SIR RODERICK J. MURCHISON. 



his eminent geologist was born at 

 Tarraclale in Ross-shire, N.B., Feb- 

 ruary 19, 1792. He was the eldest 

 son of a gentleman of ancient 

 Highland family, and was de- 

 scended from a small clan or sept 

 which for many generations lived in 

 the west of the comity, furnishing 

 factors for some of the larger land- 

 holders, occupants of farms among 

 the western sea-lochs, and even occasionally a parish 

 minister, a doctor, or a schoolmaster. His father 

 Kenneth Mnrchison, educated as a medical man, 

 acquired a competent fortune in India, and while still 

 in the prime of life returned to Scotland, where 

 marrying he purchased the estate of Tarradale, on 

 which he settled for a few years as a resident Highland 

 landlord. At the age of seven, young Murchison was 

 sent to the Grammar School at Durham, where he 

 remained for a period of six years, during which time 



183 



