CHAP. xxi. ARRANGEMENT OF ROCKS, 363 



became the property of Mr. John Miller, F.G.S., was 

 the finest that was ever found * 



Dick continued to read the papers on geology which 

 appeared in the newspapers, and particularly in the 

 Athenceum. He could no longer afford to huy books, 

 but he was not a man to believe passively in the views 

 of others, especially when they seemed to be contrary 

 to his own observation of facts. He had a keen eye, 

 and believed what he saw rather than what he read. 

 He had many a hard fight with Peach and Mr. Miller 

 of London, as to the order of creation. 



" There has been no new arrangement," he says, " of 

 the rocks in which the fossil fish have been found. Sir 

 Eoderick has figured the new fish as Silurian fossils, -and 

 the Silurian rocks are older than Old Eed Sandstone; 

 that is, they exist at a lower level. ... It is true that, 

 after the Durness discoveries, Hugh Miller for a time 

 resisted the views of Sir Eoderick as to a new classi- 

 fication of the rocks of the north-west of Scotland. 

 Hugh could not bear the idea of his favourite Old Eed 

 giving way to the Cambrian a deposit older even than 

 the lower Silurian. 



" For my own part, I care not much what name or 

 names geologists may give to the various rocks, or the 

 time that was occupied in the accumulation of their 

 respective strata. They were, doubtless, made in suc- 

 cession, after longer or shorter intervals of time. About 

 eleven miles from Thurso there is a small precipice 

 which clearly illustrates the subject. Standing in front 

 * We state this fact on the authority of Dr. Traquair. 



