138 JOVRNEY TO BANNISKIRK. CHAP. xr. 



say a day at each. The Diplopterus is abundant at 

 the Cruives, and Dipt/eras also." 



The quarrymen in the neighbourhood had now 

 begun to learn the value of fossils. The publication by 

 Hugh Miller of the specimens of the Holoptychius, 

 Dipterus, Diplopterus, and other fossil fishes found by 

 Robert Dick near Thurso, had the effect of sending 

 many fossil -hunters into the neighbourhood. It was 

 holiday time the month of August, and wherever 

 curiosities are to be found, there is a rush to see them, 

 to find them, and to carry them home as treasures. 

 Accordingly, when Dick went out fossil -hunting, he 

 found the strangers from the south very much in his 

 way. One day in August, before the arrival of Hugh 

 Miller, he extended his investigations to Banniskirk. 

 It was about eight miles from Thurso, and he had never 

 been there before. 



"I have been seventeen years in Thurso," he said 

 (13th August 1845), "but never saw Banniskirk. I 

 have been two years a fossil man, but never saw 

 Banniskirk. You were one blessed week there; but 

 what were you doing ? 



" Eleven o'clock was ringing this forenoon when I left 

 Thurso for Banniskirk. I went on and on until I reached 

 it. Most fortunately I directed my steps to a point of 

 th3 rubbish which, in my opinion, had not been touched 

 since the first opening of the quarry. The day was cold 

 and wet, and there I stood hammering away, as shower 

 after shower went driving by. I was alike indifferent 

 to wind and weather for some hours. 



