SIR RODERICK J. MURCHISON. 201 



business-like qualities of the new director-general 

 at once made themselves felt in the order and method 

 by which the survey was conducted, as well as in 

 the uniform system of the publication of the memoirs, 

 and the arrangement of the collections. His high 

 social position and personal influence with the 

 Ministry, gave a prestige to the department which 

 it had not possessed before, and prevented its dis- 

 memberment, or absorption into South Kensington. 

 By his rare tact he kept it during the whole of his 

 reign distinctively a school for geology and mining. 



We must now refer to Murchison's connection with 

 the British Association. As head of the geological 

 and geographical sections, as general secretary, and 

 ultimately as president, he continued to fill a foremost 

 place in it till the end of his life. 



His name also will ever be associated with the history 

 of exploration in Africa. While Livingstone, Burton, 

 Speke, Grant, Baker, and others were pursuing their 

 investigations, shut out from civilization, and thrown 

 upon their own resources, he in England was ever 

 looking after their interests with anxious solicitude. 

 Even when the wilds of Africa had closed over Living- 

 stone for years, he was the last to lose heart in the 

 success of the enterprise. 



After the death of his wife in 1869, there is very 

 little left to record of Sir Eoderick Murchison. He 

 had reaped a rich harvest of honours. In 1860 he was 

 elected Corresponding Member of the French Institute ; 

 in 1864 he received the Wollaston Medal, and in 1866 

 he was created a baronet. In 1870 he founded, in 



