422 MAN OF SCIENCE. 



" John o' Groat lives still, 



Lives in another sphere ; 

 Evil his fare if his life was ill ; 



Happy, if righteous his course when here. 

 Traveller, ponder on these things, 

 And depart in God's fear." 



1 It is possible that the curious creature which Miss 

 Allardyce found in the salt-water pool may be the 

 Amphioxus or lancelet, the lowest of all the fishes. 

 There is a figure of this creature in a book on Natural 

 History by Agassiz and Goold, which you will find, I 

 think, on one of the tables in my store-room. Like 

 many of our own species, but in a more literal sense, it 

 wants brains. 



' When across the ferry two days ago, I explored 

 that sandy spit or point which runs into the sea, and is 

 known to the Cromarty fishers as " Majock's (i.e. Mar- 

 jorie's) Point." It seems to owe its formation to the 

 tides which run out and into the bay of Nigg, acted 

 upon by the high winds from the west, which are so 

 frequent in this part of the country ; and as it forms in 

 lagoons or salt-water lakes, it is a good place for mark- 

 ing how the vegetation of the land encroaches on that of 

 the sea, and for determining what the plants are that 

 bear to be covered by every tide. I found a salt-wort 

 to be the most abundant and the most encroaching, 

 some of the plants were thriving outside the castings of 

 the sand worm. 



' I have seen most of our friends here, and found 

 them, as usual, very kind; but I have fenced off all 

 the invitations I could, as I prefer my mother's potatoes 

 and fish, with full liberty to go about with my hammer 

 at all hours, to much better dinners, and the necessity 

 of being punctual to an hour, and then sitting up quite 

 proper in my chair for some four or five hours at a 



