382 KAMBLES OF A GEOLOGIST. 



five hours after the expected time, she also came rolling in, 

 her darkened and weather-beaten sides and rigging gave evi- 

 dence that her passage from the south had been no holiday 

 trip. Impatient, however, of looking out upon the sea for 

 hours, from under dripping eaves, and through the dimmed 

 panes of streaming windows, I got aboard with about half-a- 

 dozen other passengers ; and while the Wick goods were in 

 the course of being transferred to two large boats alongside, 

 we lay tossing in the open bay. The work of raising box 

 and package was superintended by a tall elderly gentleman 

 from the shore, peculiarly Scotch in his appearance, the 

 steam company's agent for this part of the country. 



"That," said an acquaintance, pointing to the agent, "is 

 a very extraordinary man, in his own special walk, one of 

 the most original-minded, and at the same time most thorough- 

 ly practical, you perhaps ever saw. That is Mr Bremner of 

 Wick, known now all over Britain for his success in raising 

 foundered vessels, when every one else gives them up. In 

 the lifting of vast weights, or the overcoming the vis inertia; 

 of the hugest bodies, nothing ever baffles Mr Bremner. But 

 come, I must introduce you to him. He takes an interest 

 in your peculiar science, and is familiar with your geological 

 writings." 



I was accordingly introduced to Mr Bremner, and passed 

 in his company the half-hour which we spent in the bay, in 

 a way that made me wish the time doubled. I had been 

 struck by the peculiar style of masonry employed in the har- 

 bour of Wick, and by its rock-like strength. The gray pon- 

 derous stones of the flagstone series of which it is built, in- 

 stead of being placed on their flatter beds, like common ashlar 

 in a building, or horizontal strata in a quarry, are raised on 

 end, like staves in a pail or barrel, so that at some little dis- 

 tance the work looks as if formed of upright piles or beams 

 jambed fast together. I had learned that Mr Bremner had 



