Geologists prepare paleogeographic maps and habitually conjure up imagined pictures of paleoenvironments in their minds, but rarely have the genius to present those concepts in words. It was Hugh Miller whose original discoveries in the Jurassic and Old Red Sandstone (Devonian) of Scotland inspired him to write about the ancient environments that he envisioned (Rudwick, 1974). Although brought up in poverty, he discovered that he could write, inspiringly, for the common reader. This gift was to have far-reaching influences on the educated public of the 19^th century. It may be fair to say that public awareness of the transient nature of environments, ancient and modern, began to emerge with Hugh Miller.

He was born at Cromarty in Scotland, son of a relatively well-to-do father who owned a coastal schooner. But at the age of three the vessel sank with all hands in a storm and his mother was left with little to sustain the family. Attending a parish school, where one teacher ineffectually...