218 GEOLOGY TESTED BY FACTS. CHAP. xv. 



ties," but he greatly valued facts tested and re-tested. 

 " It is not," he said, " by driving along the public roads ; 

 strolling along the sea-shore ; taking a distant view of 

 Morven through a spy-glass, that the depth of the 

 Caithness schists is to be ascertained. No ! The very 

 fact that the schists dip in almost every direction might 

 have led ' authorities ' to suspect that the granite was 

 not confined to primary hill a but, like the stately oak, 

 sent out its branching roots far and wide. You, Mr. 

 Miller, rule solely by ' authorities.' Your humble 

 servant has often found them sleeping, and has no 

 reverence for them." 



Indeed, Dick had no hesitation in correcting the very 

 highest authorities. " Nothing," he said to Miller (26th 

 September 1850), " is more at fault than the idea sought 

 to be established by Sir Eoderick Murchison's section in 

 the front of your volume on the Old Red Sandstone, that 

 the general dip of Caithness rocks is all in one direction. 

 No such thing ! I candidly tell you that ' my masters ' 

 must revise their views before I can feel the smallest 

 respect for what they say about Caithness. I cannot 

 resist the evidence of my senses. Take, for instance, the 

 Hill of Buckies,* which -you saw. The dip there is 

 north-east, whereas at Thurso the dip is north-west. 



" Of course, I am very far from wishing you to meddle 

 with the findings of men driving along the public road 

 and viewing the country from gigs ! No ! But it is 

 my misfortune to laugh outrageously during my rambles 



* TLe Hill of Buckies, so called from the large quantity of marin* 

 shells found there. It is not far from Thurso. 



