34 EAELY DAYS 
with conscience, and as I changed the papers every night, 
when possible, I am sure you will be pleased. . . . Mosses 
are extremely scarce here ; I think one is, however, the 
Hymenosioma rutilans, as far as I can judge without a 
microscope ; if so it be, a good discovery and the only one ; 
it was very sparing in a wood near Galway, at the foot of a tree 
on the ground ; it is very minute and there are only three or 
four capsules ; the other Mosses you will see are some of them 
very common and only gathered for my own examination. 
Now, my dear papa, such is the outhne of the excursion 
which you were kind enough to allow me to join, solely, as 
it has turned out, for my own gratification. I have enjoyed 
it extremely, and feel twice as strong as when I left Glasgow ; 
I hope the remainder of it, and especially the interview with 
Dr. Kichardson, wall be more profitable to myself. . . . 
Excuse this hasty letter, it is now 3 a.m., and we start 
to-morrow morning. I am very sleepy, the fleas in Con- 
nemara keeping me awake the whole night sometimes. 
As to the British Association, the Newcastle meeting of 
1838 was his first. It was said to outshine in splendour 
any former meeting ; and he confessed to his grandfather 
that with all its obvious utility as a common meeting-ground, 
and its encouragement to the non-scientific who w^ere tem- 
porarily proud to be seen with a hammer or vasculum, 
' the scientific department fell far behind the amusement and 
eating.' One notes the number of scientific men he either 
knew already or was introduced to ; the quaint appearance 
of Dr. Eichardson in the Natural History section, as he sat on 
the left of the Chair, and read the report of the previous day's 
proceedings, — 
being fully attired in a Dumfries Tartan of broad check and 
a shooting coat of the same. . . . There were not above 
50 people in the room, and almost no ladies ; those few 
who were there had come in by accident, and I was after- 
wards much surprised to hear that ladies were precluded 
from attending this section of Botany and Zoology on 
account of the nature of some of the papers belonging to 
the latter division, [for which, in his judgment, there was 
not the least occasion]. 
