WM. THOMPSON, ESQ. 
XY 
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 pleasure 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 commencement 
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 which were carefully preserved. When 
the time came for putting them in order and arranging them as scientific 
communications, 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. Twenty-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 was 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 Linnsean, 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 
