102 BEGINNINGS OF GEOLOGY. CHAP. ix. 



measured thirteen and a half inches by seven and a half. 

 Dick was rejoiced to find that Hugh Miller valued the 

 discovery so much, and that he complimented him on 

 the results of his laborious investigations. 



In the same letter in which he communicated the 

 finding of the fossil Holoptychius, Dick described to 

 Hugh Miller the beginning of his geological studies. 

 He had been long wandering about Caithness, making 

 general inquiries, gathering fossils, finding old sea- 

 beaches, and watching the grindings made by icebergs 

 on the rocks j but now he had begun to excavate the 

 rocks, and endeavoured to dissect them so far as he 

 could. 



" I never," he said, " wielded the hammer and chisel 

 until last spring March 1844; and the laying bare of 

 the large fossil (of which I send you the cast, and the 

 remaining fossjls) was one of my first exploits. It was 

 about the vernal equinox. The wind blew off the land. 

 A merry sea tripped through the Pentland Firth. The 

 tide was about full. The waves came dashing in on the 

 rocky shore, in long rolling billows, scattering in spin- 

 drift. 



"I had laid the large plate bare, and was resting 

 in mute astonishment at the size of the fossil for I 

 measured it with the handle of the hammer, and found 

 it fully eighteen inches in length when I was roused 

 from my reverie by the waves dashing against my feet. 

 The tide was now coming in ! What was I to do ? To 

 raise it, stone and all, was impossible, and I feared that 

 it might be damaged or taken away if I left it until 



