1817-32. LOVE FOR ANIMALS. 9 



searched, till by chance some one looked underneath a 

 table, where she lay sleeping in the favourite fashion, Duff 

 waiting in motionless patience till it should please his little 

 mistress to release him. 



By the death of a maternal aunt, four cousins were about 

 this time left orphans. Their father, the Rev. John Russell, 

 Muthil, had died not long before. Their ages varied from 

 four to twelve ; and henceforward they and the Wilsons 

 formed one family. 



George's brother Daniel recalls many excursions, on 

 Saturdays and other holidays, to places of interest in the 

 neighbourhood of Edinburgh. Both George and his brothers 

 were good pedestrians, and many a happy day they spent 

 in visiting picturesque ruins, bringing home botanical or 

 geological specimens, as tangible tokens of the day's 

 pursuits. 



A "Juvenile Society for the Advancement of Knowledge" 

 was helpful to such tastes. It met weekly at the Wilsons' 

 house, and numbered amongst its little band school com- 

 panions whose names have since become more or less 

 known to the world. 



In autumn, 1832, he quitted the High School with a fair 

 share of prizes. Languages never proved his favourite 

 study ; he did not devote himself to them with the 

 hearty zeal which marked him in his earliest scientific ac- 

 quirements. Nevertheless, while occasionally at the head 

 of a class of one hundred and fifty boys, he never passed 

 below the first five, thus maintaining a creditable position 

 amongst his schoolmates. 



It is needless to dwell longer on this busy, happy boy- 

 hood. Various juvenile efforts in prose and verse remain 

 to attest the diligence of his habits and the range of his 

 sympathies. But enough has been said to testify to the 



