or  muckle ;  it  will  be  a  great  matter  to  me." 

But  it  was  too  late.  Before  the  Queen's  mercy  could 
be  appealed  to,  a  pension  was  no  longer  needed.  Dick's 
spirit  had  left  its  frail  tenement  of  clay. 


MONUMENT   TO   ROBERT   DICK    IN   THURSO   CEMETERY. 


CHAPTER  XXTV. 

CHARA  CTERISTICS. 

ROBERT  DICK  died  early.  Yet  he  had  lived  mote  than 
most  men.  He  had  worked  hard  to  obtain  knowledge. 
He  had  worked  hard  for  the  love  of  science.  He  did 
not  work  for  his  honour  and  glory.  He  gave  freely  to 
others,  without  any  thought  of  reward.  In  this  respect 
he  was  entirely  self-sacrificing. 

We  have  said  that  his  youth  was  unhappy.  His 
mother  died  when  he  was  a  boy,  yet  he  remembered 
her  to  the  day  of  his  death.  After  that  he  suffered 
injustice  which  threw  a  shadow  over  his  future  life. 
There  was  no  gentleness  about  his  bringing-up.  For 
relief  he  went  to  the  fields  and  the  mountains,  and  fell 
in  love  with  the  beauties  of  nature.  The  taste  never 
loft  him. 

The  tears  of  childhood  soon  dry  up,  and  then  begin 
the  sighs  of  manhood.  But  Dick,  though  brought  up  to 
a  life  of  hard  work,  was  never  daunted.  He  tried  to 
make  the  best  of  his  life,  such  as  it  was.  When  he 
settled  at  Thurso,  he  again  threw  himself  into  nature. 
Though  baffled  in  his  affections,  he  forgot  his  sorrow  in 
his  strivings  after  knowledge.  His  natural  disposition, 
though  thwarted,  was  never  soured. 


418  GEOLOGY  A  MYSTERY.         CHAP.  xxiv. 

The  sea  was  his  delight.  He  wandered  along  the 
shores,  and  found  things  rich  and  beautiful  and  full  of 
wonder.  Though  he  wandered  about  solitary,  he  had  no 
time  for  melancholy  dreams.  Every  flower  melted  him, 
every  star  touched  him,  even  every  beetle  engraved 
itself  upon  his  mind.  He  was  a  reverent  man.  Un- 
belief is  blindness,  but  his  mind  was  all  eyes,  and  his 
imagination  was  full  of  light,  and  life,  and  being. 

The  earth  became  to  him,  in  a  measure,  transparent. 
It  drew  him  out  of  the  narrow  sphere  of  self-interest. 
Everywhere  he  saw  significancies,  laws,  chains  of  cause 
and  effect,  endlessly  interlinked.  He  could  not  theorise 
about  what  he  saw.  He  wanted  the  true  foundation — 
facts.  "Let  us  have  facts,"  he  said,  "real,  certain, 
unmistakable  facts ;  there  can  be  no  science  without 
them." 

Geology  was  at  first  a  great  mystery  to  him.  It 
seemed  to  him,  as  it  really  was,  a  revelation  of  the 
physical  conditions  of  the  by-past  world.  The  rocks 
near  Thurso  spoke  to  him  of  a  time  when  the  Coccos- 
teus,  large  and  small,  covered  with  berry  bones — the 
Osteolepis,  with  enamelled  bony  scales — the  wrinkled 
ganoid  Holoptychius,  the  gigantic  Asterolepis,  covered 
with  star  scales — had  ranged  at  will  over  the  length  and 
breadth  of  Caithness. 

All  these  had,  at  some  remote  period,  been  destroyed 
by  violent  death, — either  by  a  sudden  retirement  of  the 
sea,  or  by  a  sudden  uplifting  of  the  land.  Platforms  of 
death  rose  one  above  another,  story  above  story,  the 
floor  of  each  bearing  its  record  of  disaster  and  sudden 


CHAP.  xxiv.     CHANGES  OF  SEA  AND  LAND.  419 

confusion.  Wide  areas  of  seas  were  depopulated,  but 
the  dead  fish  remained.  They  were  left  in  the  mud. 
The  mud  and  fish  became  Caithness  flag — now  the 
support  of  a  large  population.  "  Thus  Thurso  itself,"  said 
Dick,  "  is  built  of  dead  fish." 

But  that  time  passed  away,  and  the  sea  went  rolling 
over  Caithness.  Ponderous  glaciers  went  grating  along 
the  mountain  sides  of  the  Scaraben  range,  grinding  its 
rocks  down  into  clay,  and  strewing  the  deep-sea  bottom 
with  gigantic  boulders.  Amongst  the  boulders  and 
boulder  clay,  which  forms  a  large  part  of  the  county  of 
Caithness,  Dick  found  the  numerous  marine  shells  which 
have  been  described  in  the  previous  pages. 

All  this  was  very  mysterious  to  Dick.  The  preoccu- 
pancy  of  the  seas  by  the  fishy  tribes,  and  the  present  joint 
tenancy  of  the  land  by  man  and  the  lower  creation, 
were  two  striking  facts  which  strongly  impressed  his 
imagination.  Might  not  this  be  the  first  cycle  of  the 
geological  manifestation  of  the  globe;  or  rather  the 
first  of  a  series  of  cycles,  at  whose  close  the  existing 
races  of  living  beings,  and  the  gorgeous  fabrics  of 
national  vanity,  shall  yield  their  haughty  relics  to  the 
sport  and  desolation  of  the  elements, — when  new  heavens 
and  a  new  earth  shall  replace  the  ruins  of  a  world  ? 

Although  Dick  devoted  a  great  part  of  his  spare  time 
to  botany,  it  was  to  geology  that  he  devoted  so  large  a 
share  of  his  attention.  It  was  MantelTs  Wonders  oj 
Geology  that  first  attracted  him  to  the  subject;  then 
Buckland's  Bridgewater  Treatise,  and  after  that  Hugh 
Miller's  Old  Red  Sandstone.  He  had  already  found 


420        ASSISTANCE  TO  HUGH  MILLER.    CHAP.  xxiv. 

the  fossil  bones  of  the  Holoptychius,  the  gigantic  ganoid 
fish  of  the  Old  Red,  before  he  became  acquainted  with 
Hugh  Miller.  He  sent  the  specimen  to  Edinburgh,  and 
received  Hugh's  warm  acknowledgments.  The  corre- 
spondence between  them  at  length  ripened  into  a  warm 
intimacy,  and  Dick  continued  to  send  to  Miller,  as  long  as 
he  lived,  the  best  of  his  findings  among  the  fossil  fish  of 
Caithness.  "  Indeed,"  says  Mr.  Peach,  "  Dick  was 
Hugh's  greatest  benefactor,  and  gave  him  more  solid 
assistance  than  any  other  person." 

Dick  was  one  of  the  most  unselfish  of  men.  He 
made  every  one  free  to  his  stores  of  knowledge.  He 
gave  freely,  without  any  hope  of  reward.  He  had  no 
jealousy,  no  mean  rivalry.  Though  he  hammered  and 
chiseled  for  fossils,  sometimes  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  he 
sent  everything  that  was  valuable  to  Hugh  Miller — 
everything  that  was  calculated  to  establish  his  views, 
and  to  turn  his  gathered  treasures  to  account  in  the 
establishment  of  scientific  truth.  "  But  for  him,"  says 
one  of  his  friends,  "and  his  sedulous  and  faithful 
attachment  to  Hugh  Miller,  in  the  capacity  of  'lion's 
provider '  (as  was  sometimes  jocularly  remarked  between 
themselves),  the  Footprints  of  the  Creator  might  never 
have  been  written ;  or  at  least,  being  written,  the  great 
culminating  points  in  the  argument  would  have  been 
shorn  of  their  force  and  power ;  and  the  principal  facts, 
and  the  greater  portion  of  the  descriptive  geological 
groundwork  of  the  volume,  would  have  been  wanting." 

By  Mr.  Dick's  specimens  of  the  then  unknown  fish, 
Hu^h  Miller  was  enabled  to  identify  the  great  Russian 


CHAP.  xxiv.  DICK'S  DISCOVERIES.  421 

Chelonichthys  with  the  Asterolepis  of  the  Caithness 
beds,  and  to  reconstruct  to  a  certain  extent  this  monster 
of  the  primeval  seas.  Agassiz  says  that  the  remains  of 
the  Asterolepis  found  by  Mr.  Dick  at  Thurso  indicate  a 
length  of  from  twelve  feet  four  to  thirteen  feet  eight 
inches.  It  was  the  occurrence  of  this  monster  among 
the  vertebrates  at  such  an  early  period  of  the  world's 
history,  that  gave  Hugh  Miller  the  key-note  to  that 
elaborate  argument,  by  which  he  endeavoured  to  con- 
trovert the  development  theory  of  Oken,  Lamark,  and 
the  author  of  the  Vestiges  of  Creation. 

Mr.  Dick  not  only  provided  the  fragments  by  means 
of  which  the  structure  of  the  Asterolepis  was  wrought 
out — especially  the  small  medium  plate  in  the  cranial 
buckler,  immediately  over  the  eyes,  which  Professor 
Sedgwick  immediately  recognised  as  "  the  true  finish," — 
but  he  discovered  the  peculiar  dental  apparatus  of  the 
palate  of  the  Dipterus,and  he  detected  the  ichthyodorulite 
of  the  Homocanthus,  which,  though  already  found  in  the 
Old  Eed,  were  not  previously  known  to  exist  in  Scotland. 

Hugh  Miller  was  always  most  ready  to  acknowledge 
his  obligations  to  Eobert  Dick.  "He  has  robbed  himself 
to  do  me  service,"  said  Hugh  Miller.  And  yet  Dick  was 
so  modest  and  unassuming,  that  he  shrank  with  the 
utmost  sensitiveness  from  everything  like  publicity. 
He  had  no  idea  of  making  himself  famous.  On  the 
contrary,  he  "  blushed  to  find  it  fame  "  that  he  had  gone 
out  of  the  ordinary  track  and  done  anything  worthy  of 
being  recorded  in  scientific  books.  He  was  willing,  like 
Keats,  that  his  name  should  be  "  writ  in  water."  "  T 
19* 


422     DICK'S  MODESTY  AND  SHYNESS.     CHAP.  xxiv. 


am  a  quiet  creature,"  lie  said  to  Hugh  Miller,  "  and  do 
not  like  to  see  myself  in  print  at  all."  When  Sir  Eoderick 
Murchison  made  the  eulogistic  speech  about  him  at 
Leeds,  he  said,  "  That  speech  has  got  me  into  a  great 
deal  of  trouble."  And  when  Mr.  Peach  went  to  the 
British  Association  at  Aberdeen,  Dick  said  to  him, 
"  Pray,  do  not  mention  me  ;  if  anybody  asks  about  me, 
say  that  I  am  well ;  I  want  to  be  let  alone."  "  His 
unassuming  modesty,"  said  Sir  George  Sinclair,  "  was  as 
conspicuous  as  the  wonderful  amount  of  his  knowledge." 

It  would  be  hard  to  imagine  a  more  devoted  lover  of 
science,  or  a  more  ardent  and  unselfish  seeker-out  of 
knowledge  for  its  own  sake.  His  success  in  this  respect 
lay  in  his  earnestness,  his  enthusiasm,  and  his  persistent 
perseverance.  Though  a  solitary  man,  the  ardour  and 
purity  of  his  devotion  to  science  saved  the  health  of  his 
moral  and  mental  nature,  and  enabled  him  to  live  to  the 
end  of  his  days,  cheerful,  happy,  and  human -hearted. 
His  pursuits  elevated  his  nature,  and  bore  him  up 
against  the  petty  annoyances  of  the  world. 

The  amount  of  voluntary  labour  which  Dick  imposed 
upon  himself,  in  pursuit  of  his  favourite  sciences,  is 
something  incredible.  Every  nook  and  cranny  of  the 
county  was  familiar  to  him.  The  bleak  bluff  rocks  of 
Dunnet  Head  were  as  familiar  to  him  as  the  shores  of 
Thurso  Bay.  The  hills  of  Morven  and  Scaraben  were 
his  playgrounds.  In  summer  time,  and  even  in  winter, 
he  wandered  far  and  near,  always  alone.  He  walked  by 
night  to  Freswick  and  Dunbeath  in  search  of  the  boulder 
clay  and  its  marine  shells.  He  wandered  up  Strath 


CHAP.  xxiv.         LABOUR  A  NECESSITY.  423 

Halladale  in  the  moonlight,  and  came  home,  across  the 
hills,  by  Braalnabin,  to  Thurso.  Or  he  would  walk 
across  the  country,  over  bog  and  mire,  to  Morven  top, 
and  be  back  in  time  for  his  day's  baking.  He  hammered 
among  the  rocks  at  Murkle  Bay  until  the  moon  shone 
clear  in  the  water.  He  clambered  up  and  down  the 
rocks  at  Dunnet  Head  in  search  of  ferns.  In  the  early 
mornings,  in  spring,  he  went  up  the  banks  of  the  Thurso 
river  to  see  the  flowers  unveiling  themselves  before  the 
light  of  sunrise.  The  hills  about  Eeay  were  among  his 
favourite  haunts.  There  he  transplanted  the  ferns  which 
he  had  brought  from  Dunnet  Head,  so  that  they  might 
be  cheering  the  wandering  botanist  when  he  himself,  as 
he  said,  was  "  out  of  time." 

Labour  was  an  absolute  necessity  for  him.  "  I  find 
it  utterly  impossible,"  he  said,  "  to  be  idle.  There  is 
nothing  for  me  but  regular  labour.  If  I  cannot  find 
any  ordinary  work  to  do,  I  must  invent  some  extraordi- 
nary work.  I  could  not  be,  and  would  not  be,  what  the 
world  calls  a  gentleman — that  is,  standing  idle — even 
though  I  were  paid  for  it.  The  mind  must  be  employed, 
even  though  what  occupies  it  is  doomed  to  come  to  an 
end  and  pass  away  into  nothingness,  and  we  ourselves 
with  it." 

The  intellectual  labours  of  men  such  as  Dick  are 
often  spoken  of  as  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  under  diffi- 
culties ;  but  they  are  also  the  pursuit  of  knowledge 
under  pleasure.  "We  forget  the  delight  which  accom- 
panies the  discovery  of  a  new  fact,  and  the  enlighten- 
ment of  a  mind  thirsting  for  knowledge.  This  was  one 


424  HIS  CAREFUL  OBSERVATION.     CHAP,  xxiv 

of  the  greatest  pleasures  of  Dick's  life.  We  forget  also 
the  elevating  and  purifying  effects  of  searching  after 
truth.  In  pursuing  knowledge,  he  was  merely  serving 
his  higher  nature. 

Nor  did  he  ever  make  a  parade  of  what  he  knew. 
He  was  modest  and  retiring.  Others  sought  him,  not 
he  them.  He  thought,  like  Newton,  that  all  that  we 
know  was  as  but  mere  shells  on  the  sea-shore,  compared 
with  what  must  ever  remain  unknown.  And  yet  those 
who  were  admitted  to  his  intimacy  were  surprised  at 
the  amount  of  knowledge  he  had  acquired. 

"It  was  impossible,"  says  Dr.  Shearer,  " for  one 
coming  into  the  merest  casual  contact  with  him  not  to 
catch  up  some  portion  of  his  own  vivid  enthusiasm  in 
natural  science ;  and  no  man  was  ever  better  fitted  by 
nature  as  a  luminous  and  gifted  expounder  of  scientific 
truth.  His  conversation  was  so  rich  that  one  always 
came  away  surfeited." 

"He  combined  in  himself  rare  powers  of  original 
research,  and  an  amazing  industry  in  the  pursuit  of 
truth,  with  a  sweet  and  winning  eloquence  which  was 
all  his  own.  His  collection  of  the  British  Flora  is 
almost  unique  in  its  completeness.  Looking  at  the 
difficulties  he  encountered  in  collecting  it,  his  herbarium 
is  an  extraordinary  tribute  to  his  diligence,  skill,  and 
long-continued  perseverance." 

Dick  diligently  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  all 
that  lay  around  him.  He  noted  with  wonderful  accu- 
racy the  He  of  a  country.  He  marked  upon  the  map 
that  he  carriM.  about  with  him  the  faults,  and  dips,  and 


CHAP.  xxiv.  HIS  FOSSILS,  425 

dislocations  of  the  strata ;  thus  correcting  the  statements 
of  previous  geologists.  He  was  not  satisfied  with  accept- 
ing the  statements  and  adopting  the  conclusions  of 
others.  He  would  not  take  anything  for  granted  that 
he  could  see  and  observe  for  himself.  When  his  views 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  fossil  fish,  as  explained  by  Hugh 
Miller,  were  disputed  by  scientific  men,  he  said,  "  Why 
can't  they  leave  their  books,  and  come  here  and  see  for 
themselves  ? " 

Nor  was  he  in  a  hurry  to  connect  himself  with  those 
who  traced  a  harmony  in  all  respects  between  the  cos- 
mogony of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  and  the  indications 
of  geological  science.  "  We  think,"  he  said,  "  that  we 
have  deciphered  the  writing  on  the  selvage  of  the  great 
volume  of  the  earth ;  and,  lo !  we  proceed  to  erect  our 
fragmentary  knowledge  into  a  science,  and  to  show  its 
correlation  with  all  the  other  departments  of  truth." 
Again,  "  Let  us  watch  for  facts,  and  wait."  Knowing 
that  Nature  herself  must  ever  harmonise  with  truth,  he 
endeavoured  to  trace  out  the  workings  of  the  Almighty 
in  the  little  spot  of  earth  to  which  he  was  confined, 
with  lowly  and  reverent  adoration,  and  with  simple, 
childlike  delight. 

The  number  of  fossils  that  he  collected  was  very 
great.  With  his  usual  generosity,  he  made  over  a  con- 
siderable part  of  them  to  Hugh  Miller.  Another 
portion,  containing  some  of  his  best  specimens,  was 
sold  to  Mr.  Miller  of  London,  for  the  purpose  of  paying 
his  debts  after  the  shipwreck  of  his  flour.  The  remain- 
ing fossils  were  found  in  his  museum  after  his  death. 


42G 


HIS  HERBARIUM. 


CHAP.  XXIV. 


The  fossils  sent  to  Hugh  Miller  are  now  to  be  found 
in  the  Museum  of  Science  and  Art  at  Edinburgh.  The 
collection  is  marked,  "  Fossils  used  by  the  late  Hugh 
Miller  to  illustrate  his  works."  The  whole  of  those 
marked  "  Thurso"  were  found  by  Robert  Dick,  though 
his  name  does  not  appear  on  any  of  them. 


TOWN  HALL,    THUKSO. 

But  his  herbarium  also  exhibits  the  best  proofs  of 
Eobert  Dick's  industry,  judgment,  and  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose. The  collection  was  made  over  to  the  Thurso 
Scientific  Society,  by  Mr.  Alexander,  of  Dunfermline, 
Eobert  Dick's  nearest  surviving  relation.  To  tell  the 
truth,  this  extraordinary  collection  has  been  very  much 
neglected.  The  herbarium  consists  of  about  two  hundred 
folios,  full  of  botanical  specimens.  The  grasses  and  ferns, 
and  in  fact  all  the  plants,  are  beautifully  preserved.  They 


CHAP.  xxiv.  DICK'S  CHARACTER.  427 

are  carefully  gummed  on  to  their  respective  sheets,  and 
in  the  case  of  the  Caithness  plants,  the  habitat  is  always 
given.  The  manner  in  which  they  are  arranged  shows 
the  eye  of  the  artist.  The  mosses  are  unfinished.  We 
have  by  us  the  book  which  he  carried  in  his  side-pocket, 
still  full  of  the  mosses  which  he  was  collecting  and 
gumming  on  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

The  herbarium  seems  to  have  been  thrown  into  a 
corner,  and  laid  on  the  floor.  It  is  full  of  living  moths, 
and  their  grubs  have  already  made  sad  havoc  with  the 
collection  of  grasses  in  which  Dick  took  so  much  pride. 
The  Scientific  Society  of  Thurso  ought  surely  to  do 
something  to  put  the  collection  in  proper  order.  The 
respect  which  they  entertain  for  Eobert  Dick  requires 
this  to  be  done.  They  will  never  again  possess  such 
another  botanist  to  collect  and  arrange  the  plants  and 
grasses,  and  ferns  and  mosses,  of  Caithness. 

A  few  more  words  about  Dick's  character.  "We 
have  said  that  he  was  a  solitary  man.  He  was  for  the 
most  part  alone  with  himself.  He  communed  much 
with  his  own  thoughts.  He  always  made  his  long 
journeys  on  foot  alone.  "No  good  work,"  he  said, 
"  could  be  done  in  company."  He  had  few  real  friends ; 
and  his  relatives  were  far  distant. 

Under  such  circumstances,  and  with  such  a  nature, 
Dick  was  in  imminent  danger  of  losing  the  health  of  his 
spirit  and  the  just  balance  of  his  character.  Such  a 
man  is  often  driven  to  brood  on  himself ;  or  sell  his  life 
to  miserable,  miserly  money-making ;  perhaps  to  drink 
or  self-indulgence.  But  Dick  did  none  of  these.  Hi3 


428  CHEERFUL  AND  SOCIAL.        CHAP,  xxiv 

love  of  knowledge  and  science  saved  him.  Besides,  he 
was  childlike  in  his  nature.  He  had  the  wonder  of  a 
child  ;  he  had  the  feelings  of  a  child.  He  was  always 
merciful  to  children.  He  was  blameless,  simple,  cheer- 
ful, in  all  that  he  did. 

Though  he  was  naturally  a  man  of  retiring  manners, 
he  was  by  no  means  unsociable.  He  had  a  great  deal 
of  human  nature  in  him.  To  those  who  knew  him 
besv.  he  was  cheerful  and  social.  He  had  a  vein  of 
inno^nt  fun  and  satire  about  him ;  and  he  often 
turned  his  thoughts  into  rhyme.  Sir  George  Sinclair 
said  of  Mm,  "  His  temper  was  naturally  cheerful,  and 
even  facetious.  His  comely  and  animated  countenance 
beamed  TMth  intelligence  and  good  humour.  His 
estimable  a^.-l  faithful  attendant,  who  resided  with  him 
for  the  long  period  of  thirty-three  years,  never  heard  a 
hasty  word  drop  from  his  lips,  or  saw  his  bright  coun- 
tenance clouded  by  an  angry  frown.  The  grateful  tears 
which  she  has  so  plenteously  shed  attest  the  kindly 
tenor  of  his  domestic  life." 

Professor  Shearer  also  adds — "  He  was  held  in 
honour  for  his  scientific  attainments  by  a  growing  num- 
ber of  the  inhabitants,  and  by  the  small  number  of 
young  men  whom  the  little  town  used  to  send  to  the 
universities  ;  while,  by  the  working  men  generally,  the 
purity  of  his  life  and  the  independence  of  his  character 
secured  for  him  a  respect,  which,  to  my  own  knowledge, 
was  never  once  broken.  His  moral  character  was  never 
called  in  question." 

Charles  Peach,  who  knew  him  so  well,  said  of  him, 


CHAP.  xxiv.         LIVING  BY  HIS  LABOUR.  429 

"  His  character  was  thoroughly  without  blemish.  He 
never  said  an  ill  word  of  any  one ;  and  never  repeated 
anything  to  another's  discouragement.  I  regret,"  he 
adds,  "that  so  many  of  his  curious  and  original  discoveries 
have  been  lost,  because  he  made  no  communication  of 
them  to  others,  and  had  a  special  aversion  to  what  he 
called  '  blowing  his  own  trumpet.' " 

Dick  continued  poor  to  the  close  of  his  life.  He  was 
content  to  be  poor,  so  long  as  he  was  independent, 
and  free  to  indulge  his  profound  yearnings  after  more 
knowledge.  Though  he  attended  carefully  to  his 
business,  he  was  not  successful.  He  was  ruined  by 
competition.  The  shipwreck  of  his  flour  reduced  him 
almost  to  beggary.  But  he  never  told  his  Thurso  friends 
of  his  losses.  He  was  the  last  man  to  "  send  round  the 
hat."  Like  Burns,  he  was  "owre  blate  to  seek,  owre 
proud  to  snool."  When  his  customers  left  him,  he  said 
to  one  of  his  friends — "  Well,  they  might  not  have  done 
it.  I  have  wrought  long  for  them,  and  I  have  served 
them  well ;  but  it  cannot  be  helped  now." 

Charles  Peach,  not  knowing  of  his  losses,  once  said 
to  him,  that  "he  would  soon  be  able  to  save  enough 
money  to  retire,  and  give  himself  up  wholly  to  scientific 
pursuits."  A  gloom  fell  over  his  countenance.  "  Oh 
no  !"  said  he,  "  I  shall  never  do  that."  But  he  added, 
"  Notwithstanding  the  opposition  that  has  destroyed  my 
trade,  I  am  still  here — a  baker  after  all !"  And  he  smiled 
at  the  efforts  which  had  been  made  to  strangle  him. 

Sir  George  Sinclair,  perhaps  not  knowing  his  struggles 
to  live,  said  after  his  death — "Mr.  Dick's  honourable 


430  ANNIE  MACK  AY.  CHAP.  xxiv. 

I 

desire  to  earn  his  livelihood  by  his  own  exertions, 
and  the  unremitting  diligence  with  which  he  attended 
to  matters  of  business,  without  allowing  scientific 
pursuits  to  interfere  with  his  daily  and  respectable 
calling,  have  long  since  attracted  my  cordial  admiration. 
He  was  always  at  hand  when  wanted ;  and,  like 
Johnson's  estimable  friend  Lovatt, 

"  '  No  summons  mocked  by  chill  delay — 
No  petty  gains  disdained  by  pride  ; 
The  modest  wants  of  every  day 
The  toil  of  every  day  supplied.' " 

It  was  fortunate  for  Dick's  memory  that  he  left  no 
debts  unpaid.  Everything  that  he  owed  was  paid  in 
full ;  though  little  was  left  for  his  faithful  friend  Annie 
Mackay. 

When  I  went  to  Thurso,  I  expected  to  obtain  a  good 
deal  of  information  from  her  about  her  old  master. 
But  she  could  give  me  very  little.  She  could  not  speak 
for  tears.  "  He  was  my  good  and  kind  maister  !  " — that 
was  nearly  all  that  she  could  tell  me.  But  she  showed 
me  Dick's  house  and  the  bakehouse  behind, — now 
divided  into  separate  tenements. 

Little  more  need  be  said  about  Eobert  Dick.  The 
"  unco  guid  "  said  hard  things  of  him.  They  drew  a 
religious  moral  from  the  painfulness  of  his  death.  Poor 
self-satisfied  creatures !  One  of  Dick's  sayings  might 
apply  to  them.  "  Some  men,"  he  said,  "  make  an  image 
of  God  after  their  own  hearts,  and  not  after  the  image  of 
their  Maker." 

Yet  all  who  knew  Dick  intimately  spoke  of  him  as  a 


CHAP.  xxiv.        DICK  A  RELIGIOUS  MAN.  431 

thoroughly  religious  man.  His  was  one  of  those  deeply 
reverent  natures  that  are  essentially  religious,  though 
not  cumbered  about  with  forms  or  ceremonies  or  sec- 
tarian differences.  Indeed,  one  of  the  things  that  drove 
him  from  the  church  was  the  quarrels  of  those  who 
were  ministers  in  it.  Professor  Shearer,  of  Bradford, 
says,  "My  own  opinion  is  strongly  that  in  this  man 
were  combined  singular  powers  of  thought  and  the 
greatest  devotion  to  natural  science  ;  and  at  the  bottom 
of  all,  a  truly  devout  and  earnest  spirit." 

Another  says,  "  I  had  a  conversation  with  him  on 
this  solemn  subject;  and  I  believe  'his  right  hand 
touched  God's  ' — to  others  it  might  be  in  the  dark ;  but 
Robert  Dick  knew  it.  He  studied  his  Bible  diligently, 
and,  like  all  his  other  studies,  his  whole  soul  went  into 
it.  He  held  his  Sabbath  worship  in  his  own  house  alone. 
Whether  we  look  to  his  upright,  frugal,  temperate 
character  as  a  man,  or  to  his  wonderful  labour  and  per- 
severance in  his  favourite  studies,  it  is  difficult  to  say 
which  most  to  admire.  But  I  admire  above  all  his 
loving  and  reverent  spirit." 

Robert  Dick's  life  tells  its  own  moral.  His  manful 
perseverance  in  encountering  the  difficulties  of  life ;  his 
steadfastness,  his  honesty,  his  purity ;  his  highminded- 
ness  in  carrying  on  his  business  affairs ;  his  energy  and 
devotedness  in  cultivating  his  higher  nature ; — all  these 
command  our  admiration. 

Thus  the  man  of  the  humblest  condition  may  at  the 
same  time  do  honour  to  his  calling  and  elevate  the  con- 
dition of  his  class.  By  the  diligent  use  of  his  spare 


432  MORAL  OF  DICK'S  LIFE.         CHAR  xxiv, 

time,  he  may  even  add  many  new  facts  to  the  con- 
stantly enlarging  domain  of  science.  In  the  case  of 
Dick,  how  little  time  was  misspent,  how  much  know- 
ledge was  gained  and  communicated, — and  all  with  so 
much  humbleness,  modesty,  and  unselfishness !  It  is 
by  men  such  as  he  that  the  character  of  a  country  is 
elevated  to  the  highest  standard,  and  raised  in  the  scale 
of  nations. 

"  Whilst  the  institutions  and  customs  of  men,"  says 
Professor  Sedgwick,  "  set  up  a  barrier,  and  draw  a  great 
and  harsh  line  between  man  and  man,  the  hand  of  the 
Almighty  stamps  His  first  impress  upon  the  soul  of 
many  a  person  who  never  rises  above  the  ranks  of  com- 
parative obscurity  and  poverty.  Hence  arises  a  lesson 
of  great  importance, — that  we  should  learn  in  our  walks 
through  life,  in  our  mingling  with  the  busy  scenes  of 
the  world,  a  lesson  of  practical  wisdom,  of  kindness,  of 
humility,  and  of  regard  for  our  fellow  beings." 


INDEX, 


AJBBCROMBY  family,  7. 

Acharynie,  198,  200. 

Aikman,  Mr.,  Tullibody,  17,  40,  48, 

193. 

Agriculture  in  Caithness,  33. 
Allman,  Professor,  266. 
Alva,  2. 
Al-wick,  81. 
Amygdaloid,  277. 
Argyll,  Duke  of,  285. 
Asterolepis,    207,    215,    224,    272, 

289,  362,  421. 
Atlantic  at  Thurso,  24. 

BABINGTON,  Professor,  266,  341. 

Bakehouse,  Dick's,  272,  323,  381. 

Baker,  life  of  a,  19 ;  bakers  in 
Thurso,  315. 

Balfour,  Professor,  74,  266,  291, 294. 

Baltic  rush,  255,  340. 

Banniskirk,  138. 

Barrogill  Castle,  28,  211. 

Bencheilt,  37,  193,  229. 

Bencleuch,  Ochil  Hills,  3. 

Biscuits,  Dick's,  49,  396. 

Bishop's  Palace,  Thurso,  111,  121. 

Botany,  Dick's  first  acquaintance 
with,  19  ;  study  of,  50  ;  his  col- 
lection, 254,  264,  426. 

Boulder  clay,  formation  of,  133,  158; 
at  Freswick,  169, 184  ;  at  Thurso, 
159  ;  at  Dunbeath,  192. 

Boulders,  180,  190,  400. 

Brims,  geology  at,  125. 

British  Association,  245,  263. 

Brough,  83,  95,  174. 

Brown,  Dr.,  288,  290. 

Buckland,  Dr.,  99,  106,  249. 

Busby's  oook,  99. 


CAITHNESS,  description  of,  26. 
Cambuskenneth,  5. 
Carlyle,  Mr.  T.,  286,  401. 
Castles,  old,  in  Caithness,  31, 44, 201. 
Castle  Campbell,  1. 
Castlehill,  29,  180. 
Castletown,  87,  180. 
Chambers,  Dr.  R.,  246,  367. 
Character  of  Dick,  373,  427. 
Clett,  Holborn  Head,  43,  124. 
Cley,  Norfolk,  241,  243. 
Coast  scenery  of  Caithness,  30. 
Coccosteus,  100,  107,  127,  139/325, 

359. 

Colenso,  Bishop,  400. 
Competition  in  Thurso,  153,  313. 
Conybeare   on  fossils    in  Caithness 

and  Cornwall,  98,  245. 
Cornish  geology,  245,  250. 
Correspondence  with  Hugh  Miller, 

100-159. 

Coutts,  Baroness  Burdott,  286. 
Creation,  one,  305. 

DAM'S  BURN,  10. 

Darwin,  Mr.,  304,  309. 

Deil's  Brig,  Holborn  Head,  123. 

Devon  River,  1. 

Dick,  Robert, — birthplace,  8  ;  scho- 
lar, 9,  11 ;  son  of  nature,  12, 18  ; 
treatment  at  home,  13  ;  his  self- 
control,  15 ;  apprenticed  to  a 
baker,  17 ;  acquaintance  with 
Botany,  19  ;  a  great  reader,  20  ; 
becomes  a  journeyman,  22 ;  re 
moves  from  Greenock  to  Thurso 
23  ;  begins  trade  as  a  baker,  40  , 
Conchology,  41  ;  Botany,  42 ; 
Entomology,  44 ;  the  boys  aud 


434 


INDEX. 


the  baker,  45  ;   attends  lectures, 

Dick,  Thomas,    Excise    officer,    8  ; 

47  ;  Astronomy  and  Phrenology, 

second  marriage,  10  ;  made  Super- 

47 ;    studies   Botany,    50  ;    buys 

visor,     20  ;     made    Collector     el 

books,  52  ;  buys  a  microscope,  52  ; 

Excise,  43  ;  his  death,  151. 

walks  in  the   country,    56,   60  ; 

Dips  of  Caithness  rocks,   131,  218. 

hunting  for  ferns,  61,  78  ;  journey 

227,  230. 

to  Morven  top,   65  ;  taken  for  a 

Diplopterus,  137,  144,  204. 

poacher,  67  ;  the  "  Holy  Grass," 

Dipterus,  137,  214. 

73  ;    Dorery  hills,    78  ;    Dunnet 

Dirlot  Castle,  201. 

Head,    83  ;    descends  the  Head, 

Don,  the  botanist,  73. 

88  ;    studies  Geology,   98  ;  reads 

"  Donald's  Flittin,"  149. 

"  Old  Red  Sandstone,"  99  ;  cor- 

Dorery Hills,  78. 

responds  with  Hugh  Miller,  100  ; 

Druidical  temple,  229. 

discovers   a    Holoptychius,    108  ; 

Dunbeath,  193. 

journey  round  the  Thurso  coast, 

Duncansby  Head,  30  ;  Stacks,  16d. 

111  ;  the  west  coast,  119  ;  visited 

Dunmyat,  3. 

by  Hugh   Miller,   141  ;  death   of 

Dunnet  Head,   23,  81  ;   lighthouse, 

his  father,  151  ;  why  he  left  "the 

85  ;  cliffs,  144,  172,  296. 

Kirk,"  154  ;  his  solitary  service, 

Dunnet  Loch,  96. 

196  ;  journey  to  Freswick,  167  ; 

Dunnet  Sands,  77,  143. 

to  Brough,   172  ;   to   Dunbeath, 

Durness,  257. 

192  ;  to  Dirlot,  200  ;  to  Sinclair 

Dwarwick  Head,  84. 

Bay,  204  ;   to  Strath  Halladale, 

208  ;  to  Haven  of  Mey,  211;  Dick's 

EGYPTOLOGY,  381. 

assistance  to  Hugh  Miller,  214  ; 

Emigration    from    Caithness,    147, 

the  map,  220  ;  journey  to  Gill's 

381. 

Bay,  228  ;  to  Bencheilt,  229  ;  Dick 

mourns     Hugh     Miller's     death, 

FERN-  HUNTING,  61,  76,  78,  89,  296, 

234  ;     becomes   acquainted  with 

341,  376. 

Mr.  Peach,  253  ;  interview  with  a 

Finlayson's  lecture,  365. 

Highlander,  268  ;  interviews  with 

Flagstones,  Caithness,  132,  316. 

Sir  R.   Murchison,    270;    Dick's 

Flint,  liquid,  367. 

Rhymes,     277  ;     shyness,    283  ; 

Folkingham,  240. 

friendship  for  medical   students, 

Forss,  27,  121  ;  Water,  388. 

288  ;    illness,   300  ;   plants  ferns 

Fossil-hunting,  100,  110,  118,  131, 

throughout  the  county,  297,  301  ; 

214,  285,  323  ;  fossils  sold,  335  ; 

decline  of  business,  312  ;  his  hon- 

new collection,  348,  359,  398. 

esty,   319  ;     Sir  Wyville   Thom- 

Free Church,  148,  155. 

son.  323  ;  wreck  of  his  flour,  329; 

"  Fresh  herring,"  139. 

compelled  to  sell  his  fossils,  335  ; 

Freswick  Castle,  168  ;  boulder  clay 

"0  waft  me  o'er  the  deep  blue 

at,  169-191  ;  bridge  at,  190. 

sea,"  345  ;  a  sleepless  man,  346  ; 

Freswick,  journeys  to,  167,  178. 

recommences  a  collection  of  fos- 

sils, 348  ;   his  temperance,  376  ; 

GAELS  in  Caithness,  27. 

Dick  at  home,  378  ;  correspond- 

Geography of  Caithness,  35. 

ence  with  Peach,  387  ;  in  gallop- 

Geology —  Dunnet  Head,  90  ;  Dick's 

ing  ruin,  395  ;  his  last  walk,  403  ; 

beginnings  of,  99,  102  ;  not  yet 

his  illness,  405  ;  his  death,  410  ; 

a    science,    130  ;     formation    of 

public  funeral,  413  ;   winding-tip 

Caithness,    132  ;     boulder    clay, 

tf  his   affairs,  414  ;   his   library, 

133-154. 

415  ;    a  pension  proposed,  415  ; 

Gilchrist,  Margaret.  9. 

Dick's  character,  417. 

GUI's  Bay,  228. 

INDEX. 


435 


Giniigo  Castle,  31. 

Maps  of  Caithness,  35,  219,  272. 

Glaciers,  133,  165. 

Medical  students,  288. 

Gorranhaven,  Cornwall,  244. 

Meiklejohn,  Dr.,  288,  308. 

Gulf  Stream,  24,  296. 

Menstrie,  2,  4. 

Gyoes  in  Caithness,  30,  32,  44,  85, 

Metamorphic  action,  366. 

116. 

Mey,  Haven  of,  211. 

Microscopic  shells,  369. 

HAELLAN,  Loch,  210. 

Miller,  John,  F.G.S.,  330,  355,  363, 

Halie  Loch,  96. 

407. 

Halley's  comet,  47. 

Miller,  Hugh—  Old  Red  Sandstone, 

"  Hammers  an'  chisels,"  277. 

99  ;    correspondence  with    Dick, 

Harold,  Mrs.,  409. 

100  ;  on  working-men  Geologists, 

Harpsdale,  164,  178. 

105  ;    visits    Thurso,    141  ;    de- 

Hart's-tongue fern,  298,  301. 

scription  of  the  coast,  144  ;  cor- 

Harvieston, 2. 

respondence  with,  100,  159-191, 

Herbarium,  Dick's,   254,   274,   280, 

214-234  ;    the    fairies,    the    bio- 

380, 426. 

graphy,  236. 

Highlanders,    emigration    of,     147, 

Monk  of  Cambray,  261. 

381. 

Moraines,  122,  387. 

Hills  in  Caithness,  33,  65. 

More,  Loch,  196. 

Holborn   Head,    24,    43,   81,    123, 

Morven,  33,  65. 

144. 

Moss-hunting,  295,  321,  397. 

Holoptychius,   101,   104,   110,  139, 

Mountains  of  Caithness,  32,  65. 

214. 

Mnrchison,   Sir  B.,  218,  257,  270, 

Holothuria,  Peach's,  247. 

332,  411. 

Holy  Grass,  73,  255,  344. 

Homocanthus,  217. 

"  NAIL  "  at  Stromness,  354. 

Honesty  of  Dick,  319 

Natural    History    Society,    Thurso, 

Hoplocanthus,  217. 

384,  486. 

Hoy,  Old  Man  of,  24,  115. 

Nichol,  Professor,  270. 

Nesses  of  Caithness,  England,  etc., 

ICEBERGS,  133,  163,  165,  192. 

26. 

Noss  Head,  204. 

JAMIESON,  Mr.,  Ellon,  386. 

Notcutt,  Mr.,  botanist,  265,  343. 

John  o'  Groat's,  23,  182. 

Johnson,  Dr.,  291. 

OCHIL  Hills,  1,  2,  12. 

Old  Red  Sandstone,  86,  91,  99,  114, 

KIRK,  attendance  at,  153,  267. 

177,  219,  261. 

Knox,  John,  6. 

Ord  of  Caithness,  35. 

Orkney  Islands,  24. 

LAPLXND  flora,  340. 

Osteolepis,  106,  214. 

Layton,  Rev.  J.,  242. 

Owen,  Professor,  216,  342. 

Lighthouse,  Dunnet  Head,  85. 

Linnaeus  and  mosses,  295. 

PARK,  MUNOO,  295,  372. 

Lion-hunters,  282. 

Peach,  Charles  W.—  his  birth,  239  ; 

Lochs  in  Caithness,  32  ;  on  Dunnet 

education,  240;  Riding  Officer  in 

Head,  83,  95. 

the     Coastguard,    241  ;     studies 

zoology,    242  ;    his    various    re- 

MACCULLOCH, Dr.  257. 

movals,  243;  Gorranhaven,  Corn- 

Mackay, Annie,  43,  318,  415,  430. 

wall,  244  ;  collects  marine  fauna, 

Macleod,  Dr.  Norman,  267. 

and  studies  geology,  245  ;  reads 

Maiden  Pap,  65. 

a    paper   at   British    Association. 

INDEX. 


245  ;   at  York,  246  ;   his  micro- 

Sea, description  of  the,  24,  30,  41, 

scope,  248  ;  promoted  to  Landing 

81,  119. 

Waiter  at  Fowey,  249  ;  promoted 

Sedgwick,  Professor,  215,  257,  432 

to  Comptroller  at  Peterhead,  251; 

Shearer,  Dr.,  306,  372,  374,  421. 

removed   to   Wick,    252  ;    inter- 

Shearer, Professor,  234,  428. 

views  with   Robert    Dick,    252  ; 

Shells,  marine,  160,  163,   170,  184 

researches    at     Durness,   Suther- 

194,  207. 

landshire,  257  ;  finds  new  fossils, 

Shurery,  Ben,  207. 

258-9  ;   Sir  Roderick  Murchison, 

Sinclair,  Sir  George,  285,  410,  42L 

272  ;  rhymes  sent  to  Peach,  277- 

Sinclair,  Sir  John,  37. 

287  ;  limestone  fossils,  368  ;  en- 

Sinclair Bay,  204. 

tertained    by    Dick,    375;    finds 

Skerries,  Pentlaud,  28,  168. 

more  fossils,  389  ;  his  labour,  391  ; 

Skerry  Ben,  65. 

retirement,    392;    continues    his 

Slater's  monument,  124,  144. 

researches,  his  honours,  393;  his 

Spring  in  the  North,  56. 

photograph,  394  ;  last  letter  from 

Standing  Stone,  Tullibody,  5. 

Dick,  409. 

Stratlibeg,  203. 

Pension  proposed  for  Dick,  415. 

Strath  Halladale,  208. 

Peutland  Firth,  27,  86. 

Stemster,  Loch,  230. 

"  Peri,"  the,  377. 

Stroma,  island  of,  39,  182. 

Perichthys  Dicki,  390. 

Sunday  in  Scotland,  155,  267. 

Peterhead,  Charles  Peach  at,  251. 

Phrenology,  48. 

TEMPERANCE  of  Dick,  55,  376. 

Picts,  the,  4,  28. 

Thomson,  Sir  Wyville,  323. 

Poacher,  Dick  taken  for  a,  67. 

Thurdistoft,  163. 

"  Prince  Consort,"  328. 

Thurso,—  Dick  goes  to,  23  ;  trade  at, 

Pringle,  Mr.,  Farmer's  Gazette,  344. 

34;  fossiliferous  beds  near,  112; 

Pterygotus,  390. 

old  church,  274  ;  improvement  o  j 

Public  funeral,  Dick's,  413. 

316. 

Pudding  Gyoe,  116. 

Thurso  Bay,  23,  41,  111,  118. 

Thurso  Castle,  37,  54,  432. 

RANGAG,  Loch,  230. 

Thurso  River,  59,  159,  365. 

Ratter,  Burn  of,  211. 

Thurso  East,  111. 

Religion,  Dick's,  372,  431. 

Trees  in  Caithness,  29,  87. 

Revenue  service,  241,  392. 

Tullibody,  1,  17,  21. 

Rhyming  faculties,  277,  287. 

Roads  in  Caithness,  34. 

VERSES,  Robert  Dick's,  277-89,  345 

Roses,  Caithness,  292,  309,  341. 

Rough  Head,  85. 

WALKING,  Dick's,  55. 

Royal  Fern,  the,  296. 

Wansford,  240. 

Wart  Hill,  182. 

SALMON  at  Thurso  river,  23. 

Weydale,  125,  134,  136,  350. 

Salter's  lecture,  360. 

Wick,  30,  252. 

Scandinavians  in  Caithness,  27. 

Wilson's  Lane,  Thurso,  5J3,  271. 

Scarskerry,  227. 

Witness  newspaper,  99,  135. 

Scrabster  Burn,  118,  122. 

Scrabster  Roads,  82,  121. 

ZOOLOGY  of  Cornwall,  244;  of  Petal 

Sea  bird,  crj  of  the,  25. 

head,  251. 

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