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CHAPTER XV. 



NORWAY A BOTTLE OF MUD THE SHETLANDS. 



THE minuter details of geological investigation are 

 important in their own sphere, but the general reader 

 can never be persuaded to find them amusing. If 

 two champions descending into a fossiliferous arena 

 suddenly begin to tear up the sand and clay and 

 fragments of rock, to hurl them (metaphorically, and 

 through the medium of the press) at one another's 

 limbs and features, then indeed there is a chance 

 that some languid attention to the subject may be 

 awakened. 



We have to admit, however, that Mr. Robertson, 

 numerous as his geological papers were, never in any 

 of them hit the public taste by furious onslaught or 

 biting sarcasm directed against either friend or rival. 

 But though the scientific results of his work, both in 

 geology and other departments, must be left to the 

 specialist, there are several incidents connected with 

 the attainment of those results that are worthy of 

 notice. 



In 1866, the Rev. H. W. Crosskey, who was working 

 with him at the post-tertiary clays, had the offer of a 

 free passage to Norway, to go to Christiania in the 



