342 Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Brown. 



place and habits, and appearance and structure. The numerous 

 references to him in Dr Johnston's work show how thoroughly 

 he had mastered the botany of his native district. 



In comparatively few districts of lowland Scotland could a 

 youth, with an inborn bent towards Natural Science, have 

 found fuller scope for observation and research than in that 

 part of Berwickshire in which Brown was born, and in 

 which he spent his youth. The environments do not make 

 the man, or determine his tastes, but much of a life depends 

 on correspondence between natural bent and surroundings. 

 The latter is ever at hand to develop, to cherish, and to 

 strengthen, without perfectly satisfying, the former, and thus 

 to allure to ever higher effort. The geological and botanical 

 features of Langton parish, and other neighbouring parishes, 

 are full of interest. Within little more than a gun-shot 

 from the manse, the Lower Carboniferous strata crop out in 

 the Langton Burn course, with their embedded ichthyolites 

 and remains of plants. In the same burn course are strata 

 which seem to mark the meeting place of the Carboniferous 

 and the Old Red Sandstone, while in near localities are 

 shales and clays yielding remains of other plants, mollusca, 

 and fishes. And by a walk of a few miles he could reach, 

 what Hugh Miller describes as, "The deep belt of Eed 

 Sandstone which leans to the south (in the valley of the 

 Whiteadder) against the grauwacke of the Lammermoors." 



While avoiding details, it seems to me that a brief 

 statement of the character and scope of his chief contributions 

 to Geology, which appear in the Transactions of the Eoyal 

 Society of Edinburgh, appropriately fits into this sketch of his life 

 and work. 1860. — His first paper is singularly free from the 

 defects which generally characterise first attempts in the 

 literature of any branch of science. It is entitled "Notes 

 on the Mountain Limestone and Lower Carboniferous Eocks 

 of the Fifeshire Coast, from Burntisland to St. Andrews." 

 This paper was read in April 1860, and printed in volume 

 XXII. of the Society's Transactions. Mr Brown had gone to Elie, 

 in tbe autumn of 1856, for a few weeks rest, and, he says, 

 was induced to pay some attention to the geology of the 

 district, resuming, for a brief interval, what was once a 

 favourite pursuit. His ever active habit of the eye had its 

 reward. A thin bed of Limestone, dipping inland from the 



