SIR JAMES HALL. 113 



the right : it is the identical spot where Sir James Hall first 

 caught the idea that the sandstone strata of the globe are merely 

 sand consolidated under a pressure of ten or twelve atmospheres. 

 In experimenting afterwards on this geological question of great 

 interest, he added a flux of salt to his boiling mixture, and 

 succeeded in obtaining a something like the sandstone elaborated 

 in the chemical laboratory of the earth. He was an ardent fol- 

 lower of Hutton, who discovered the true theory of the earth, 

 the source and origin of all modern discoveries in geolog}^ viewed 

 simply and unconnected with Paleontolog}^ that wonderful instru- 

 ment of research invented by an anatomist " Grand Cuvier," 

 as Byron called him. But Cuvier was greater than even the poet 

 imagined him to be. 



The angler may still find the shepherd who conducted my 

 esteemed friends, Messrs. Witham and Allan, and self to the spot ; 

 he had also been Sir James Hall's guide through the wilds of 

 Fastna. The geology of the district has its interest, for Mill 

 Know farm-house is built on a kind of granite, which here comes 

 to the surface. The great mass of the Lammermuir is not 

 however composed of green stone or basalt, but of an older 

 rock, what the Germans call grauwacke, and the shepherds, 

 whinstone. 



I must return to trout and angling. The Fastna trout is 

 darker than the Whitadder trout, a circumstance ascribed to the 

 mossy character of its stream : I doubt all this, or if it be so, 

 it is trivial and unimportant. 



Mill Know may be reached by other roads than the one I have 

 described. The angler may start from Haddington, and com- 

 mence his ascent of the Lammermuir at Garvald Church on an 

 autumn day ; ride slowly or walk gently. As you begin to climb 

 the hill, an ancient castle, Munraw, I think, is on your left em- 

 bosomed in woods ; passing onwards, the trees become less and less, 

 fewer and fewer, until they degenerate into mere bushes ; the 

 hedgerows dwindle away into scattered patches widely spread, 

 furnishing no fence against sheep or horse; still ascending, the 

 grass becomes shorter and shorter, coarser and coarser, more 

 and more wiry ; heath appears close to the road- side, and you 

 tread a soil through which the plough was never driven. Look 



I 



