40 ROBERT DICK 



' It is, therefore, confidently that the present writer asserts, 

 as Professor Parker, with far more right to speak on the 

 subject, has already done, that at the head of the class Aves 

 must stand the family Corwdce, of which family no one will 

 dispute the superiority of the genus Corvus, nor in that 

 genus the pre-eminence of Corvus cwax the widely-ranging 

 Raven of the Northern Hemisphere, the bird perhaps best 

 known from the most ancient times, and, as it happens, that 

 to which belongs the earliest historical association with man.' 



The eagle is for ever discrowned ; allegiance must be 

 paid to the raven as the monarch of fowls of the air. 



XVIII 



To enter thoroughly into the spirit of penultima 



Thule, one must read Smiles' Life of Robert Dick, baker, 



botanist, and geologist of Thurso. There are 



Robert Dick . , . 



few things more pathetic than devotion to 

 an intellectual pursuit, maintained without a word or 

 look of encouragement, interest, or sympathy from 

 friend or neighbour. Such was Dick's lifelong lot; 

 nay, the townspeople, shrugging their shoulders, used 

 to hint that he was 'daft/ and murmured at him 

 because his bread suffered by reason of the ardour of 

 his studies. He used to set the loaves soon after mid- 

 night, and, leaving his house at four in the morning, 

 set off at a run for Morven, distant some thirty miles 

 of moor and quag, and, having filled his satchel with 

 plants from marsh and crag, return on foot over the 

 dark plain in time for the morrow's baking. 



At other times Dunnet Head would be the goal, 

 where the flags are richest in fossil fish. A neighbour 



