34 EAELY DAYS 



with conscience, and as I changed the papers every night, 

 when possible, I am sure you will be pleased. . . . Mosses 

 are extremely scarce here ; I think one is, however, the 

 Hymenostoma rutilans, as far as I can judge without a 

 microscope ; if so it be, a good discovery and the only one ; 

 it was very sparing in a wood near Galway, at the foot of a tree 

 on the ground ; it is very minute and there are only three or 

 four capsules ; the other Mosses you will see are some of them 

 very common and only gathered for my own examination. 



Now, my dear papa, such is the outline of the excursion 

 which you were kind enough to allow me to join, solely, as 

 it has turned out, for my own gratification. I have enjoyed 

 it extremely, and feel twice as strong as when I left Glasgow ; 

 I hope the remainder of it, and especially the interview with 

 , Dr. Richardson, will be more profitable to myself. . . . 



Excuse this hasty letter, it is now 3 A.M., and we start 

 to-morrow morning. I am very sleepy, the fleas in Con- 

 nemara keeping me awake the whole night sometimes. 



As to the British Association, the Newcastle meeting of 

 1838 was his first. It was said to outshine in splendour 

 any former meeting ; and he confessed to his grandfather 

 that with all its obvious utility as a common meeting-ground, 

 and its encouragement to the non-scientific who were tem- 

 porarily proud to be seen with a hammer or vasculum, 

 ' the scientific department fell far behind the amusement and 

 eating.' One notes the number of scientific men he either 

 knew already or was introduced to ; the quaint appearance 

 of Dr. Kichardson in the Natural History section, as he sat on 

 the left of the Chair, and read the report of the previous day's 

 proceedings, 



being fully attired in a Dumfries Tartan of broad check and 

 a shooting coat of the same. . . . There were not above 

 50 people in the room, and almost no ladies ; those few 

 who were there had come in by accident, and I was after- 

 wards much surprised to hear that ladies were precluded 

 from attending this section of Botany and Zoology on 

 account of the nature of some of the papers belonging to 

 the latter division, [for which, in his judgment, there was 

 not the least occasion]. 



