NA TURE 



189 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1879 



ROBERT DICK OF THURSO 



Robert Dick, Baker of Thurso, Geologist and Botanist. 

 By Samuel Smiles, LL.D. (London : John Murray, 

 1878.) 



BLEAK and bare, flat and featureless, the county* of 

 Caithness lies apart at the far end of Scotland, 

 separated on one side from the rest of the country- by 

 rugged moimtains and girdled on the other sides by 

 boisterous seas — an unlovely region of brown moor and 

 black morass, partially redeemed to agriculture along 

 the sea-board, but so swept by storm and salt-spray that 

 trees will not grow, save in a few sheltered spots where 

 they have been carefully screened. The solitary- moun- 

 tain group of ^lorven and the Scarabins, visible from 

 every quarter, lies at the far southern limit of the county, 

 where it seems rather to be part of the uplands of Suther- 

 land, to which indeed in structure it belongs. One 

 redeeming feature, however, can be claimed for Caith- 

 ness. It is one which compensates, or even more than 

 compensates for the general monotony. The coast-line 

 is almost ev-erywhere formed by a range of mural preci- 

 pices, rising here and there to heights of 200 and even 

 300 feet above the waves. Huge massive quadrangular 

 sea-stacks tower out of the water in advance of the main 

 cliff. The sea, moreover, runs inland in innumerable 

 deep dark clefts or "gyoes," and is ever booming in the 

 far recesses of caves that have been worn out of the 

 solid rock by the chafing tides. 



The monotony of scenery corresponds with, and indeed 

 depends upon, the sameness of rock underneath. From 

 one end of the county to the other the same interminable 

 dark-grey flagstones in gently undulating beds underlie 

 the scanty soil and peaty morasses. It is these rocks too 

 which, truncated by the sea, run out boldly into headland 

 after headland, or retire into sheltered bays and there 

 extend in reefs upon the shore. 



Over the wide Caithness plains the roads run in 

 straight, unvaried lines for miles together. A curious con- 

 sequence is alleged to be traceable in the physiognomy 

 of the inhabitants. Two acquaintances, advancing along 

 a road from opposite quarters, begin to recognise each 

 other some time before they can actually meet. The 

 smUe of recognition is thus prolonged and fixed, so that 

 the people are said to wear a characteristic Caithness 

 grin. 



A more unpromising field for the development of 

 natural history tastes it might seem at first somewhat 

 difficult to find within the compass of these islands. No 

 lover of flowers is attracted to settle where short chilly 

 summers and long damp stormy winters make up the 

 year. And where flowers are few insect life will be 

 scanty. Nor is the assemblage of birds likely to be 

 I varied where there is neither bush nor tree on which to 

 perch or nest. The waters of these northern seas offer 

 undoubtedly the greatest prospect of reward to the natu- 

 ralist. They teem with life. Their plants and animals are 

 cast up on the beach by every storm. Every pool on these 

 rocky shores may be made a subject of patient and 

 delightful study. 



Vol. XIX.— No. 479 



It was into the midst of these scenes that in the summer 

 of the year 1 830 fortune cast Robert Dick, then a young 

 man of about twenty years. His life had not been alto- 

 gether a happy one. The son of an officer in the Excise, 

 he had received the ordinary education of a rural district 

 in Scotland, and had showTi such aptness at school that 

 there was a proposal to send him to college with a view 

 to his entering one of the learned professions. His 

 father, however, married a second time. Robert's position 

 at home eventually became so imcomfortable that at the 

 age of thirteen he was glad to escape from the paternal 

 roof and become apprentice to a baker in his native vil- 

 lage of Tullibody, at the foot of the Ochil Hills. During his 

 school days, and stiU when employed in distributing bread 

 through the district, he developed an intense love for 

 nature, which remained the master passion of his life. 

 Flowers were his special study in these early years. He 

 knew them in their abode in every bosky deU of his 

 native hills, though as yet he had been able to learn little 

 regarding their scientific names and classification. 



With this yearning after wild plants and the scenes 

 amid which they grow Dick came to Thurso (whither his 

 father had already removed) and established himself 

 there as a baker on his o^vn account. His business, 

 however, though he gave very diligent heed to it, did not 

 afford occupation for more than a small part of his time. 

 He was accordingly left with plenty of leisure for making 

 himself acquainted with the natural history of his new 

 home. The sea-shore naturally first attracted him. He 

 wandered for miles along the coast, and collected such 

 shells as he could procure from the beach. But he seems 

 never to have thrown himself with zeal into the study of 

 the marine fauna. His eye, indeed, was ever open, and, 

 with the instinct of a true naturalist, he could recognise 

 the value of facts in departments of knowledge with 

 which he had little practical acquaintance. He ran- 

 sacked the moors and mosses for beetles, bees, butter- 

 flies, and moths, gathering every species and variety he 

 could find, and forming in this way a tolerably complete 

 collection of the insect fauna of Caithness. Eventually 

 he gave himself up, heart and soul, to the flora of the 

 county, traversed on foot every parish and moor from 

 end to end, and formed a herbarium containing not only 

 each species of plant, with its locality and habitat care- 

 fully aftixed, but also many singular and interesting 

 varieties. He watched the vegetation from season to 

 season, was familiar with the haimts of every species, 

 knew when and where each began to show the earliest 

 buddings, traced out the geography of the flora, and 

 marked on what kinds of soil or rock particular varieties 

 were to be foimd. 



It was not until some years after his settlement in 

 Thurso that he began to look into the rocks of the sea- 

 shore. He stumbled upon scales of fishes imbedded 

 within them, which greatly excited his wonder. Fiu-ther 

 examination brought to light abundant bones and plates, 

 such as he could not find described in any accessible 

 book. He began to collect these fossils, noting particu- 

 larly the circumstances under which they occurred in the 

 rock, and endeavouring to work out, as w-ell as he could, 

 their peculiarities of structure. 



The way in which Dick found time for long excursions, 

 without in anywise neglecting his business, brings out 



K 



