2o6 The Irish Nahiralist. October 



with a vasculuin," followed a 3^ear later by "A Visit to the 

 Sperrin Mountains," shows that Stewart had begun that series 

 of field excursions in Ireland which for many 3-ears was one of 

 his chief sources of pleasure. In the reports of these papers 

 one notices the critical and careful attitude that was so char- 

 acteristic of all Stewart's work. His gaining in 1869 of the 

 Field Club's prize for Cretaceous fossils, with a collection of 78 

 species, shows that his energies were not devoted exclusively 

 to botany. Geology, indeed, at this time engaged a good deal 

 of his attention, for on 8th March, 1871, he read a very import- 

 ant paper, " The Latest Fluctuations of the Sea-level on our 

 own Coasts," in which for the first time the raised beach 

 deposits are correlated with the marine cla3'S which under- 

 lie Belfast, and the movements which they imply are de- 

 monstrated ; in the same 3^ear he published "Al^istof the 

 Fossils of the Estuarine Clays of Antrim and Down," which 

 gives the detailed results of the same investigations. 



All this work, and indeed the scientific work of his whole 

 life, was carried on during Saturday' afternoons and Sunda3's, 

 with an occasional week off; the shop in North Street, and 

 subsequentl3' the Belfast Museum, requiring regular attend- 

 ance during business hours. During the seventies he pub- 

 lished " A List of the Mosses of the North-east of Ireland," 

 (followed in 1884 by a ** Supplement "), and " The MoUusca 

 of the Boulder Clay of the North-east of Ireland," both 

 papers being the result of field-work extending over man3^ 

 3'ears. 



In the extensive campaign of botanical field-work of the 

 eighties which was inspired b3^ A. G. More, and financed by 

 the Ro3'al Irish Acadeni3% Stewart played his part ; and while 

 Hart explored the mountain-ranges and rivers, and Barrington 

 and Vowell some of the great lakes, Stewart examined the 

 hills of Fermanagh, Rathlin Island, the Slieveanieran range 

 and the estuary of the Shannon, and published reports on 

 their floras in the Proceedhigs of the Acadenl3^ On these 

 expeditions he did not spare himself. Twelve hours in the 

 field day after day was his ustial programme ; to weather 

 he was indifferent ; and on more than one occasion he let 

 darkness overtake him among the mountains, and spent 

 the night in the open, sometimes in rain. This, and his 



