186 Dr Hibbert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse 



that he had either the means or the influence to counteract such a fatal dispersion ; 

 but that the pecuniary means, and, above all, the command of influence possessed 

 by a scientific body like that of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, might, with the 

 greatest prospect of success, be exerted in so important an object. 



The Council of the Royal Society, with a liberality of which I cannot speak in 

 too high terms, immediately responded to the representation, and appointed their 

 General Secretary, Mr Robison, with funds at his disposal, to superintend the task, 

 aided by a small Committee. 



The task could not have been entrusted to more able hands. Mr Robison im- 

 mediately addressed himself to Mr Torrance of Meadowbank, the lessee of the 

 quarry, requesting his co-operation with the views of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ; 

 and, to the honour of the latter be it added, his assent was immediately obtained. 

 While any dispersion of the relics discovered was strictly forbidden, the labourers 

 were at the same time amply remunerated for all the specimens which they were en- 

 abled to collect. 



These measures were very soon the means of obviating the dispersion of the os- 

 seous fragments of the quarry ; which object was still further promoted by a few of 

 the gentlemen who were extensive geological collectors themselves abstaining from 

 any attempt at purchases, and thus setting a laudable example of self-denial. 



During the whole of the last winter and some part of the spring, not a week was 

 allowed to intervene without the quarry being visited, either by Mr Robison or my- 

 self, always on alternate days ; and by this surveillance, aided by the injunctions of 

 Mr Torrance, and the remonstrances of the worthy minister of the Parish, Mr 

 Furdie, a constant check was placed upon any clandestine disposal of the bones, and, 

 perhaps, as few breaches of confidence occurred as might be expected from an assem- 

 blage of quarrymen, many of whom were burdened with large families. 



Toward the accomplishment of another object, Mr Robison'' s labours were unas- 

 sistedly directed. The osseous fragments discovered were firmly embedded in a hard 

 limestone rock, and nice mechanical skill was requisite to detach them from their 

 matrix ; which difficulty was again augmented by the very conchoidal fracture as- 

 sumed by the limestone after a blow of the hammer, and the consequent difficulty in 

 regulating the extent and direction of the cleavage, or of the chippings. Now, in 

 order to overcome these obstacles, Mr Robison laboured with success, and invented 

 a small dressing hammer, which effectually brought under control the destructive 

 fractures into which the limestone was liable to split. This hammer will be soon con- 

 sidered as indispensable to the manual operations of the geologist. 



The result of these exertions may be readily anticipated. The enlisting of a gen- 

 tleman of such well known mechanical science as Mr Robison, in the task of detach- 

 ing these osseous relics from their stubborn matrix, and of bringing them to light in 

 a state of integrity, was a result truly favourable to the best interests of Geology. 

 Very minute specimens, even those which embraced the almost microscopic fry of the 

 immense questionable animals of Burdiehouse, were developed with a distinctness. 



