324 SIX WYVILLE THOMSON CHAP. xix. 



"My acquaintance with Kobert Dick was very 

 slight, but I was greatly struck with all I saw of him, 

 I had been working at the Old Eed beds in Orkney 

 with William Watt, another very remarkable man, 

 somewhat of the same character ; and crossing over by 

 Thurso, I spent two or three hours with Dick, whom I 

 knew about through my old friend Peach. I was 

 specially interested at the time in the structure of 

 Coccosteus, and had got some fine specimens in Orkney, 

 with all the outer armour plates capitally preserved; 

 but I remember Dick showing me some curiously 

 preserved examples from beds of a different character 

 near Thurso, which threw a good deal of light upon the 

 form of the cartilaginous part of the skeleton. 



" Dick was a singular man very shy and retiring, 

 and not very easy of access in his bakehouse. Peach 

 had a very great regard for him. He was intelligent, 

 and fairly well read on all matters. One fancy he had 

 was for Egyptian antiquities, and his bakehouse was 

 all over with Egyptian hieroglyphs. He was a good 

 botanist, and a very intelligent geologist. He did not, 

 however, believe in the succession of species, and would 

 never have done for a Darwinian. His firm conviction 

 was, that all living creatures had been on this earth at 

 the same time." 



The result of the visit was, that Dick promised to 

 resume his researches into the fossil fish beds near 

 Thuiso, and to send the result of his findings to Pro- 

 fessor Wyville Thomson at Belfast. Winter was 

 approaching, and the days were shortening. Thus 



