EARLY DAYS OP THE SOCIETY. 13 



" On the Habits of the Ice Duck, Earelda glacialis." On 5th 

 October, same year, Mr. John Gray read " On the Local Distri- 

 bution of the British Sphagidae." These are merely specimens 

 of local work culled from the notices of meetings I have pre- 

 served as long as I remained a regular member, but I left 

 Glasgow for Liverpool in February, 1852, and on 4th July, 1854, 

 your Proceedings say — " The annual general meeting was held 

 this evening. Dr. Colquhoun occupied the chair. After the usual 

 routine business, Mr. William Ferguson, of London [where I 

 had then gone to reside], was unanimously elected an Honorary 

 Member." 



It may interest you if I give an account of some of our 

 excursions in pursuit of our various branches of research, and 

 I will first speak of our visit to the coal and ironstone mines 

 belonging to Mr. Kincaid, of Lennox, in the neighbourhood of 

 Campsie. This took place on the 27th July, 1850. The party 

 were — Mr. Robert Gray and his brother, Mr. Wm. Garden, 

 Mr. Andrew Williamson, my brother, and myself. Mr. 

 Mackintosh and Mr. James Stevenson joined us at Lennoxtown. 

 We were accompanied to the mines by Mr. Dempsey, who 

 worked in them before they were discontinued. Three small 

 urchins also accompanied us. 



The valley in which Campsie lies is formed by the elevation 

 of two series of trap hills, those on the north side being high, 

 and known as the Campsie Fells. The carboniferous strata do 

 not exist in the centre of the valley, but occur tilted up against 

 the volcanic hills on both sides. The mines we were visiting 

 are in the range of hills to the south of the village, and the 

 entrance to them is distant some quarter of a mile from the 

 railway station. 



On arrival we went to Mr. Galloway^s office, where Mackintosh 

 met us, and where Ave divested ourselves of our upper respectable 

 garments and assumed garbs more suited to the work we had in 

 hand. We could only muster three lamps and four candles, 

 which was rather a small supply for eleven people. Dempsey 

 had previously had the mine examined, and, as there was water 

 in it, he intended taking us through the first stage in a waggon 

 with a pony. We accordingly got all packed into a coal truck, 

 aud proceeded into the mine. Unfortunately, however, several 



