96 IN MEMORIAM. — WILLIAM CRAWFORD WILLIAMSON, LL.D., F.R.S. 
was appointed Curator to the Scarborough Museum which lead to 
many and widespread explorations of the surrounding country in 
search of specimens ; plants, shells, insects, marine animals, birds 
abounded in the varied habitats of marsh, moor, wood and sandhills, 
among the rocky pools of the coast and in the inland ponds and 
rivers from which were drawn numerous treasures to enrich the 
beloved museum. In this way a real practical knowledge of natural 
history was acquired, which proved of great value in later years when 
the student became an author. Nor were these explorations limited 
to the living organisms ; perhaps there is no district in Britain more 
attractive to the geologist than the magnificent series of cliffs stretch- 
ing from Flamborough in the south to Saltburn in the north, where 
are exposed the rich fossil treasures of the Secondary strata, ranging 
from the Chalk to the Upper Lias, to say nothing of the beds of 
boulder clay which cap them nor of the Tertiary beds exposed at 
their base near Bridlington. How delightful these excursions were 
we learn in " The Reminiscences," and the plentiful collections then 
made were afterwards utilised in many of his scientific papers ; these 
were days of preparation during which the seed was sown, later to 
burst into healthy shoot and foliage and the noble fruit of original 
research. All too soon these happy days sped by ; a short time at 
school in France ; a brief but memorable visit on his homeward 
journey to his father's geological friend, Sir Roderick Murchison, in 
London, and then it became necessary to face the problem of earning 
a more settled living than science, however delightful, could provide ; 
hence, we find him in 1832 apprenticing himself to Thomas Weddel, 
Surgeon, of Scarborough, with whom he remained until 1835. 
Witham had just published his researches on the minute 
structure of Carboniferous plants by means of thin sections, whilst 
Liudley and Hutton's " Fossil Flora of Great Britain " appeared in 
1837 : to the latter Williamson contributed many drawings by way of 
illustrations, and so quite early in life he began to study that depart- 
ment of Fossil Botany in which he afterwards became so distin- 
guished. His first papers, however, written when only eighteen years 
of age, dealt with varied subjects, on the genus Mytilus, the Lias 
Fossils, and the Gristhorpe Tumulus. 
