GEOGRAPHY AND EAST AFRICA 211 



to show that the mimicry of insects was developed as 

 a means of protection. I look back with the greatest 

 pleasure to my long and close association with Mr. 

 Bates in the work of the Royal Geographical Society. 

 His death was a great loss and a great blow to many 

 friends. He and another friend only just dead were 

 exceptionally slow in finding the exact word they 

 wished to use. Yet both of them, in despite of slow- 

 ness of utterance, succeeded in giving an exact notion 

 of their views in a briefer time than any. one else I 

 can think of. Their sentences were a standing lesson 

 to avoid superfluity of words when making explana- 

 tions. 



One new and successful attempt that I set on 

 foot was the intervention of the Royal Geographi- 

 cal Society in geographical education. I began with 

 public schools, having talked the matter well over 

 with W. F. Farrar, then a master at Harrow. He 

 thought the idea quite feasible. Then I had much 

 help from the Hon. G. Brodrick, and encouragement 

 from my brother-in-law, George Butler, then Head- 

 master of Liverpool College, who shared the belief of 

 Dr. Arnold in the value of geography, if properly 

 taught. That was by no means the general view, 

 which was rather that geography lent itself to cram 

 more easily than any other subject, and that it was 

 hardly possible to set real problems in it, that should 

 compel thought. 



The upshot of all was, that the Royal Geographical 

 Society offered an annual gold medal to be competed 

 for by boys belonging to a considerable number of 

 invited schools in fact to all of the public schools 

 properly so called. The examiners for the medal 



