228 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



1768 he resided on his farm, visiting Edinburgh 

 occasionally. He seems to have led a tranquil 

 country life, succeeding as a farmer ; and yet there 

 was, during all this time, a slow yet progressive 

 growth of a science in his mind. Cautious, perse- 

 vering, observant, and truly logical in his method 

 of thought, Hutton was accumulating facts upon 

 which to reason in geology, whilst the so-called 

 geologists of the day were forming theories without 

 facts. He took a tour to the north of Scotland, 

 through Ross and Caithness, and returned by way 

 of Aberdeen to Edinburgh, and he studied the 

 mineralogy and geology of the districts. Returning 

 home, he still went on farming, and at the same 

 time he became a partner with his friend Davie in 

 a manufactory of ammonia. By the year 1768, 

 being forty-two years of age, Hutton had matured 

 his plans ; he let his farm at a very advantageous 

 rent, and, untroubled about his affairs, having his 

 three sisters as his companions, he went to Edin- 

 burgh, and entered the singularly interesting scien- 

 tific society of that time. His biographer. Play- 

 fair, writes that Hutton, "employed in maturing 

 his views and studying nature with unwearied 

 application, now passed his time most usefully 

 and agreeably to himself, but in silence and obscu- 

 rity with respect to the world." "Free from the 

 interruption of professional avocations, he enjoyed 

 the entire command of his own time, and had 

 sufficient energy of mind to afford himself continual 

 occupation." A good deal of his leisure was now 



