204 ANOTHER LONG JOURNEY. CHAP. xiv. 



not to find decayed shells. No! But to please Sir 

 Joseph Banks and the African Association. And then 

 there were the golden-roofed houses of Timbuctoo !" 



Dick had many more excursions to make before he 

 could satisfy himself as to the extensive existence of the 

 boulder clay throughout Caithness. For instance, in 

 March 1849, he made a long ramble between Dunnet 

 Bay on the one side of the county and Sinclair Bay on 

 the other. The weather at that time was horrible 

 frost, snow, snow-drift, wind, rain, and sleet. Then his 

 journey of forty miles had for the most part to be made 

 through lonely moors and marshes, where the wanderer 

 sank up to his knees at almost every step. He was wet 

 to the skin all the way. And all to find the relative 

 extent of the boulder clay ! 



He rose at midnight and did his morning's work. 

 The bread was all ready for sale when he set out at four 

 o'clock. He first made for Castleton, tramped across 

 the sands at Dunnet, and steered south-east for Sinclair 

 Bay, with rain, snow, or sleet accompanying him the 

 whole way. He passed many boulders of the old red 

 conglomerate. He passed along the verge of four lakes, 

 the moss and heather beside them all saturated with 

 water elush, slush, slush ! At length his ears were 

 greeted by the sounds of old ocean thundering along 

 the beach of Sinclair Bay, with Noss Head in the dis- 

 tance. 



Every step of the road was full of observation. 

 Dick noted the evidences of the sea having at one time 

 been dashing its waves far inland. He saw the remains 



