IN MEMORIAM. 227 



In Memoriam. — Alexander Somerville, B.Sc, F.L.S. 



Died 5th June, 1907. 



Alexander Somerville was born in Glasgow in the year 1842. 

 He was the eldest son of the Rev. A. N. Somerville, D.D., 

 minister of the Anderston congregation of the Church of Scotland, 

 and afterwards, for many years, of Free Anderston Church, 

 Glasgow. He was educated at the Glasgow Academy, and 

 subsequently attended for three sessions at the old college in 

 High Street. After leaving college he entered upon a business 

 career. Several years having thus been spent in the house of 

 Messrs. J. H. Young k Co., merchants, Glasgow, he went to 

 Calcutta as a merchant in the well-known house of Messrs. 

 Mackinnon, Mackenzie, & Co., but, after fifteen years of exposure 

 to the trying climate of India, his health became impaired and 

 he returned to Scotland. At this period of his life his literary 

 and scientific tastes seem to have strongly asserted themselves. 

 He once more matriculated as a student in the university (now 

 established in its stately range of new buildings at Gilmorehill), 

 where he attended science classes, and in due course obtained the 

 degree of Bachelor of Science. To the pursuit of natural history, 

 which had formerly engaged his attention in boyhood, he applied 

 himself once more with increased devotion. His two favourite 

 departments of research were Marine Zoology and Systematic 

 Botany, both of which were studied by him for many years with 

 characteristic enthusiasm. His marine investigations led him to 

 make many dredging excursions, in which he was often accom- 

 panied by naturalist friends who possessed tastes similar to his 

 own. In this way he explored the whole of the Clyde Sea Area 

 and the greater part of the western coast of Scotland. He was 

 accustomed to preserve manuscript records of these excursions, in 

 which the most exact information was noted as to the places 

 where the dredging was conducted, the depths from which the 

 respective hauls were taken, and the species of organisms and 

 number of specimens so obtained. As the marine mollusca 

 attracted his special notice, he corresponded with the most 

 eminent British conchologists, and soon became a recognised 



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