ORIGINAL MEMBERS. 149 



gathering of original members of the B. O. U. The general 

 results of that meeting are a matter of history, but the more 

 immediate result as regards the ornithologists present was 

 to confirm their leaning towards the doctrine of Evolution, 

 then for the first time brought to the notice of the public. 



A change was now impending in Simpson's career. For 

 many years past he had done little else than amuse himself, 

 and in such a mode of life sport and ornithology always 

 loomed largely. But, as was pointed out on one occasion 1)y 

 his friend and former schoolfellow, Humphrey Cholmeley, 

 such a course might do well enough for early manhood, 

 but ^Miow about the later years of life?" It could not 

 l)e contended that Simpson's devotion to ornithology was of 

 a scientific character, though it was impossible to associate 

 with such men as Newton, Salvin, and Kriiper without 

 picking up some of the elements of the science. Hence 

 the necessity for a change. Yet the old habit was so strong 

 within him that, on a fishing-trip in Sutherland during 

 the spring of 1861, he availed himself of an introduction 

 from Alfred Newton to the " old man of the Moine,'' 

 and thus set to work in the old style once more. Several 

 interesting finds were the result, such as the Golden Eagle 

 from Ben Laoghal, the Grey-lag Goose from Loch Laoghal, 

 and two or three complete nests of the Greenshank — sub- 

 stantially the last eggs Simpson took. 



Henceforth he determined to devote his energies to some- 

 thing more practical, and, as a preliminary course, to undertake 

 his own re-education, so as to be less dependent on classical 

 knowledge only. With this object in view^ in the winter of 

 1862-63, he studied chemistry under Playfair at Edinburgh, 

 where he obtained the University medal in that branch of 

 science. Subsequently, for three successive winters, he con- 

 tinued those studies at the Royal College of Chemistry in 

 London, and ultimately set up his own laboratory in Chelsea 

 where he was able to conduct mineral analysis on his own 

 account. 



All this Avork was so much training for the main object he 

 had in view, viz, to become a practical geologist. In this 



