SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 41 



he was in Edinburgh. His scientific many-sidedness 

 fitted in well with the varied character of his work in 

 his new position, while that position at the same time 

 afforded him opportunities for still further self-develop- 

 ment in accordance with the bent of his mind and in 

 the lines of his varied previous extensive acquire- 

 ments. 



In Marischal College he found himself in direct 

 contact with many young inquiring minds. To instruct 

 and to guide these was henceforth to be the main 

 business of his life. He devoted himself to this work 

 with all his energies, mental and physical, and with 

 a warmth of sympathetic interest rarely found in the 

 occupants of a professorial chair. There was earnest- 

 ness and reality in all he said and did in his lectures, 

 in his excursions into surrounding districts, frequently 

 with his students in search of zoological or botanical 

 specimens, or for examination of geological phenomena. 

 These excursions often involved long and fatiguing 

 walks, but his youthful companions, inspired by his 

 spirit, always felt that what they had gained in 

 knowledge from discoveries made under his guid- 

 ance, in instruction then received or illustrated, or 

 in pleasure from his kindly and courteous companion- 

 ship, much more than compensated for the fatigues 

 undergone. 



MacGillivray brought new life into Marischal 

 College, while the specially interesting nature of his 

 lectures and the attractiveness of his personality 

 drew to his classes many students whose curriculum 



