RAMBLES OF A GEOLOGIST. 475 



distinctly visible, I just thought how that, armed with pick 

 and chisel, and working as I was once accustomed to work, 

 I could complete such another excavation to order in some 

 three weeks or a month. But then, I could not make my 

 excavation a thousand years old, nor envelop its origin in 

 the sun-gilt vapours of a poetic obscurity, nor connect it with 

 the supernatural, through the influences of wild ancient tra- 

 ditions, nor yet encircle it with a classic halo, borrowed from 

 the undying inventions of an exquisite literary genius. A 

 half-worn pewter spoon, stamped on the back with the word 

 London, which was found in a miserable hut on the banks of 

 the Awatska by some British sailors, at once excited in their 

 minds a thousand tender remembrances of their country. And 

 it would, I suspect, be rather a poor criticism, and scarcely 

 suited to grapple with the true phenomena of the case, that, 

 wholly overlooking the magical influences of the associative 

 faculty, would concentrate itself simply on either the work- 

 manship or the materials of the spoon. Nor is the Dwarfie 

 Stone to be correctly estimated, independently of the suggest- 

 ive principle, on the rules of the mere quarrier who sells stones 

 by the cubic foot, or of the mere contractor for hewn work 

 who dresses them by the square one. 



The pillow I found lettered over with the names of visit- 

 ors ; but the stone, an exceedingly compact red sandstone, 

 had resisted the imperfect tools at the command of the tra- 

 veller, usually a nail or knife ; and so there were but two 

 of the names decipherable, that of an "H. Koss, 1735," and 

 that of a "P. FOLSTER. 1830." The rain still pattered 

 heavily overhead ; and with my geological chisel and hammer 

 I did, to beguile the time, what I very rarely do, added my 

 name to the others, in characters which, if both they and the 

 Dwarfie Stone get but fair play, will be distinctly legible two 

 centuries hence. In what state will the world then exist, or 

 what sort of ideas will fill the head of the man who, when 



