MEMOIR OF REV. JOHN FLEMING, D.D. 657 
quartz, fluorspar, carbonate of lime, and carbonate of barytes, is due to subse- 
quent molecular changes after the deposition of the beds. 
By a strange accident, this mineralogical tour was the means of introducing 
him to his first ministerial charge at Brassay, in Zetland, vacant for some time 
previous to his visit to the islands. The patron, Lord Dunpas, had not presented 
within the prescribed period, and the Presbytery of Lerwick claimed the exercise 
of the jus devolutum. Mr Fiemine had preached with considerable acceptance 
to the congregation whose pulpit had been so long vacant, and the charge was 
offered to him by the Presbytery. With his usual deep sense of duty, and as a 
proof of how early he had imbibed a dislike to patronage as then exercised, he 
consented to accept the vacant charge only on condition of a large majority of the 
elders and heads of families desiring him for their pastor. This proof of their 
esteem and confidence was not long withheld, and he was duly presented to the 
parish of Bressay. But the document presenting him to the charge had only 
been a short time completed when a vessel which had been detained by stress of 
weather arrived at Lerwick with Lord Dunpas’s presentee on board. In this 
dilemma his Lordship wrote to Mr FLEminG, urgently entreating him to resign the 
charge, and promising him instead the first vacancy which opened to his patron- 
age. To this request Fiemine replied, that he would be guilty of injustice to 
his parishioners, who had so unanimously desired his ministry, and also to the 
Presbytery of Lerwick, whose nominee he was, adding, with his usual causticity, 
that “‘a bird in: the hand was worth two in the bush.” ‘This straightforward 
conduct, instead of irritating Lord DunDas, was the means of drawing patron and 
pastor more closely together, and, as we shall see in the sequel, procured for 
FLEMING all the advancement which lay in his Lordship’s power. While settled 
at Brassay he began to collect zoophytes, molluscs, and other marine productions 
so profusely thrown on shore in that boreal region, and there obtained the nucleus 
of perhaps the most extensive and perfect collection illustrative of the natural 
history of the British Islands in the possession of any private individual. 
Among the first captures that he made was a small-headed narwhal, which was 
thrown on shore at the entrance of the Sound of Weesdale, in Zetland, on the 
27th September 1808. The description of this animal he communicated to the 
Wernerian Society, and it was published in the first volume of their Transactions. 
This paper derives some importance from its proving that Lacepéde, the famous 
French ichthyologist, was wrong in not admitting the Monodon microcephalus to a 
place in the British fauna, as well as from its being the means of procuring for 
Fiemine the friendship and correspondence of Sir JoserpH Banks. About this 
period, at the request of the late Sir Jonn Srvciarr, he undertook an examination 
of the economic mineralogy of the Orkney and Shetland Islands. In this paper 
he regards the mineral products of these islands strictly in an economic view, 
the scientific points being previously discussed in his paper on Papa Stour. On 
