142 MILLER VISITS DICK. CHAP. xi. 



Robert gave up his bed to Hugh, and he was to stay 

 there as long as he liked. But his visit was to be 

 very short. He had very little spare time at his dis- 

 posal. The Witness must be kept up to the mark ; and 

 like many other newspaper editors, he thought that if he 

 remained long away, the world would come to an end. 

 Then, there was his new book to write, the Asterolepis of 

 Stromness. Hugh Miller's first visit to Robert Dick was 

 therefore of only a few day's duration. 



The weather was fine, and most of their time was 

 spent out of doors. They walked along the east shore, and 

 along the west shore. First they went with hammer 

 and chisel to Thurso East, to dig out the Holoptychius, 

 the head of which Dick had noted only 'a few days 

 ago. Dick pointed out the bed from which he had 

 taken the gigantic fossil fish the year before. After this 

 work had been done, the brother geologists proceeded 

 eastward, Dick pointing out the scales and teeth, the 

 tuberculated plates, and the coprolites of the fossil 

 fishes. Hugh Miller afterwards gave a sketch of the 

 coast, of Dunnet Head on one hand, and Holborn Head 

 on the other, with the Orkneys " rising dim and blue 

 over the foam-mottled currents of the Pentland Firth." 

 We have already given Dick's sketch of the same view ; 

 and we prefer it, as it was done from the quick.* 



But we quote a passage from Hugh Miller's descrip- 

 tion, a bit of nature painted by a poet. " We are still 

 within an hour's walk of Thurso ; but in that brief hour 



* For Hugh Miller's description, see The Oruise of the Betsy, or A 

 Summer Eamble among the Hebrides, pp. 181-6. Ed. 1873. 



