46 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



which more or less influenced for good his whole after 

 life. 



In the autumn of 1850 he spent a holiday of about 

 a month with his son Paul and his eldest daughter on 

 a pedestrian excursion to the upper part of the valley 

 of the Dee and Braemar, his main object, as he explains 

 in his last written book, The Natural History of 

 Deeside and Braemar, having been to examine the 

 "geological structure of Braemar, its Alpine vegeta- 

 tion, and to a certain extent its zoology." Full details 

 of that excursion and of its results are given in that 

 book, which, besides its scientific value, is in several 

 respects the most interesting and fascinating of his 

 works. There is an unpretending simplicity in its style, 

 while not a page is without interest, resulting either 

 from the attractiveness of the personality of the 

 narrator, as it comes out in connection with every 

 detail, however trivial in itself, or from the pleasant 

 surprise at the unexpected discovery of some Alpine 

 plant, or the observed effect of a mass of eruptive 

 rock as specially bearing on the geological character of 

 the district, or from a strikingly picturesque view, 

 or from an incidental reflective thought associated with 

 the aspect of an object or scene which had specially 

 impressed him, in which he gives utterance to his 

 deepest thoughts or breathes out his most tender 

 feelings or his holiest aspirations. There are more of 

 such passages in that book than in any of his other 

 works within the same compass. His sense of awe in 

 the presence of the Great Mystery of Nature appears 



