1891-92.] 4 2 9 



The next three years were passed at home, where all spare time was spent as 

 usual in collecting. The marriage of a sister in the summer of 1856 furnished 

 occasion for a trip to the English lake district, where flowering plants and 

 lichens, butterflies and minerals, were assiduously collected. 



The succeeding summer saw him on a tour up the Ehine, where he again had 

 scope to indulge his entomological tastes, returning with a number of species of 

 butterflies and fireflies wherewith to enrich his collection. 



In the autumn of 1858, business connected with the death of his father, 

 which occurred at this time, took him to America, where he sojourned during 

 the beautiful Indian summer. Time did not permit of extensive travelling, but 

 New York, Niagara, Montreal, and Quebec were visited. The shores of the 

 great lakes were searched for fresh-water shells, and the forests for butterflies 

 and specimens of the various native woods. The Palaeozoic rocks in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Quebec yielded fossils, and the raised beach near Montreal, corres- 

 ponding with that at Udde valla in Norway, was carefully examined. A number 

 of minerals were also acquired. 



In 1856 Mr. Hyndman and his dredging party received a grant from the 

 British Association for the purpose of systematically exploring and reporting on 

 the marine fauna of Belfast Lough and neighbourhood, and this grant was re- 

 newed in the two following years. Thus stimulated in their work, extensive 

 dredgings were carried out during these three years, with successful results, as 

 may be seen from Hyndman's " Keports of the Belfast Dredging Committee " in 

 the Association reports for the years 1857, '58, and '59. Of these expeditions 

 Grainger was frequently a member, and he added abundantly to his marine col- 

 lections from the material obtained, which included such rarities as Emarginula 

 crassa, Terebratula and Argiope, Lyonsia and Pandora. The successful and 

 interesting results of these dredgings, especially those made in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Turbot Bank, attracted several eminent conchologists to the spot, 

 and Grainger had the pleasure of meeting and working with Dr. Gwyn 

 Jeffreys and Edward Waller. "With the former he became intimately acquainted, 

 and derived much assistance from him in subsequent conchological work. 



During the interval between his return from America and his ordination in 

 1863, he lived at home with his mother at Whiteabbey, engaged with business 

 connected with the family, and diligently pursuing his scientific bent. A 

 portion of his leisure time was devoted to obtaining a knowledge of foreign 

 shells, for which he had a good opportunity. Bichard Davison, M.P. for 

 Belfast, of Whiteabbey, had a fine series of Ceylon shells, which he had 

 obtained from his friend, Sir J. Emerson Tennant ; and Lieutenant- General 

 Smythe, of Carnmoney, when acting as special Commissioner for H.M. Govern- 

 ment in the Fiji Islands, had diligently collected the local Mollusca. At these 

 collections Grainger spent many hours of study . 



Wyville Thomson, afterwards Sir Wyville Thomson, and chief naturalist on 

 board H.M.S. "Challenger," was then Professor of Zoology and Geology in 



