386 BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 



good health in Australia, could not however resist the 

 temptation to join an expedition, which was about to 

 cross the continent, to seek for traces of the lost 

 traveller Leichhardt. But the fatigue was too much 

 for him, and he nearly perished in the desert interior 

 from the effects of a haemorrhage. When after a series 

 of further adventures he returned to England, we sent 

 him to the Caucasus, which had often proved bene- 

 ficial to consumptives. In truth a rather long stay in 

 Kedabeg seemed to have perfectly restored him. At 

 Walter's sudden death he entered upon the latter' s 

 functions. In the house of Prince Mirsky, governor of 

 the Caucasus, he made the acquaintance and became 

 enamoured of the widow of General Prince Mirsky 

 - a brother of the governor - - who had fallen in 

 the Crimean war. Unhappily his death after a few 

 years severed the union of the happy pair. 



Our sister Matilda, the wife of Professor Himly, 

 died at Kiel in the summer of 1878, mourned by us 

 as an affectionate and faithful sister. Sister Sophia 

 unhappily lost many years ago her husband, who at 

 the time filled the office of advocate to the Supreme 

 Court at Leipzig. 



With regard to my own life in the last few years 

 it only remains for me to mention that since the be- 

 ginning of 1890 I have left the business management 

 of the firm of Siemens & Halske at Berlin, Charlotten- 

 burg, St. Petersburg, and Vienna to the former active 

 partners, my brother Charles and my sons Arnold and 

 William, and am now only a sleeping partner in the 



