HUGH MILLER XV. 



the Upper Lias, in another from the Inferior to the Great Oolite, and 

 onward to the Oxford Clay and the Coral Kag. We may explore in a 

 third locality beds identical in their organisms with the Wealden of Sus- 

 sex. In a fourth we find the flints and fossils of the Chalk. The lower 

 part of the scale is also well-nigh complete. The Old Red Sandstone is 

 amply developed in Moray, Caithness, and Ross and the Grauwacke very 

 extensively in Banffshire. But to acquaint one's self with the three miss- 

 in »• formations, — to complete one's knowledge of the entire scale, by fill- 

 ing up the hiatus, — it is necessary to remove to the south. The geology 

 of the Lothians is the geology of at least two-thirds of the gap, and per- 

 haps a little more ; the geology of Arran wants only a few of the upper 

 beds of the New Red Sandstone to fill it entirely." — Old Red Sandstone, 

 pp. 13-17. 



After having spent nearly fifteen years in the profession 

 of a stone-mason, Mr Miller was promoted to a position more 

 suited to his genius. When a bank was established in his 

 native town of Cromarty, he received the appointment of ac- 

 countant ; and he was thus employed for five years in keep- 

 ing ledgers and discounting bills. When the contest in the 

 Church of Scotland had come to a close, by the decision of 

 the House of Lords in the Auchterarder case, Mr Miller's 

 celebrated letter to Lord Brougham attracted the particular 

 attention of the party which was about to leave the Estab- 

 lishment ; and he was selected as the most competent person 

 to conduct the "Witness" newspaper, the principal metropoli- 

 tan organ of the Free Church. The great success which this 

 Journal has met with is owing, doubtless, to the fine articles, 

 political, ecclesiastical, and geological, which Mr Miller has 

 written for it. In the few leisure hours which so engrossing 

 an occupation has allowed him to enjoy he has devoted him- 

 self to the ardent prosecution of scientific inquiries j and we 

 trust the time is not far distant when the liberality of his 

 country, to which he has done so much honour, will allow 

 him to give his whole time to the prosecution of science. 



Geologists of high character had believed that the Old Bed 

 Sandstone was defective in organic remains ; and it was not 



