MURCHISON. 305 



order. He obtained the sanction of the Govern- 

 ment for colonial surveys, and was, in fact, the 

 main stay of science in relation to the state. For 

 ten years he did all this, and occasionally indulged 

 in a trip to the north and west, and also into 

 Bohemia. In 1862, Murchison was terribly troubled 

 by the sudden ill-health of his wife, to whom he 

 owed so much. She became more and more of an 

 invalid, and died in 1869. It was the greatest 

 blow possible, and it brought the kindest letter 

 from his old friend Sedgwick, eighty-four years of 

 age. In September, 1870, Murchison's time was 

 coming to an end. A slight attack of paralysis 

 warned him to retire from active life. In the 

 spring of 1871 he prepared his last address as 

 president of the Royal Geographical Society, and 

 resigned the chair he had so ably filled for fifteen 

 years. He lingered on, and passed quietly away on 

 October 22nd, 1871, full of years and well merited 

 honours. Murchison's name will live for ever as a 

 clear, keen-eyed, careful observer of nature, and as 

 a master of the facts relating to much of the ancient 

 history of the earth. He was a great stimulator of 

 men of science, assisted the weak, and helped the 

 good worker. He had a great personal character, 

 religious, honest, truthful, open and generous ; he 

 was a gentleman indeed. His biographer. Pro- 

 fessor A. Geikie, F.R.S,, whose most charming 

 book has been so freely quoted by me, writes about 

 his good old friend as follows : " A man's face and 

 figure afford usually a good indication of the 

 I. X 



