THE WONDER OF THE WORLD 119 
“A single-minded man,” MacGillivray writes, 
‘<may by the right use of his eyes, anywhere 
that the sun shines, and the winds blow, and the 
rains fall, find abundant matter for observation 
and instruction. . . . The world is everywhere 
replete, not only with wonders to exercise the 
imagination, but with truths to improve the judg¬ 
ment. Even on the border of the most frequented 
paths are many things travellers have passed by 
unheeded or unexamined ; and, if the Valley of the 
Dee has many a time been traversed by the wise 
and the learned, the man of science and the man of 
wit, the poet, the painter, and the tourist, it is 
equally instructive to the naturalist, who ought 
in his own person to represent all these 
characters.” 
It was in this mood that he told the story 
of his rambles, and the book, fascinating to 
those who know the ground, and remarkable for 
the beauty of some of the word-pictures, remains 
a fine pattern of what a regional survey should be 
like. 1 
The Open-Air Naturalist. 
MacGillivray was brought up in the country, and 
throughout his life he was at home there. During 
his studies in arts and in medicine he spent most 
of his summer vacations in the Hebrides. Of his 
long walks in later years the biographical sketch 
has told us; even at his busiest he would make 
time for a tramp over the Pentlands, or up Deeside. 
1 Many have expressed the wish that this very rare book 
should be reprinted, but much of its geology at least would require 
modification, and there are few who would care to begin tampering 
with the beautiful story. 
