250 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



on the side of the way into the brickfield and make 

 one or two more, while I would call on Dr. Howden. 

 As I left Mrs. Robertson, I saw a large funeral 

 coming forward. I inquired at * a bystander if it 

 was likely that Dr. Howden would be there. He 

 replied that it was, and when the procession came 

 forward, he pointed the doctor out to me. I went 

 and introduced myself to him. He left the funeral 

 and came with me to where we found Mrs. Robertson 

 busy making the bags. He kindly invited us up to 

 his house, where she would have a more comfortable 

 seat to do her sewing. After lunch the doctor took 

 us round in his gig to all the post-tertiary deposits 

 in the district, giving us much valuable information 

 regarding the sequence of the various clay beds and 

 their fossil contents. By the time that we had made 

 our rounds, we had all our bags and handkerchiefs 

 filled with clay for further inspection. For the last 

 hour it had rained heavily, and our besmeared 

 appearance (for we had all taken a share in the work) 

 did not accord well with that of the usual customers 

 of the hotel, and the waiters with their clean white 

 hands hesitated to take hold of the wet dirty bags 

 of clay, till the doctor made known his wish for 

 them to do so. Although the collection of these wet 

 clay bags appeared incomprehensible to them, yet it 

 seemed that I was not altogether a fit subject for Dr. 

 Howden, as I was still left to go as I came. 



" As well as the post-tertiary clays, we were avail- 

 ing ourselves of what opportunities we had to collect 



* Sir Walter Scott uses this idiom. See "A Legend of Montrose," 

 ch. xi. : "The Rittmaster inquired at the domestic." 



