MURCHISON. 295 



the coast, stopping and sleeping at Robin Hood's 

 Bay. Not only did I then learn the exact position 

 of the beds of poor coal which crop out in that 

 tract of the eastern moorlands, but collecting with 

 him the characteristic fossils from the calcareous 

 grit down to the lias, I saw how clearly strata must 

 alone be identified by their fossils, inasmuch as 

 here, instead of oolite limestone like those of the 

 south we had sandstones, grits, and shales which, 

 though closely resembling the beds of the old coal, 

 were precise equivalents of the oolitic series of the 

 south. Smith walked about stoutly with me all 

 under the cliffs from Robin Hood's Bay to Whitby, 

 making me well note the characteristic fossils of 

 each formation." 



Though the main object of this summer tour 

 was to work out the geological problem which had 

 been assigned to him in Sutherlandshire, he 

 sketched a most circuitous route, partly for the 

 sake of showing Mrs. Murchison something more 

 of the Highlands than she had yet seen, and 

 partly with the view of putting to use his new 

 acquirements in geology ; so that after reaching 

 Edinburgh, and having its geology expounded to 

 him by Jameson, instead of striking north at once, 

 he turned westwards to the island of Arran, and 

 spent many weeks among the western islands from 

 the Firth of Clyde to the north of Skye. The 

 hills of his native country had now acquired an 

 interest for him which they never possessed even 

 in the days when they drew him off in eager 



