156 



some of them may have been due to particular conditions of dried 

 or of drying mud. The markings of the kind referred to may be 

 met with in tolerable abundance in some parts of the New Red of 

 Edenside, especially in the St. Bees Sandstone ; and they are well 

 worth attentive study, whatever view one may be disposed to take 

 regarding their origin. 



Sir William had, some time before, brought out his " Ichnology 

 of Annandale," wherein he had figured some of the more remark- 

 able of the impressions that were obviously vestiges of the 

 air-breathing animals of that remote period. But in regard to the 

 origin of many of the others both he and Harkness had long felt 

 unable to offer any satisfactory explanation, and it was with the 

 object of obtaining further information regarding them, quite as 

 much perhaps as the hope of discovering additional specimens of 

 the markings themselves, that led him about this time to turn his 

 full attention to that part of the remaining fragments of the deposits 

 of New Red age that obviously once connected the Dumfries 

 outliers with the New Red of the adjoining parts of the North of 

 England. 



Harkness did not by any means allow his knowledge of other 

 branches of geology to remain unused, and we find him still 

 working hard, now at one subject, now at another, all having 

 more or less direct bearing upon the Geology of the Basin of the 

 Solway. One result of his work in this direction was that his 

 claims to one of the highest distinctions conferred by any scientific 

 society upon men that have contributed to the advancement of 

 science, were beginning to be fully recognized amongst the leading 

 men of the metropolis. The following characteristic letter from 

 Sir Roderick Murchison sufficiently proves this point : — 



M.P.G., 26 April, 1856. 

 My dear Sir, 



I am happy to tell you that I have just heai'd that you are one of the 

 four geologists whose certificates I signed who have been selected out of the 

 candidates for Election as F.R.S. 



I congratulate you, and tell you honestly that you are very fortunate ; for I 

 really did not think that you would succeed the first year, particularly as you 

 were appointed with other good geologists who had longer claims. 



