THE < OLD RED SANDSTONE: 309 



but not the most distinguished of his contemporaries sur- 

 passed him in those august operations of the mind, which 

 may be claimed indifferently for science and for poetry. 



Viewed in relation to the dimensions of the field it 

 covers, the Old Red Sandstone of Hugh Miller is a 

 comprehensive account of the formation as it appears in 

 Scotland. The journeyman mason presented to the world 

 of science a monograph on one of the chief rock-systems 

 of his country, and it proved to be an imperishable 

 masterpiece. On that division of the Old Red which is 

 exhibited at Cromarty, and to which Miller had special 

 access, it was almost exhaustive. He added little after- 

 wards to his discoveries in the Cromarty beds, and no 

 other eye has been keen enough to detect in them any- 

 thing else of importance. Subsequent research has proved 

 that what he regarded as the Lower Old Red is the 

 Middle division of the system. In relation to the Old 

 Red Sandstones of the southern shores of the Moray Frith 

 and of Fife, Perth, and Forfar, the book was necessarily 

 less complete at its first appearance, but even of these it 

 presented a distinct, and, in the main outlines, a correct 

 account, and when Miller put his finishing touches to it 

 in later editions, it could claim to be the standard work 

 on the Scottish Old Red. Sir Roderick Murchison 

 has since demonstrated that the geological position of 

 the conglomerate of the Western Highlands is in the 

 Silurian system. But this would not have surprised 

 Hugh Miller, who entertained doubts upon the subject. 



With every year of his life his skill and care as a 

 geological observer increased, but the keen and exquisite 

 discernment he had already attained may be illustrated 

 by a fact which can be stated in his own words. ' After 

 carefully examining many specimens/ he wrote in 1855, 

 ' I published a restoration of both the upper and under 



