The summer had in great part passed before he reached that part of the eastern coast of Sutherlandshire where the scene of his special task lay; but that task proved to be eminently easy. From Dunrobin, where he was hospitably entertained, he could follow northwards and southwards a regular succession of strata, and he recognized in them the equivalents of parts of the oolite series of Yorkshire. The Brora coal, therefore, instead of forming part of the true carboniferous system, was simply a local peculiarity in the oolitic series. He made a collection of the fossils, which offered a means of satisfactory comparison with the oolitic rocks of England. The rapidity with which this piece of work could be done left time for a prolongation of the tour northwards through Caithness, even up into the Orkney Islands, but at length the tourists had to prepare for a southward migration again. Reaching Inverness, they turned eastward to Aberdeen, and thence down the eastern coast by Peterhead, by Buller’s of Buchan, Arbroath, and St. Andrews. The immediate result of this summer’s work was seen in the preparation of a paper for the Geological Society. Professor Sedgwick had already distinguished himself in the difficult labour of unravelling the structure of some of the older rocks, and Murchison suggested that they should visit Scotland and examine and describe part of the country together. They desired to ascertain if possible the position and general relations of the Old Red sandstone. This journey, intensely amusing in its anecdotes, led to much united work and good fellowship. Having learned the principles of the science, Murchison went to study geology in the field on the continent. Accompanied by Mrs. Murchison, he visited the extinct volcanoes of Auvergne, the South of France and Italy, and finally Germany. Next year the Alps were explored, and subsequently Austria. At Vienna, Murchison indulged a little in what he always liked, and which did good to science, good society, and then started for Styria, and got much puzzled about the rocks and fossils at Gosau. On his return to England Murchison became secretary to the Geological Society, and held the position for five years, and then he became the president of the society. Subsequently he began seriously to attempt the description of the geology of Wales which ended in the establishment of the Silurian system of rocks. Then the Devonian and old red sandstones were considered, and the merits of the paleontologist, Lonsdale, who really established the great geological division of the Devonian, were fully conceded. About this time Murchison and his wife settled in the well known mansion in Belgrave Square, which was such a home for scientific men, British and foreign, for many a long year to come.