270 SIR RODERICK MURCHISON. CHAP. xvn. 



Murchison. He was appointed Director-General of the 

 Geological Survey and of the School of Mines in 1855, 

 and having been informed of the remarkable discoveries 

 made by Mr. Peach in the Durness limestone, he pro- 

 posed to make a journey in the north-west of Scotland 

 in the course of the same year. He started in August, 

 accompanied by Professor Nicol. They went by Inver- 

 ness, to Applecross, Gairloch, and Assynt. They went 

 northward to Durness and Tongue. It does not appear 

 that Sir Eoderick made any new discoveries on this 

 occasion ; field-geology was in the meantime at fault. 

 Professor Geikie, in his Life of Murchison; says that 

 " so far as respected any new light on the geology of 

 the north-west of Scotland, his excursion to Assynt 

 left matters very much as they were."* 



When at Tongue, Sir Eoderick and Professor Nicol 

 drove across the country by the north coast to Thurso. 

 They were not then personally acquainted with Eobert 

 Dick, though they had often heard of him by name. 

 Professor Nicol first sought him out, and then he 

 took Sir Eoderick to his shop in Wilson's Lane. The 

 latter wished for some information from Dick as to the 

 localities where he had found certain Old Eed fossils. 

 Dick, however, was very busy with his batch at the 

 time ; he could not leave his bread to burn in the 

 oven, in order to give the necessary information. The 

 travellers were also in a hurry, as Sir Eoderick had 

 many other places to visit before the next meeting of 

 the British Association, which was to be held at Glasgow 

 in the beginning of September. 



* Vol. ii. r. 205. 



