XXII PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
If he thinks so, by all means, let him blur or conceal the offending 
straight line in any way he thinks best; but, until the river has learned 
to run up hill, do not let him convert it into a curving line, or one 
that will give an impression of varying altitude. To take only one 
more illustration, the effects of glaciation on our northern landscape 
are now universally recognised, but less than a century ago no one 
dreamed that this country had once been buried under a sheet of ice, 
some thousands of feet in thickness. The traces left by this mighty 
ice-plough are nearly everywhere visible, particularly in the Highlands, 
and yet how seldom do we see any suggestion of them on the walls of 
our picture galleries ! Here again there are, of course, notable 
exceptions, amongst which I would mention, specially, the landscapes 
painted in our own county by the late Sir John Millais, and also 
those of John M‘Whirter, R.A. To mention only two examples of 
the former, you must all remember one of the last scenes that he 
painted, namely, a winter scene on Kinnoull Hill, entitled, “ Blow, 
Blow, thou Wintry Wind ! ” In this picture the rocks in the fore¬ 
ground showed unmistakable signs of glaciation, and the same 
remark applies to the more distant landscape in the Highland scene 
entitled, “ Over the Hills and Far Away.” With regard to M‘Whirter, 
it is not to be wondered at that his landscapes are true to Nature, for 
he has made a special study of geology. Another notable example 
of a Scottish landscape painter who was a faithful student of Nature 
is the late Sam Bough, R. S.A. No matter how much his hills are 
dimmed by the mist, you always feel sure that the form and the 
texture are correct. 
It may be said that a true artist will, in virtue of his artistic 
instinct, be true to Nature, even without any special scientific training. 
In reply to this I would say, in the first place, that unfortunately the 
results do not always bear out this contention, for many artists whose 
work is otherwise admirable fail to produce a landscape in accordance 
with the facts of Nature. In the second place, however, the kind of 
knowledge required is of such a special nature that it is not to be 
expected that it could come to the artist entirely by intuition, any 
more than any other part of the necessary technique of his art could 
so come to him. If even a Reynolds required to mix his colours 
“with brains,” surely it is not too much to insist that the brains of 
those who aspire to be landscape painters should be instructed in the 
principles of landscape geology. Indeed, I would go further than 
this, and insist that courses of instruction in geology should be estab¬ 
lished in connection with all our great schools of art, from the Royal 
Academy and the Art Department at South Kensington, downwards. 
In all of these human anatomy is made an essential element in the 
instruction, and rightly so. But, if it is necessary to have an 
acquaintance with the skeleton or framework of the human body and 
with the muscles which clothe that framework, before we can correctly 
delineate the outward features of the “ human form divine,” surely it 
is at least as necessary to have some knowledge of the rocky frame¬ 
work of our earth, and of the superficial deposits which cover that 
framework, before we attempt to transcribe the features of the land¬ 
scape. Even when the framework is completely concealed by verdure, 
