OF A GEOLOGIST. 387 



ously told, and curiously illustrative of that general ignorance 

 regarding the " strength of materials" in which the scienti- 

 fic world has been too strangely suffered to lie, in this the 

 world's most mechanical age ; so that what ought to be ques- 

 tions of strict calculation are subjected to the guessings of 

 a mere common sense, far from adequate, in many cases, to 

 their proper resolution. " I once raised a vessel," said Mr 

 Bremner, "a large collier, choak-full of coal, which an Eng- 

 lish projector had actually engaged to raise with huge bags 

 of India rubber, inflated with air. But the bags, of course 

 taxed far beyond their strength, collapsed or burst ; and sq, 

 when I succeeded in bringing the vessel up, through the em- 

 ployment of more adequate means, I got not only ship and 

 cargo, but also a great deal of good India rubber to boot" 

 Only a few months after I enjoyed the pleasure of this in- 

 terview with the Brindley of Scotland, he was called south, 

 to the achievement of his greatest feat in at least one special 

 department, a feat generally recognised and appreciated as 

 the most herculean of its kind ever performed, the raising 

 and warping off of the Great Britain steamer from her peril- 

 ous bed in the sand of an exposed bay on the coast of Ire- 

 land I was conscious of a feeling of sadness as, in parting 

 with Mr Bremner, I reflected, that a man so singularly gifted 

 should have been suffered to reach a period of life very con- 

 siderably advanced, in employments little suited to exert his 

 extraordinary faculties, and which persons of the ordinary 

 type could have performed as well Napoleon, himself pos- 

 sessed of great genius, could have estimated more adequately 

 than our British rulers the value of such a man. Had Mr 

 Bremner been born a Frenchman, he would not now be the 

 mere agent of a steam company, in a third-rate seaport town. 

 The rain had ceased, but the evening was gloomy and chill ; 

 and the Orcades, which, on clearing the Caithness coast, came 

 as fully in view as the haze permitted, were enveloped in 



