- Robert Dick
:"For the flutist, see
Robert Dick (flutist) . For the jurist, seeRobert P. Dick ."Robert Dick (January1811 -December 24 ,1866 ), Scottishgeologist andbotanist was born atTullibody , inClackmannanshire .His father was an officer of
excise . At the age of thirteen, after receiving a good elementary education at theparish school , Dick was apprenticed to abaker , and served for three years. In these early days he became interested inwildflower s--he made a collection of plants and gradually acquired some knowledge of their names from an old encyclopaedia.When his time was out he left Tullibody and gained employment as a journeyman baker at
Leith ,Glasgow andGreenock . Meanwhile his father, who in 1826 had been removed toThurso , as supervisor of excise, advised his son to set up a baker's shop in that town. Dick went there in 1830, started in business as a baker, and worked laboriously until his death.Throughout this period he zealously devoted himself to studying and collecting the
plant s,mollusca andinsect s of a wide area ofCaithness , and his attention was directed soon after he settled in Thurso to the rocks andfossil s. In 1835 he first found remains of fossil fishes; but it was not till some years later that his interest became greatly stirred.Then he obtained a copy of
Hugh Miller 's "Old Red Sandstone" (published in 1841), and he began systematically to collect with hammer and chisel the fossils from the Caithness flags. In 1845 he found remains ofHoloptychius and forwarded specimens to Miller, and he continued to send the best of his fossil fishes to that geologist, and to others after the death of Miller. In this way he largely contributed to the progress of geological knowledge, although he himself published nothing and was ever averse from publicity.His
herbarium , which consisted of about 200 folios ofmosses ,fern s and flowering plants "almost unique in its completeness," is now stored, with many of his fossils, in the museum at Thurso. Dick had a hard struggle for existence, especially through competition during his late years, when he was reduced almost to beggary: but of this few, if any, of his friends were aware until it was too late. A monument erected in the new cemetery at Thurso testifies to the respect which his life-work created, when the merits of this enthusiastic naturalist came to be appreciated. See "Robert Dick, Baker of Thurso, Geologist and Botanist", bySamuel Smiles (1878).References
*1911
External links
* http://www.erionline.co.uk/robert_dick.htm
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