The Scottish Naturalist. 295 



without his father's consent ; and that he could not obtain. At 

 last, he returned to shoemaking, under a new master of a kindlier 

 disposition than the last one. Having a good deal of spare time, 

 he continued his rambles ; and he also made a garden of a bit of 

 waste-ground at the back of the house in which he lived. He 

 also read all the books that he could obtain ; and he began to 

 stuff animals ; the first he operated on was a mole. 



Work became difficult to get ; and Edward tried one shop after 

 another. When he was about seventeen years of age, he 

 attempted, unsuccessfully, to go to America as a stowaway. Tn 

 1 83 1, he enlisted in the Aberdeenshire militia ; and went through 

 his training with only one misadventure. A scarce butterfly hav- 

 ing passed while he was on parade on the links, he left the ranks 

 in chase of it ; but soon found himself under arrest. The offence 

 was excused with only an admonition. When about twenty years 

 old, he settled in Banff, in which town he spent almost all the 

 rest of his life. His tastes brought difficulties upon him there also, 

 as his landlady would not allow him to keep caterpillars or other 

 vermin in his lodgings, and his shopmates were as little partial 

 to them in the shop. When twenty-three years old he married, 

 though his wages were only about 9s. 6d. a week. The step proved 

 fortunate for him. When he had a pleasant home, he began to 

 collect specimens, which he had before been unable to preserve. 

 A gun was bought for 4s. 6d. ; it was so rickety that he had to 

 tie the barrel to the stock with twine. 



His rambles had to be made at night, after his day's work was 

 over; and he snatched a few hours' sleep wherever he happened to 

 be, when the night was too dark for him to be able to continue his 

 observations. Sometimes he took shelter in unused houses, at other 

 times in the old castle of the Boyne, or in other ruins, or in holes 

 in banks (occasionally the lairs of foxes or of badgers), or under 

 tombstones, or he slept unsheltered on the open shingle or sandy 

 beach. In these night-quarters, he was often visited by strange 

 bed-fellows ; and in his rambles he had frequent opportunities of 

 observing habits of creatures seldom to be seen in the light 

 of day. 



He was, however, much hampered by the difficulty of getting 

 information as to the names of the creatures he was observing, 

 as he had no friend able to assist him with information or with 

 books. He had three favourite rounds from Banff, one eastward, 



