98 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



present in a chaotic state, and they are the wisest 

 who weigh evidence and suspend judgment." 



This valuable find whetted the appetite of my 

 friend, and now the only thing he regretted was 

 that he had not come furnished with hammer and 

 chisel, instead of having to call in to his aid the 

 hereditary instincts which are said to have come 

 down to us from our stone-age progenitors. So 

 absorbed were we both that several hours passed 

 by without weariness, and I was quite astonished 

 when at length, looking at my watch, I found that 

 we had been in that quarry no less than eight hours. 

 We had now to select our specimens, label and 

 describe them, wrap up in paper the more fragile 

 ones, and pack them in the leathern receptacle 

 which I had brought for that purpose. Besides 

 the corals and stone-lilies, we bagged several por- 

 tions of trilobites, perfect specimens being rarely 

 captured ; a large number of Molluscan species 

 (shell-fish), such as the lamp-shells, the beau- 

 tifully striated Orthis, the graceful Strophomena, 

 the Atrypa, and the Rhynchonella, and a few other 

 things. 



We beguiled our rather long walk home with 

 conversation on the topic to which Baxter had 

 already referred. We talked on until we reached 

 our respective abodes, thankful for rest and re- 

 freshment after so long and diligent a tour, and 

 both, I believe, satisfied that we had spent as 

 cheerful and profitable a day as any of the holiday- 

 makers that we saw flitting here and there around 

 us. As for Baxter, he has since then become a 



