CHAP. ix. GEOLOGY OF CAITHNESS. 99 



them ? Why should he not study them, and verify the 

 facts for himself? 



Among the first books that he bought was Mantell's 

 Wonders of Geology. This revealed to him quite a new 

 world the world of wonders at his feet. He after- 

 wards bought Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise. This 

 book also greatly excited his imagination. But there 

 was nothing in it about the fossils of Caithness. He 

 next borrowed a book from Sir George Sinclair, contain- 

 ing a journal of Mr. Bushby's travels through Caithness. 

 He made copious extracts from it, and endeavoured to 

 verify the facts therein stated. 



Mr. Bushby's object seems to have been to discover 

 whether Caithness contained any metalliferous ores. 

 He also bored largely for shell marl, with the object of 

 mixing it with the mosses, and thus producing culti- 

 vable land. Bushby was not a geologist, and, in his 

 search for what was valuable, he overlooked the flags, 

 the fossils, the old red sandstone, and many of the most 

 interesting facts in the geology of Caithness. 



It was not until the appearance of Hugh Miller's 

 publications that Dick's mind was set in the right 

 direction. In the month of September 1840, there 

 appeared in the Witness newspaper the first of a series 

 of articles under the title of " The Old Eed Sandstone." 



in such abundance as to constitute nearly the entire mass of the parti- 

 cular strata. ... In some counties, he will perceive, none 

 of these remains occur for instance, in Cornwall and the Scotch 

 Highlands ; in others (as in the south-eastern counties of England) 

 not a well can be sunk, or a pit opened, without presenting them in 

 abundance." 



