xlii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



French, and afterwards of algebra, chemistry, and mineralogy. The 

 great turning-point of his life was his becoming editor of the ' Scots- 

 man' newspaper, which was launched in January 1817; and this 

 responsible and laborious post he held for nearly thirty years. 

 It would be here out of place to refer to the influence which was 

 exerted by the bold and liberal tone of that paper ; but it is im- 

 portant to notice the leaven of scientific thought and inquiry which 

 he so admirably infused into its pages. As early as 1824 he 

 published a series of articles in which he upheld, contrary to the 

 prevailing prejudice of the time, the feasibility of effecting rapid 

 locomotion on railways. And, from a fair consideration of the 

 mechanical conditions of the problem, he was bold enough to write, 

 " We have spoken of vehicles travelling at twenty miles an hour, 

 but we see no reason for thinking that, in the progress of improve- 

 ment, a much higher velocity might not be found practicable ; and in 

 twenty years hence a shopkeeper or mechanic, on the most ordinary 

 occasion, may probably travel with a speed that would leave the 

 fleetest courser behind." 



His numerous scientific articles in the columns of the 'Scotsman' 

 contained the result not only of a vast amount of reading and 

 reflection, but of numerous excursions made in the vicinity of 

 Edinburgh ; and in his ' Geology of Fife and the Lothians ' he 

 points out how the nature of his occupations obliged him to extend 

 over a period of several years researches which he might otherwise 

 have completed in a few months. 



From about 1830 he devoted especial attention to the Pentland 

 Hills ; and extending his observations by degrees over the entire 

 tract, from the Ochils on the north to the Lammermoors on the 

 south, he published in 1839 a volume which established his repu- 

 tation as a minute observer as well as an ingenious speculator. 

 Subsequently, when glacial theories attracted the interest of geolo- 

 gists, and more recently when the questions on the antiquity of 

 man came under discussion, he came boldly into the field, eager to 

 note the real advance of the science, and to diffuse an appreciation 

 of it among his large circle of readers. 



It is perhaps somewhat singular that alongside of these studies 

 Mr. Maclaren retained a great interest in ancient classical htera- 

 ture. In 1822 he had ventured on a ' Dissertation on the Topo- 

 graphy of the Plain of Troy ; ' and as soon as he was released from 

 his pressing duties, he, in 1847, visited the localities for which he 

 had so well prepared himself, and at length, in 1863, after much 

 further research, published a work entitled ' The Plain of Troy 

 described, and the Identity of the Ilium of Homer with the new 

 Ilium of Strabo proved.' Of this treatise Prof. Blackie wrote that 

 it is '^ihe book on the Plain of Troy, — the book which every 

 scholar now must read, and which is not likely to be superseded by 

 any other book." 



After enjoying, at his suburban residence of Moreland Cottage, 

 years of hale and active old age, Mr. Maclaren was seized in August 

 last by paralysis, which in fourteen days terminated fatally. 



