42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



tained that it had been injected from beneath in a 

 molten condition. When I think of this lecture, I do 

 not wonder that I determined never to attend to 

 Geology. 



From attending 's lectures, I became acquainted 



with the curator of the museum, Mr. Macgillivray, 

 who afterwards published a large and excellent book 

 on the birds of Scotland. I had much interesting 

 natural-history talk with him, and he was very kind to 

 me. He gave me some rare shells, for I at that time 

 collected marine mollusca, but with no great zeal. 



My summer vacations during these two years were 

 wholly given up to amusements, though I always had 

 some book in hand, which I read with interest. 

 During the summer of 1826 I took a long walking 

 tour with two friends with knapsacks on our backs 

 through North Wales. We walked thirty miles most 

 days, including one day the ascent of Snowdon. I 

 also went with my sister a riding tour in North Wales, 

 a servant with saddle-bags carrying our clothes. The 

 autumns were devoted to shooting chiefly at Mr. 

 Owen's, at Woodhouse, and at my Uncle Jos's, * at 

 Maer. My zeal was so great that I used to place my 

 shooting-boots open by my bed-side when I went to 

 bed, so as not to lose half a minute in putting them on 

 in the morning ; and on one occasion I reached a 

 distant part of the Maer estate, on the 2Oth of August 

 for black-game shooting, before I could see : I then 

 toiled on with the gamekeeper the whole day through 

 thick heath and young Scotch firs. 



* Josiah Wedgwood, the son of the founder of the Etruria Works. 



