CHAP. xr. ORIGIN OF FOSSIL FISHES. 131 



in his opinion were impossible. In short, it was twisted, 

 like many a fact, to suit a theory, and Dick was in- 

 dignant that a fossil furnished by himself should be 

 used for such a purpose. 



It will be observed that Dick's first study in geology 

 consisted in observing the dip of the strata round the 

 Thurso coast, from Dunnet Head to the end of the Hoi- 

 born rocks. He did this with great care, and indicated 

 the faults, disturbances, and fossiliferous rocks, with 

 their various dips, in the letter he sent to Hugh Miller 

 in April 1845. He found many of the rocks abounding 

 in dead fish, quantities of scales, heads, bucklers, and 

 fossil fish, sometimes in great confusion. Sometimes he 

 found them in abundance on the top of the highest rocks 

 at Holborn Head. How came they there ? 



This led him into a consideration of the causes of the 

 abundance of dead fish in a fossil state on the shores of 

 Caithness. It was clear that the northern part of the 

 county, where the fossil fish so abundantly exist, had at 

 one time been entirely under the sea. It had formed part 

 of the bed of the ocean. An upheaval of the bed 

 occurred, when or how was not known. The multitude of 

 fishes were caught as in a trap. They were smothered 

 amidst thin clay. They died in agonies. Hugh Miller 

 says " The figures of the fossil fish are contorted, con- 

 tracted, curved ; the tail in many instances is bent round 

 to the head, the spines stick out, the fins are spread to 

 the full, as in fishes that die in convulsions. The atti- 

 tudes of all the Ichthyolites on the platform of death, are 

 attitudes of fear, anger, and pain." 



