170 WADING THE BURN. 



univalves. In the first clay section I examined I found 

 many rolled pieces of what seemed chalk ; it is either 

 chalk, or very pure petrified shell-marl. I also found at 

 another place chalk flints ! 



"As I went up the burn, I found the sections of 

 boulder clay growing higher and higher, up to thirty 

 feet in height. I found them get fuller of stones. It 

 had also a reddish belt a band of sand and clay inter- 

 mixed, running through it horizontally. The marine 

 shells exceeded in numbers my fondest expectations. 



" I reached the bridge carrying the public road over 

 the burn. Though the bridge is only about fifteen 

 minutes' walk from the sea, it took me three hours to 

 reach it, and there I found that my time was exhausted. 

 I had been so busily employed in extracting marine 

 shells from the clay. 



" "Wishing to take the loop out of the road, I struck 

 across the moor. I came to the burn again, and found 

 section after section crowded with shell crumbs thicker 

 than the spots on the leopard. Atop of the sections, a 

 stratum of peat, and over all heather, knee deep. What 

 a reward for my six hours' travel ! What a paradise for 

 the geologist ! 



" I splashed through the burn, first to one side, then 

 to the other; till in an agony I ultimately ran away 

 from the temptation. I found it was half-past ten 

 o'clock ! So away I went post-haste ! " 



Shortly after his return, Dick sent to Hugh Miller a 

 list of the twenty -four marine shells (giving their 

 various names) which he had already found in the 



