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or a Summer Ramble among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides," as well as "The Rambles of a Geologist," hitherto unpublished, save as a series of articles in the "Witness" newspaper.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 Invincible Armada--Geologic Exploration and Discovery--At Anchor. 15 CHAPTER II. The Minister's Larder--No Harbor--Eigg Shoes--_Tormentilla erecta_--For the _Witness'_ Sake--Eilean Chaisteil--Appearance of Eigg--Chapel of St. Donan--Shell-sand--Origin of Secondary Calcareous Rock suggested--Exploration of Eigg--Pitchstone Veins--A Bone Cave--Massacre at Eigg--Grouping of Human Bones in the Cave--Relics--The Horse's Tooth--A Copper Sewing Needle--Teeth found--Man a worse Animal than his Teeth show him to have been designed for--Story of the Massacre--Another Version--Scuir of Eigg--The Scuir a Giant's Causeway--Character of the Columns--Remains of a Prostrate Forest. 31 CHAPTER III.