ixxvi MEMOIR. 
ing meetings; often the revision, sometimes re-composition, of the 
papers read ; the editing of the Proceedings ; and the mass of work 
incidental to the departure and return of travellers, one and all of 
whom, English and foreign, went straight to Bates for counsel and 
help, and never came empty away. 
Mr. Clements R. Markham, C.B., F.R.S., who filled the office of 
honorary secretary for a quarter of a century, thus speaks of Bates’s 
services to the Society :— 
‘* Tt would be difficult to estimate the benefits that the society has derived 
from the services of Mr. Bates since he became its assistant-secretary 
in 1864, because they made themselves felt in so many directions and in 
so many ways. During the six years of his service, when the society’s 
premises were in Whitehall Place, and the presidency was held by Sir 
Roderick Murchison, his active assistance was directed to the improve- 
ment of the organisation in the office, library, and map-room; to the de- 
velopment of a better system of keeping and presenting the accounts; and to 
a more popular and more agreeable plan in the preparation of papers to be 
read at the meetings. By the able and judicious way in which these im- 
provements were conceived and persevered in, Mr. Bates very early showed 
how admirably he was fitted for the place; and both Sir Roderick and the 
secretaries relied more and more upon him as their mainstay and support in 
the work of maintaining and advancing the efficiency and prosperity of the 
society. Mr. Bates’s usefulness was, perhaps, most felt in the assistance 
and advice he gave to travellers, and, indeed, to every one who came to him 
on geographical business. They invariably found in him not only a man 
ready to impart information and advice, but a trustworthy and sympathising 
friend. It was, however, in times of difficulty, and on occasions needing the 
exercise of tact and conciliation, that Mr. Bates’s valuable qualities made 
themselves most felt by his colleagues. There was such a combination of cir- 
cumstances at the meeting of the British Association at Bath in 1864, when 
great pressure of work was ably met, arrangements exactly suited to the needs 
of the moment were made, and conflicting interests were reconciled, quietly, 
smoothly, and with admirable judgment. Indeed, the geographical section 
of the British Association has owed its success and efficiency in a great 
measure to Mr. Bates during the many years that he has acted as one of its 
secretaries, During more than twenty years since the removal (of the society’s 
premises to 1, Savile Row), Mr. Bates has rendered the same services; and 
each successive president has endorsed the feelings expressed by Sir Roderick 
Murchison. Ifthe admiration of his friends and colleagues could have been 
increased in any way, after a long experience of his high qualifications and of 
his goodness of heart, it would have been by the conscientious way in which 
he invariably stuck to his work, and refused to allow himself any relaxation, 
in spite of delicate health and the urgent need for rest which he must have 
felt. In the work of editing the society’s Zvansactions, which devolved 
upon Mr. Bates from the period of his first appointment, he was unwearied, 
and most successful in obtaining information bearing on geographical work 
from every quarter, and from all parts of the world; he supplied invaluable 
