20 INTRODUCTION. 



the attempt was successful, and the authorities took a step, 

 unusual but approved of by the whole body of resident members 

 of the University ; they instituted a new Professorship of 

 Animal Morphology, to be held by Balfour during his life or 

 as long as he should desire, but to terminate at his death or 

 resignation unless it should be otherwise desirable. Accordingly 

 in May, 1882, he was admitted into the Professoriate as Pro- 

 fessor of Animal Morphology. 



During his illness his lectures had been carried on by his 

 Demonstrator, Mr Adam Sedgwick, who continued to take his 

 place during the remainder of that Lent Term and during the 

 ensuing Easter Term. The spring Balfour spent partly in the 

 Channel Islands with his sister Alice, partly in London with 

 his eldest brother, but in the course of the Ea'ster Term 

 returned to Cambridge and resumed his work though not his 

 lectures. His recovery to health was steady and satisfactory, 

 the only drawback being a swelling over the shin-bone of one 

 leg, due to a blow on the rocks at Sark ; otherwise he was 

 rapidly becoming strong. He himself felt convinced that a visit 

 to the Alps, with some mountaineering of not too difficult a 

 kind, would complete his restoration to health. In this view 

 many of his friends coincided ; for the experience of former 

 years had shewn them what a wonderfully beneficial effect the 

 Alpine air and exercise had upon his health. He used to go 

 away pale, thin and haggard, to return bronzed, clear, firm and 

 almost stout ; nor was there anything in his condition which 

 seemed to forbid his climbing, provided that he was cautious 

 at the outset. Accordingly, early in June he left Cambridge 

 for Switzerland, having long ago, during his illness in fact, en- 

 gaged his old guide, Johann Petrus, whom he had first met in 

 1880, and who had always accompanied him in his expeditions 

 since. 



His first walking was in the Chamonix district ; and here he 

 very soon found his strength and elasticity come back to him. 

 Crossing over from Montanvert to Courmayeur, by the Col du 

 Geant, he was attracted by the peak called the Aiguille Blanche 

 de Peuteret, a virgin peak, the ascent of which had been before 

 attempted but not accomplished. Consulting with Petrus he 

 determined to try it, feeling that the fortnight, which by this 



