WM. THOMPSON, ESQ. XV 



September, having been absent (since 21st May) within a few minutes 

 of four months." 



Some time after his return he commenced business on his own account, 

 with the intention of ultimately occupying the bleach-green at Wolf-hill, 

 where his father had carried on a trade extensive for those days. The 

 linen trade at that time was conducted in a different manner, and on a 

 very different scale, from what it now is. Mr. Thompson for a time went 

 on successfully, in proportion to the amount of capital employed. A 

 change, however, took place, some losses occurred, and by these and 

 other circumstances he was induced to abandon the idea of continuing 

 in business. From this period science became not only the j^leasure but 

 the occupation of his life. 



In 1826 he had been prevailed on by his friend the late Dr. Jas. L. 

 Drummond, founder of the Natural History Society of Belfast, to become 

 a member of that body. In the ensuing year, 1827, he was appointed a 

 member of the Council. In that year, on the 13th of August, he read his 

 first paper, choosing for his subject " The Birds of the Copeland Isles," 

 situated at the entrance of Belfast Bay. He was chosen one of the Vice- 

 presidents in June, 1833 ; was elected President in 1843, on the retire- 

 ment of Dr. Drummond, and was annually re-elected during the remain- 

 der of his life, a period of nearly nine years. 



In 1827, when Mr. Thompson visited the Copeland Isles, he made a 

 few notes of some of the objects observed. This was a compiencement 

 of a series of memoranda botanical and zoological, remarkable both for 

 their extent and their minuteness. Every locality visited furnished a 

 supply of fresh materials, all of Avhich were carefully preserved. When 

 the time came for putting them in order and arranging them as scientific 

 commvmications, they were carefully winnowed, and every grain of value 

 which they contained was transferred to its fitting place, with all those 

 details which authenticated the accuracy of the record. TMenty-four of 

 those journals are now in possession of the editors. Some of them occupy 

 but two or three pages ; others extend to many sheets. They refer prin- 

 cipally, as might be expected, to Irish localities, visited in the course of 

 successive tours, or made the place of sojourn during a few weeks or 

 months in the summer or autumn. But they are not limited to these ; 

 they refer to some of the loveliest and most romantic English scenery, and 

 also to portions of that of Scotland, especially of Ayrshire, Inverness-shire, 

 and the islands of Islay and Skye. The last of these journals was written 

 at Newcastle, County Down, in the autumn of 1851, and consequently 

 but a few months before his death. 



During this long period of years he gave great attention to specific 

 distinctions, and was gifted with an eye quick in detecting their exist- 

 ence. It was a natural result, that he would soon be able to detect 

 species which science had not yet named or described, and others 

 well known but unrecorded as Irish. Having satisfied himself of the 

 accuracy of the facts, the next step w'as to impart a knowledge of them 

 to his brother naturalists, by communications to different Societies and 

 to scientific periodicals. He first came forward in this way in 1833, by 

 submitting to the Zoological Society of London some notes on the Sterna 

 arctica, and other birds observed in Ireland. In 1834 he contributed a 

 paper to the same Society, which appeared in their Proceedings ; and 

 another to the Linna^an, the substance of which was published in the 

 London and Edinburgh Philosophical Journal of that year. His first 

 appearance as a contributor to the Magazine of Natural History, whose 



