NOTES ON TRAVEL 259 



families which had migrated to Finland in the sixteenth 

 century. The name of the author interested him at 

 once and also the fact that so many of the Swedish 

 settlers in Finland bore other Scottish names. After 

 reading it Ramsay wrote to the author saying how 

 much he had enjoyed the book and asking him if he 

 were any relation of a certain Professor Wilhelm Ramsay, 

 who often had papers on chemical and geological sub- 

 jects in German scientific publications, and whose proofs 

 had sometimes been sent to Ramsay by mistake. Andreas 

 Ramsay replied at once saying, that Wilhelm was his 

 nephew, and asking many questions on his part as to 

 the Ramsay families in Scotland. From that time a 

 lively correspondence ensued. Ramsay had always 

 hoped to visit Finland, but it was not till 1907 that a 

 favourable opportunity occurred. That year, as he 

 could not get the house he wanted for the summer 

 holiday till September, and in the beginning of August 

 was tired out with a busy session, he thought that a 

 voyage to Finland and a week there would provide a 

 good change and a rest from correspondence. It was 

 quickly arranged, and he wrote to Mr. Ramsay saying 

 that he expected to be in Helsingfors in the middle of 

 August and hoped to call on the old man while there. 

 Ramsay and his wife started on the 10th going first to 

 Gothenburg and across Sweden by the Gothenburg 

 canal. That part of the journey interested Ramsay 

 very much. The enormous height to which the canal 

 had to be carried represented an engineering feat which 



