came to Malvern, after
recovering from the first shock of bereavement, in search of health and
repose, and evidently hoping to do justice, on her recovery, to the
literary remains of her husband. Unhappily the excitement and anxiety
naturally attaching to a revision of her husband's works proved over
much for one suffering under such recent trial, and from an affection of
the brain and spine which ensued; and, in consequence, Mrs. Miller has
been forbidden, for the present, to engage in any work of mental labor.

Under these circumstances, and at Mrs. Miller's request, I have
undertaken the editing of "The Cruise of the Betsey, or a Summer Ramble
among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides," as well as "The
Rambles of a Geologist," hitherto unpublished, save as a series of
articles in the "Witness" newspaper. The style and arguments of HUGH
MILLER are so peculiarly his own, that I have not presumed to alter the
text, and have merely corrected some statements incidental to the
condition of geological knowledge at the time this work was penned. "The
Cruise of the Betsey" was written for that well-known paper the
"Witness" during the period when a disputation productive of much bitter
feeling waged between the Free and Established Churches of Scotland; but
as the Disruption and its history possesses little interest to a large
class of the readers of this work, who will rejoice to follow their
favorite author among the isles and rocks of the "bonnie land," I have
expunged _some_ passages, which I am assured the author would have
omitted had he lived to reprint this interesting narrative of his
geological rambles. HUGH MILLER battled nobly for his faith while
living. The sword is in the scabbard: let it rest!

W.S. SYMONDS.

PENDOCK RECTORY, APRIL 1, 1858.

CONTENTS.

PART I.

THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY.

CHAPTER I.

Preparation--Departure--Recent and Ancient Monstrosities--A Free
Church Yacht--Down the Clyde--Jura--Prof. Walker's
Experiment--Whirlpool near Scarba--Geological Character of the
Western Highlands--An Illustration--Different Ages of Outer and
Inner Hebrides--Mt. Blanc and the Himalayas "mere
upstarts"--Esdaile Quarries--Oban--A Section through Conglomerate
and Slate examined--McDougal's Dog-stone--Power of the Ocean to
move Rocks--Sound of Mull--The Betsey--The Minister's
Cabin--Village of Tobermory--The "Florida," a Wreck of the
Invinci