174 transactions—Perthshire society of natural science. 
Who can but admire the scientific skill displayed by Nicol in 
his attempt to solve the structure of the southern Grampians ? First, 
in the method he adopted in choosing his sections; second, in the 
faithful descriptions which he gave of these sections; and lastly, in 
the masterly manner in which he compared them together and arrived 
at his conclusions as to their true structure. 
We have dealt somewhat in detail with the contemporaneous 
work of Murchison, Geikie, and Nicol, and we have done so chiefly 
in order that justice may be done to the latter observer from the 
platform of this Society, which has for one of its ends the unravel¬ 
ling of this complicated problem of the structure of the Perthshire 
Highlands. 
Undoubtedly Nicol’s work in Perthshire was overshadowed by 
the magnificence of his discoveries in the north-west; but it would 
ill become us, even though now so late in the day, to allow it to be 
passed over in silence. None but those who have wandered amongst 
those lonely mountains, despairing of ever being able to wring from 
them the deeper secrets of their age and history, can realise the 
full depth and meaning of the words which Nicol used in reference 
to the opposition which his work received. In the preface to his 
Geology and Scenery of the North of Scotland, for example, he 
says:—“ I would gladly have abstained introducing any contro¬ 
versial matter into these lectures, and been content with stating 
simply my own views, leaving time and the unchanging mountains 
to confirm or refute them.” Again, when speaking of the supposed 
succession in the north-west, he says “ Again and again proofs of 
conformable upward succession have been adduced. Again, and 
yet again I have traversed these wild mountains, and one and all 
have vanished on closer inspection.” I have often thought that 
there is a close parallel between this man Nicol’s life-work and that 
of the old grammarian celebrated in Browning’s immortal poem. 
With what peculiar fitness might such a funeral as was his, have been 
that of Nicol, and with what force of truth might these lines have 
been written for his epitaph— 
“ Here—here’s his place, where meteors shoot, clouds form, 
“ Lightnings are loosened, 
“ Stars come and go ; let joy break with the storm, 
“ Peace let the dew send : 
“ Lofty designs must close in like effects. 
“ Loftily lying, 
“ Leave him still loftier than the world suspects, 
“ Living and dying.” 
We now proceed to a consideration of some of the more recent 
advances which have been made in the study of the structure and 
