228 Dr Hrssert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse, 
deep waters, which pervade the intricate recesses of this spacious 
grotto. 
From this vast submerged labyrinth, formed during the pro- 
cess of quarrying, myriads of organic remains have, for fifty years 
or more, been extracted,—only to be devoted to the kiln! 
But this destruction is not without a precedent. 
When I accompanied a savant to the older excavations of 
Burdiehouse, he pronounced the quarry, as well in reference to 
its picturesque character as to the associations which it instantly 
inspired,—a seconD Monrmartre.—(See Plate V.) 
The famous Gypsum quarry of Paris certainly exhibits an 
analogous instance of a prolonged destruction of organic remains, 
which was not effectually resisted, until a Cuvrer, supported by 
all the aid which a government friendly to science could impart, 
interfered, and, with the arm of power, stopped a ruthless anni- 
hilation of organic remains fatal to our knowledge of the tertiary 
history of our planet. 
In the present instance, the merit of a similar interposition, 
which Geology will ever commemorate with gratitude, is due to 
Tue Royat Socrery or Eprnpureu. 
NOTES TO SECTION XVII. 
In admiring the picturesque character of the old quarry grotto of Burdiehouse, 
the imagination is liable to be carried beyond the precincts of sober philosophical 
meditation, and, in reference to the osseous relics enshrined within its solid walls, to 
even indulge in the phantasies which geology can but too readily conjure up. No- 
thing seems wanting to complete the illusions which the grotto is calculated to excite, 
except to connect them with an imaginary emergence from beneath its dark watery 
recesses of the Grntus or Fossiz History,—the same Genius who has given inspi- 
ration to a Woopwarp, a Cuvier, a BuckLanp, or an Acassiz, to whom, in a vi- 
sionary mood, we may assign local attributes of personification, and whom we may 
array in the costume of the carboniferous epoch, so well indicated by the fossil relics 
of Burdiehouse. She may be armed, cap-a-pée, with a resplendent coat of mail 
wrought from the hard and enamelled scales of the Megalichthys; crowned with a 
wreath of ferns, in which many fantastic species of the Sphenopteris are entwined ; 
while in her grasp may be placed a magic wand, wrought from a jointed stem of the 
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