WM. THOMPSON, ESQ, 
XVII 
the professional men, the merchants and manufacturers of Belfast, with 
whom he mingled, he stood in this respect alone. To him, therefore, all 
intelligence was brought of natural objects possessing either rarity or in- 
terest in the neighbourhood. To men of all ranks, thus calling to impart 
information, he gave a courteous reception ; to none more so than to the 
young. Many will remember the searching cross-examination to which, 
on such occasions, they were subjected. 
The labours in which Mr. Thompson was engaged for more than 
twenty years of his life were not those which were obvious and external. 
To many a toiling mortal in his native town, he must have appeared to 
be one of those favoured individuals who have nothing to do. Yet few 
were more industrious, or more persevering in the execution of his self- 
appointed task. Every hour in the day had its allotted duty. For four 
hours after breakfast he was engaged in scientific research, preparation 
for the press, or in correspondence. Exercise for two or three hours fol- 
lowed. The interval between dinner and tea was given to the lighter 
literature of the day, and when the claims of local societies and social 
intercourse left him free, the study was again the scene of two or three 
hours’ additional work ere bed-time. Such was the ordinary routine of 
his life, subject only to occasional interruptions of a local or personal 
nature. 
Not only did each day present in some respects a general resemblance 
to other days, but the very years of his life, for a long period, had a great 
uniformity of character. With spring came a visit to London — then a 
sojourn with the family at the sea-side — in the autumn a little tour with 
some friend — an attendance on the meeting of the British Association for 
Science, or an excursion to shooting quarters in Scotland. The month 
of November found him settled once more at home, and resuming the 
daily routine of occupation already mentioned. Throughout life he took 
pleasure in field sports ; and for many years went out regularly to hunt 
during the season. 
It would not serve any useful purpose to endeavour to trace in detail 
the incidents by which one year was distinguished from another; we pass 
on, therefore, to the year 1840, in which, at the Glasgow meeting of the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science, Mr. Thompson’s 
“ Report on the Fauna of Ireland — Division Vertebrata,” was brought 
forward. This was not merely an enumeration of the vertebrate animals 
of Ireland ; the comparative abundance or scarcity of particular species, 
and their distribution in that island, so far as it had then been recorded ; 
but it was also an exponent of the number of species inhabiting this the 
most western land of Europe, compared with those known as British, and 
in some instances with those of continental countries. The knowledge 
acquired during many years of careful observation and patient research 
were here embodied in a manner the most simple and perspicuous. It 
was justly characterized by Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte as “ a 
valuable and lucid essay, which faithfully exhibits the subject, and seems 
worthy of imitation.”* 
The ensuing year brought with it to Mr. Thompson a change of scene, 
and an abandonment for a time of all the established routine of occupa- 
tion. Early in 1841 his friend Captain Graves, of H.M. surveying ship, 
* “ Report on the State of Zoology in Europe, as regards the Vertebrata, 
read at the third meeting of the Italian Congress of Science, Florence, 1841.” 
Published by the Ray Society. London, 1845. 
