CHAP. xxiv. DICK'S DISCOVERIES. 421 



Chelonichthys with the Asterolepis of the Caithness 

 beds, and to reconstruct to a certain extent this monster 

 of the primeval seas. Agassiz says that the remains of 

 the Asterolepis found by Mr. Dick at Thurso indicate a 

 length of from twelve feet four to thirteen feet eight 

 inches. It was the occurrence of this monster among 

 the vertebrates at such an early period of the world's 

 history, that gave Hugh Miller the key-note to that 

 elaborate argument, by which he endeavoured to con- 

 trovert the development theory of Oken, Lamark, and 

 the author of the Vestiges of Creation. 



Mr. Dick not only provided the fragments by means 

 of which the structure of the Asterolepis was wrought 

 out especially the small medium plate in the cranial 

 buckler, immediately over the eyes, which Professor 

 Sedgwick immediately recognised as " the true finish," 

 but he discovered the peculiar dental apparatus of the 

 palate of the Dipterus,and he detected the ichthyodorulite 

 of the Homocanthus, which, though already found in the 

 Old Eed, were not previously known to exist in Scotland. 



Hugh Miller was always most ready to acknowledge 

 his obligations to Eobert Dick. "He has robbed himself 

 to do me service," said Hugh Miller. And yet Dick was 

 so modest and unassuming, that he shrank with the 

 utmost sensitiveness from everything like publicity. 

 He had no idea of making himself famous. On the 

 contrary, he " blushed to find it fame " that he had gone 

 out of the ordinary track and done anything worthy of 

 being recorded in scientific books. He was willing, like 

 Keats, that his name should be " writ in water." " T 

 19* 



