344 MR. PRINGLE'S LETTER. CHAP. xx. 



and from Mr. Tarrison of the Eegistrar-General's Office, 

 Melbourne. The principal applications made to him 

 were for fossils from the Old Bed Sandstone, and for 

 specimens of the Hierochloe 'borealis which Dick had 

 discovered so many years before on the banks of the 

 river Thurso. Mr. Pringle of the Farmer's Gazette, 

 Dublin, in acknowledging the receipt of a specimen, 

 addressed Dick in the following letter : 



"I gave the specimens of the Holy Grass to Dr. 

 Moore of the Botanic Gardens. He expressed himself 

 much gratified with the same, and stated that he would 

 like to correspond with you. I send by book-post a 

 copy of his Notes of a Botanical Tour in Norway and 

 Sweden, which will likely interest you. I must repeat 

 what I said to you that I think it is a great pity, nay 

 more, a shame, that a man of your abilities and research 

 should be buried alive, as you are and have been. Why 

 not come out as an author on those subjects with which 

 you are so conversant ? I hope yet to see Robert Dick's 

 name taking its proper place among the list of British 

 scientific men far above the names of some who oc- 

 cupy a large share of public attention, but whose chief 

 claim to notoriety consists in an unbounded com- 

 mand of cheek, and of a still more unenviable gift of 

 the gab." 



But it was too late for Eobert Dick to give his 

 thoughts to the world in writing. For one thing, he 

 was too modest. He was about the last person to wish 

 to see his name in print. He was always complaining 

 of the smallness of his knowledge, even about subjects 



