64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



In the Meeting Room four lectures and lantern-demonstrations 

 were delivered, beginning at 9.0, when Professor E. B. Poulton, 

 r.R.S., gave a brief account, illustrated with many slides, on 

 Dr. Burchell and his travels in South Africa. 



William John Burchell was born on July 23rd, 1781 or 1782, 

 the eldest son of Marthew Burchell, proprietor of the celebrated 

 Nursery Gardens at Fulham. He received a fine education at the 

 Kayleigh House Academy, Mitchatn. In 1805 Burchell sailed for 

 St. Helena, and landed on the island December 13th. In 1807 

 a young lady, to whom Burchell had been engaged in Fulham, set 

 out in order to join him in the island : she landed April 17th, 

 1808, but refused to marry him. There can be no doubt that the 

 bitter disappointment influenced Burchell's character and whole 

 career. After a stormy and uncomfortable sojourn in St. Helena 

 he sailed for Cape Town, landing November 26th, 1810. This 

 point marks the beginning of his great work ' Travels in the 

 Interior of Southern Africa,' w hich comes to an abrupt conclusion 

 on August 3rd, 1812, the day on which he brought to an end his 

 first visit to Litakun, the capital of the Bachapin nation. Burchell 

 had intended to travel N.W. and reach the W. coast, but wns 

 compelled by the fears of his men to turn back on October 27th, 

 1812, after reaching furthest north at the " Maadji Mountain," 

 in British Bechuanaland, on nearly the same latitude as Maretsani 

 siding on the railway and as Johannesburg. At this part of his 

 journey, during which great hardships were endured, Burchell 

 discovered the so-called " White Rhinoceros," afterwards described 

 by him and named R. simus. Burchell returned S. on a track to 

 the W. of his former route, which he rejoined near Kuruman 

 Station, thence retracing his steps to Klaarwater (the existing 

 Griquatown). He then struck S.E. to the mouth of the Great 

 Fish Eiver, which he left October 25th, 1813, for a leisurely 

 journey westward along the S. coast to Cape Town. He arrived 

 about the middle of April, 1815 ; we know that on the 15th of 

 the following September he was at St. Helena on his voyage home. 

 During the next ten years Burchell lived with his family at 

 Churchfield House, Fuihara, naming and arranging his great 

 botanical and zoological collections and writing his classical work, 

 of which the first volume was published in 1822, the second in 

 1S2'J. On March 10th, 1825, he again started for a great journey, 

 this time in the New World. On the way to Rio he collected for 

 two months near Lisbon, for a day in Madeira and two in Tenerife. 

 Burchell reached Rio, January 18th, 1825, and remained until 

 September 10th, 1826, making two excursions of about a month 

 each into Minas Geraes and the Organ Mountains. Pinally, on 

 September 10th, he sailed for Santos and began his great three- 

 years' journey northward to Para, through the heart of Eastern 

 Brazil. Burchell's father died on July 12th, 1828, but such was 

 the difficulty in communicating with him that he did not know of 

 his loss until October 15th, 1829, four months after his arrival at 



