A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 169 



firm of shipbuilders of that name. One of the most 

 interesting events of the meeting to me was an 

 expedition to the Island of Arran. My new friend 

 Mr. Wunsch was on board the boat, he had recently 

 made the discovery of a carboniferous forest that 

 had become buried in volcanic ash at Laggan Bay, 

 near the fallen rocks on the eastern shore of the 

 island. The stumps of several huge lepidodendra 

 remained in their original positions, and the steamer 

 lay to opposite the forest, whilst Mr. Wunsch and I, 

 along with a few strangers, went on shore in a boat 

 to bring on board one of the finest of these stumps, 

 which had been dug out in readiness for us, a few 

 days previously. In the meantime Archibald Geikie, 

 the head of the Scottish Geological Survey, had 

 intimated to me that it would be acceptable to the 

 guests on deck if I would mount to the bridge of 

 the steamer and give them a short address on the 

 subject of carboniferous flora, including that of 

 Laggan Bay, which I did. Afterwards, as I was 

 explaining the peculiar features of this tree to the 

 President of the Association and some of his family 

 who were on the steamer, I was interrupted by a 

 violent oratorical attack from a strange, clerical 

 looking Scotchman, who denounced me, not only for 

 what I had just been saying to the President, but 

 also for my little lecture from the bridge. He 

 said I was preaching a doctrine of devils, I 

 presume by referring to the great antiquity 

 of my plants, that I was misleading souls and 



