AUSTRALASIAN SCIENTIFIC 
MAGAZINE, 
No. III. OCTOBER i, 1885. V 0 l. r. 
OUR PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL 
GALLERY. 
JAMES STIRLING, F.G.S., F.L.S, F.G.S.A., F.B.S.A, Etc, Etc. 
“ A son of the soil ” 
“ A self-made man.” 
We select for our first portrait that of Mr. Stirling, inasmuch as he is the 
first native-born contributor to our columns who has achieved for himself a 
position in the world of science. His life will show to young Australia 
what indomitable perseverance in the face of many drawbacks may be 
accomplished, and be an example for the imitation of others, with far 
greater advantages in their favour than he ever enjoyed. 
Born in Geelong early in 1852, the son of an estimable merchant and 
prominent citizen, he was by the premature death of his father, thrown on 
the world, to push his way as best he could. School craft in these colonies 
in those early days was not what it is now. But it appears that his father 
obtained for him during some fourteen years of his early life as good educa- 
tion as was obtainable at that time. Thus placed, and having to look 
around for himself, he went into the service of relatives who owned 
squatting estates in the Gippsland district. There he seems to have 
remained for about two years of vegetation, in which period most 
youngsters would have forgotten the smattering of education they had 
gained in their earlier infancy. Not so with young Stirling. By study and 
intellectual development, he soon found that bucolic indolence was not for 
