[CONTENTS.]
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The Working-man's true Policy.—His only Mode of acquiring Power.—The Exercise of the Faculties essential to Enjoyment.—No necessary Connection between Labor and Unhappiness.—Narrative.—Scenes in a Quarry.—The two dead Birds.—Landscape.—Ripple Markings on a Sandstone Slab.—Boulder Stones.—Inferences derived from their water-worn Appearance.—Sea-coast Section.—My first discovered Fossil.—Lias Deposit on the Shores of the Moray Frith.—Belemnite.—Result of the Experience of half a Lifetime of Toil.—Advantages of a Wandering Profession in Connection with the Geology of a Country.—Geological Opportunities of the Stone-Mason.—Design of the present Work,
CHAPTER II.
The Old Red Sandstone.—Till very lately its Existence as a distinct Formation disputed.—Still little known.—Its great Importance in the Geological Scale.—Illustration.—The North of Scotland girdled by an immense Belt of Old Red Sandstone.—Line of the Girdle along the Coast.—Marks of vast Denudation.—Its Extent partially indicated by Hills on the western Coast of Ross-shire.—The System of great Depth in the North of Scotland.—Difficulties in the Way of estimating the Thickness of Deposits.—Peculiar Formation of Hill.—Illustrated by Ben Nevis.—Caution to the Geological Critic.—Lower Old Red Sandstone immensely developed in Caithness.—Sketch of the Geology of that County.—Its strange Group of Fossils.—their present Place of Sepulture.—Their ancient Habitat.—Agassiz.—Amazing Progress of Fossil Ichthyology during the last few Years.—Its Nomenclature.—Learned Names repel unlearned Readers.—Not a great deal in them,