FEBRUARY 41 



found him prying and hammering one day in a quarry. 

 ' What are you seeking there, Robert ? ' he asked. ' Fish/ 

 quoth Robert ; and straightway the wayfarer bore the 

 tale to Thurso how Dick, the baxter, was gone clean 

 demented, for he was looking for fish in Gerston quarry. 



Dick, however, had his moments of ecstatic reward, 

 such as are known only to intellectual workers. One 

 such came when he discovered the little northern grass, 

 Hierochloe borealis, till then unknown as a British 

 plant. Another was when Sir Roderick Murchison, 

 attracted by reports of Dick's collection of Old Red 

 Sandstone fossils, travelled to Thurso to inspect it. One 

 may picture the tremulous delight of the obscure but 

 faithful disciple, all unused to exchange thoughts on 

 the subject ever uppermost in his mind, hovering round 

 the great man, and laying up every syllable that fell 

 from his lips, to be mused over and repeated in many 

 a long, lonely ramble. 



A sad calamity overtook the solitary student. He 

 was no longer, as he had been at first, the only baker in 

 Thurso ; a rival shop had been set up, and competition 

 became keen. One day the steamer from Leith took 

 the bar of Thurso in a storm. She carried a consign- 

 ment of flour for Dick, which was badly spoilt by salt 

 water. It was not insured ; poor Dick could not afford 

 to buy any more, and just worked the damaged stuff 

 into loaves. The result was more than his remaining 

 customers could stand ; they all went off to the new 

 shop, and Dick was ruined. To meet his liabilities, he 

 had to part with his noble collection of fossils the 



