HIS HELPFULNESS 281 



too great, and brought a noble and well-spent life to 

 a sudden and tragic end. 



It is to me a valued privilege to take part to-day 

 in the centenary celebration of such a man. The 

 years slip away, and I am probably the only geologist 

 now alive who knew Hugh Miller well. He was my 

 earliest scientific friend. Some boyish articles I had 

 written in an Edinburgh newspaper on a geological 

 excursion to the Isle of Arran had gained me his 

 acquaintance, and ever thereafter I enjoyed his friend- 

 ship and profited by his encouragement. To his help- 

 ful intervention I owed my introduction to Murchison, 

 and thence my entry into the Geological Survey. His 

 death was one of the great bereavements of my youth. 

 It is therefore with heartfelt gratification that here, 

 in his native town, so early familiar to me from his 

 graphic descriptions, I find myself permitted on this 

 public occasion gratefully to express my life-long 

 indebtedness to him for his noble example, for the 

 stimulus of his writings, and for the personal kind- 

 ness which I received at his hands. 



