114 



NATURE 



[January 26, 1922 



ings were apt to be interrupted and the whole audi- 

 ence would stand up and give three cheers for " good 

 old Bryce." Among themselves the Americans to 

 the last habitually called him " our Mr. Bryce." 

 American citizens of all classes believed in his 

 thorough goodwill towards their country, and he thus 

 achieved what seemed almost the impossible in 

 inducing them to bear kindly with criticism they 

 • felt to be both honest and friendly. For if Lord 

 Bryce knew no better form of government than 

 democracy, he was, as his recent work has shown, 

 keenly alive to its imperfections and crudities both 

 in the States and in Australia. 



Politics, historical and literary studies, and travel 

 were the main occupation of Lord Bryce's life. His 

 career, in the two former branches of activity has 

 been fully dealt with in the general Press. Here 

 we may more appropriately confine ourselves to the 

 last. Lord Bryce, without being in any strict sense 

 a man of science, though he was elected a fellow of 

 the Royal Society, under the special rule, in 1893, 

 took the keenest interest in several branches of 

 natural science. His father had been a geologist, 

 and he himself was apt to record the geological fea- 

 tures of the countries he passed through. In botany 

 he was an eager student, with a keen eye for rari- 

 ties. In his walks near his home at Ashdown Forest 

 he would frequently stop to recognise some relatively 

 Tare growth, and so long ago as 1859 he wrote a 

 manual on " The Flora of the Island of Arran." 



When he visited Pekin the attaches at the British 

 Legation, who were prepared to give information on 

 Chinese politics, were dismayed to find themselves 

 called on to answer questions as to the local flora. 

 In his " Impressions of South Africa " he discusses 

 at some length the vegetation of the country, and 

 records that he brought home fifty-four plant speci- 

 mens, eleven of which were pronounced at Kew to be 

 new to science. Wherever he went he was as keenly 

 interested in the natural aspects and features of the 

 country visited as in its inhabitants and their poli- 

 tics, and he delighted to trace the interaction between 

 the two. His descriptive talent was exceptional, 

 and was aided by the almost unique opportunities 

 for comparison given him by the extent of his travels. 



Take at hazard this vivid sketch of Lake Titicaca : 



" The blue of Titicaca is peculiar, not deep and 

 dark, as that of the tropical ocean, nor opaque, like 

 the blue-green of Lake Leman, nor like that warm 

 purple of the ^gean which Homer compares to dark 

 red wine, but a clear, cold, crystalline blue, even as 

 IS that of the cold sky vaulted over it. Even in this 

 blazing sunlight it had that sort of chilly glitter one 

 sees in the crevasses of a glacier ; and the wavelets 

 sparkled like diamonds/' 



The shortest way to indicate the extent of Lord 

 Bryce's travels might possibly be to give a list of 

 the regions he had not visited. During the three 

 years (1899-1901) when he was president of the 

 Alpine Club it was noted that whatever distant range 

 might be under discussion the ubiquitous chairman 

 was sure to begin his remarks with, " When I was 

 out there." I believe "The Mountains of the 

 NO. 2726, VOL. T09] ' 



Moon " was one of the few places where the author 

 of the paper had the advantage of him. 



Of these many years' wanderings and holidays in 

 a busy life (continued until last spring by a trip to 

 Morocco) the public have had the results in three 

 solid works. Of these, the first, " Transcaucasia 

 and Ararat " (1877) was in the main not a moun- 

 taineering record, but a study of the Caucasian 

 isthmus and its peoples, as seen by a passing visitor. 

 But the account of an ascent of Mount Ararat, in 

 which Lord Bryce reached the top without his com- 

 panions, fixed public attention and had some singu- 

 lar consequences. In a rash moment he wrote of a 

 piece of wood he picked up near the top, a relic of a 

 previous Russian ascent, that he was not able to state 

 it might not be gopherwood. When in the United 

 States he had frequent applications from out-of-the- 

 way local museums for the smallest fragment of this 

 invaluable relic of Noah's Ark ! 



Lord Bryce's two solid volumes on South Africa 

 and South America are, apart from their political 

 importance, admirable pictures of the regions de- 

 scribed. In their pages he unites the power of 

 observation which makes a good traveller with that 

 of generalisation which is called for in a geographer. 

 And he carries his readers on from one topic to an- 

 other by a lively style which reflects the quickness 

 and versatility of the author's mind. Lord Bryce was 

 engaged at the time of his death in a collection of 

 " Memories of Travel," which we trust will be found 

 in a state sufficiently advanced to admit of publication. 



It must be added that if Lord Bryce had one 

 hobby, or taste, stronger than another, it was for 

 mountains and mountain climbing. He habitually 

 found time to attend the meetings of the Alpine 

 Club, and to take a share in its discussions. He 

 followed the doings of its members with the keenest 

 interest. The chief ornament of a study which was 

 usually a chaos of proofs, letters, and presentation 

 volumes, was a photograph of the most beautiful of 

 snowpeaks, the Himalavan Siniolchum. 



Douglas W. Freshfield. 



Sir John Kirk, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., F.R.S. 



By the death of Sir John Kirk at the advanced 

 age of ninety, the world has lost the last survivor 

 of the heroic pioneers of African exploration, the 

 founder of the British position in Eastern Equa- 

 torial Africa, and a botanist whose contributions to 

 African natural history were of first-rate importance. 



Sir John Kirk was born in the Manse of Barry, 

 near Arbroath, in 1832. He entered Edinburgh 

 University at the age of fifteen, and obtained the 

 degree of M.D. in 1854. In 1855 he went to 

 Turkey with the Volunteer Medical Corps in connec- 

 tion with the Crimean War and served *in a hospital 

 on the Dardanelles. In 1857 he was recommended by 



Woody Fibre " Balfour as physician and natural- 

 ist to Livingstone's second expedition, in which he 

 served from 1858 until he was invalided home in 

 1863. On that expedition, which was the least 

 successful of Livingstone's three. Kirk gained a 

 higher reputation than any other of its members. 

 His unfailing good humour, tact, and great gift of 



