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NATURAL HISTORY. 



ALEXANDER WILSON. 



a liberal education. Much, however, cannot be set down 

 to this, because his father found it impossible to carry 

 on his education, and the future naturalist was appren- 

 ticed, at the early age of thirteen, to an operative weaver 

 in Paisley. His apprenticeship lasted three years, and 

 though often, as he says himself, * feasted wi' the hazel- 

 oil,' he does not seem to have been unhappy, and he 

 was not wholly without opportunities of indulging his 

 taste for reading, and for wandering in the country. 



On the expiry of his apprenticeship, Wilson adopted the 

 occupation of a journeyman weaver, which he carried on, 

 partly in Paisley and partly in Lochwinnoch, where his 



