299 



PROF. WILLIAMSONS AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



Reminiscences | of a | Yorkshire Naturalist | By the late [ William Craw- 

 ford Williamson [ LL.D.,F.R.S. | Professor of Botany in Owens College, 

 Manchester | Edited by | his wife [ London | George Redway | 1896 [8vo. 

 cloth, pp. xii + 228]. 



'The Reminiscences of a Yorkshire Naturalist' is a volume which 

 will be read with keen interest by the members of the Yorkshire 

 Naturalists' Union. One of its early presidents, and the first of 

 them to be removed by death, the name of Dr. Williamson will 



be 



singular affection. 



This is the record of a life prolonged beyond the usual limit, 

 and occupied mainly in scientific research. An autobiography 



is necessarily egotistical, and herein lies its chief charm. Whether 

 a man can know himself as he is, may be open to doubt ; but, in 

 the case of a man of note, it is of value to learn how he has 

 appeared to himself, and what part of his work he most values. 

 In the present instance the reader will be struck by the equal 

 esteem which the author has for all his labours, and by the 

 concentration of his entire attention on them. They were 

 stirring times in which he lived, these eight decades. Applied 

 science has almost made a new world for us during this period. 

 There has been a great political and social revolution about us. 

 But these things do not trouble the naturalist absorbed in the study 

 of Foraminifera, or in the examination of the Flora of the Coal 

 Measures. Even the great men — his fellow-workers — with whom 

 he was constantly in contact, receive but a passing mention as he 

 hurries on to his work. It is probable that this entire 



concentration 



object is the secret of the success 



has been spent so honourably in the advancement of natural 



knowledge. 



It is both pleasing and fitting that Dr. Williamson, who left his 



. reached manhood, 

 Lancashire, should ' 



book so 



vast 



with the wild sea below, 



searcher into Nature's secrets was born and bred. Behind the 

 cliffs were the romantic sorsres and hanging woods through which 



hand 



glacial heaps which have 



the 



swamps of the Vale of Pickering. Beyond this debris of the ice age 

 rose the swelling curves of the Wolds, ending on the southern 



crags of Speeton and Ffamt 



Oct. 1896. 



