]84 COXTKIBUTOKS TO THE FlllSiT SERIES OF 'THE IBIS.' 



which became the Natural History Society of Northumber- 

 hmd, Durham, and Xewcastle-upou-Tyne, and held its first 

 meeting on August 19tb of the same year. Hewitson was 

 a member of the first Committee, and one of the Secretaries 

 in 1833 and 1834 ; while later he became a Vice-President, 

 and contributed several papers to the 'Transactions.' 



In 1832 he travelled to the Shetland Islands, and returned 

 with a fine series of eggs, and then in 1833 he accompanied 

 his friends John Hancock and Benjamin Johnson to Norwaj^ 

 with a view to exploring that country for eggs, insects, and 

 plants, and ascertaining the breeding-haunts of certain of 

 our winter migrants. Starting from Newcastle on a Scotcli 

 brig the party reached Trondhjem on May 16th and pro- 

 ceeded on foot, with tlieir outfit in a cart, to Rodoe, a small 

 island just within the Arctic Circle. Thence they journeyed 

 by boat, examining not only the islands, but the mountains, 

 lakes, and waterfalls of the mainland; and of this journey 

 Hewitson wrote out a full journal, illustrated by sketches 

 originally made by himself, and supplemented by a map 

 shewing the track followed. This journal was the joint 

 compilation of Hewitson and Hancock, and they record that 

 they w ere not far from being starved on one occasion, when 

 confined by bad weatber to an island. 



It was three mouths before the friends returned to Leith, 

 with the spoils of a most successful expedition; for Ave are 

 told in Mr. Embleton's memoir, cited below, that they 

 brought back eggs of the Capercaillie, Fieldfare, Redwing, 

 Turnstone, Golden-eyed Duck, and other rarities. 



In 1840, Hewitson left Newcastle for the South, and took 

 up his residence successively at Bristol and Hampstead. In 

 1843 he and his brothers inherited the property of his uncle 

 Henry Hewitson of Seatoii Burn, and he was enabled to give 

 up his profession of land-surveyor. A few years afterwards 

 another uncle, Joshua Hewitson, died and left him the 

 estate of Heckley, which he sold to the Duke of North- 

 umberland. In 1848, after a last expedition with John 

 Hancock to Switzerland and the Alps, where he made a fine 

 collection of Diurnal Lepidoptera, as will be seen from his 



