126 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



time then at my disposal. The excellent facilities 

 now afforded by the Royal Geographical Society for 

 the instruction of intending travellers did not then 

 exist ; indeed, I had a large part in their introduction 

 many years later. I was, however, familiar with the 

 requisite book-work, and relied on what I could pick up 

 on board ship and elsewhere to supplement it. Let 

 me anticipate that I took very kindly indeed to instru- 

 mental work, and learnt in time to get more out of 

 my sextants, etc., than most persons. Land work 

 admits of far greater exactitude with that instrument 

 than sea work, where the true position of the horizon 

 is never known, owing to uncertainties of refraction, 

 and is not seen at all at night. The sun, which is 

 the principal object of observation at sea, is little used 

 on land, where the altitudes of stars are obtainable with 

 great accuracy from their reflections in a small trough 

 of mercury. Also the hand can be so rested that 

 the images of the star and of its reflection shall be 

 quite steady when seen through the telescope. 

 Moreover, the two images, whether of the star and 

 its reflection, or of the star and the moon, can be toned 

 to an exactly equal degree of brightness. The sextant 

 is a very powerful instrument for its size, in the hands 

 of those who have patience and skill to get the most 

 out of it. 



I was received very kindly at the Cape by the 

 Governor, Sir Harry Smith, and by his lady, whose 

 name is perpetuated in that of the well-known town 

 " Ladysmith," called after her. But the news from 

 the frontier recently received at Cape Town scattered 

 my plans like a bombshell. The Boers, who had 

 been very unruly, had affirmed their intention of 



