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WILLIAM CRAWFORD WILLIAMSON was born at Scarborough on 

 November 24, 1816. His father, John Williamson, who began life 

 as a gardener, was a man of considerable scientific attainments, and 

 was, for twenty-seven years, curator of the Scarborough Museum. 

 From him his son early acquired a practical knowledge of geology 

 and natural history. Williamson, in his recently published auto- 

 biography,* describes how, when a boy, his evenings, throughout a 

 long winter, were devoted to naming fossil specimens from the 

 neighbouring coast, with the aid of Phillips' Geology of Yorkshire. ' 

 "Pursuing/' he says, "this uncongenial labour, gave me in my 

 thirteenth year a thorough practical familiarity with the palseonto- 

 logical treasures of Eastern Yorkshire. This early acquisition 

 happily moulded the entire course of my future life." 



Williamson in those early days came into contact with several 

 distinguished men of science, and, notably, with William Smith, the 

 father of English geology, who spent two years in the Williamsons' 

 house. 



A little later, in 1832, he made the acquaintance of Murchison, 

 who was already a friend of his father's, and from whom the younger 

 Williamson received great kindness. 



Williamson early adopted the medical profession, and during his 

 apprenticeship to a Scarborough apothecary, found time to carry on 

 his work in natural history, spending his holidays in shooting rare 

 birds, and collecting plants and fossils. He wrote a paper on rare 

 Yorkshire birds, when only about 16, and almost immediately 

 afterwards he made his first contributions to fossil botany, drawing 

 and describing many of the specimens for Lindley and Button's 

 ' Fossil Flora of Great Britain.' More than thirty of the plates in 

 this well-known book bear his name. 



A paper on the distribution of organic remains in the Lias series 

 of Yorkshire was read before the Geological Society of London, on 

 May 9, 1834, when the author had only attained the age of 17^, and 

 another in November, 1836, on the Oolitic fossils of the same coast. 

 These were remarkable contributions to science in themselves, and the 

 more so as coming from so young a worker; few naturalists can 

 have started serious investigation so early in life. 



Before he was 18, Williamson appeared as an author on a very 

 different subject, for, in 1834, he published an account of the excava- 

 tion of a tumulus at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough. This, which 

 was probably his only archaeological publication, was important in 

 its effect on his scientific career, inasmuch as it brought the young 

 naturalist into communication with the distinguished geologist, Dr. 

 Buckland. Through his influence, this paper was reproduced in the 



* ' Eeminiscences of a Yorkshire Naturalist,' by W. C. Williamson, Redway, 

 1896. 



