CHAPTER II. 



WHEN Charles Darwin went to Edinburgh, the 

 university was not in one of its palmiest 

 periods. The medical professors failed to attract him 

 to their profession, and two years of Edinburgh satisfied 

 him that medicine should not absorb him. With natural 

 history the case was different. Its attractiveness for 

 Darwin increased. He found congenial companionship 

 in the Edinburgh Plinian Society, and Mr. W. F. 

 Ainsworth relates (in The Athenceum, May 13, 1882) 

 that Darwin and himself made frequent excursions on the 

 shores of the Firth of Forth in pursuit of objects of 

 natural history, sometimes visiting the coasts of Fifeshire, 

 and sometimes the islands off the coast. On one occa- 

 sion, accompanied by Dr. Greville, the botanist, they 

 went to the Isle of May, and were both exceedingly 

 amused at the effect produced upon the eminent author 

 of the Scottish Cryptogamic Flora by the screeching of the 

 kittiwakes and other water-fowl. He had actually to lie 

 down on the greensward to enjoy his prolonged cachin- 

 nation. On another occasion the young naturalists were 

 benighted on Inch Keith, but found refuge in the light- 

 house. 



Darwin was now not merely a collector and exploring 



