68 Transactions. 



series of diaries is not complete, but they still afford material for 

 a short paper. Throughout there is abundant trace that his early 

 years were zealously devoted to investigations in natural history^ 

 and also in all departments of antiquities. The entries are simple, 

 but are often accompanied by searching questions for after investi- 

 gation. He appears to have first given his attention to minor 

 matters, such as wasps, bees, birds, and bird nests, and to have 

 afterwards ventured far afield into camps and cairns and other 

 objects of interest in the wide district surrounding his home at 

 Boatford. I will give a few specimens of the entries, not exactly 

 in the doctor's own words, but as near thereto as possible. Some 

 of the sentences are difficult to interpret, for as you well know he 

 wrote as he felt, and without much respect for the elegancies of 

 language. The diary for 1833 is awanting, and the .second begins 

 in January, 1834, and has two quotations prefixed, viz. : — " A 

 drop makes a stone hollow," and "Observations supersede theories.'' 

 The following are entries taken from these diaries : — 



13th January, 1834- — I fouiad a large wasp on the inside of the 

 school window creeping about. I put it into a box in which there 

 had been snuff", and upon taking it out it was quite motionless. 

 The next day it was apparently dead, but when held to the fire it 

 made a slight quivering motion. There was a broken pane in the 

 window, but whether the heat of the house invited it from its 

 lethargy or not it is certainly very early for it to appear. 



~9th January. — Optical illusion. Wliile going to Penpont 

 about 10 in the morning a little past the turn I saw the English 

 hills vei'y distinctly with some snow upon them. It was hard 

 frost when I saw the phenomenon. 



14th February. — I opened an ant hill which contained a great 

 number of light brown ants. Tbey were not torpid, and I never 

 saw an ant torpid in the winter. 



21st February. — While breaking a large piece of coal brought 

 from Drumbuie, near Sanquhar, I found it marked like fibres of 

 wood and some pieces of wood as if decayed quite black in the 

 layers. I do not remember to have noticed this before. 



2ord February. — In the morning I saw a magpie flying into 

 the heart of the old fir-tree with a stick as long as itself. Whether 

 or not it is easy for them to build I know not. It is the first 

 operation of the kind I have seen. 



