April 5, 1894] 



NATURE 



037 



settled down as a teacher in Torquay. Here for some 

 sixty years he threw himself into the work of higher edu- 

 cation, and more especially in the direction of natural 

 science. In 1837, through his energy, the Torquay 

 Mechanics Institute, which had fallen on evil days, was 

 reorganised and put on a satisfactory working basis. 

 Seven years later he founded the Torquay Natural 

 History Society, and in 1863 he extended the range of 

 his personal influence by establishing the Devonshire 

 Association that took root and flourished exceedingly, and 

 has been of great service in the West of England. It is 

 impossible to read any one of the many volumes pub- 

 lished by the Association without realising how great has 

 been his influence in bringing natural knowledge within 

 reach of the people. The museum at Torquay is also an 

 enduring monument to his energy, which will continue to 

 teach when his name is forgotten. 



Pengelly was, however, beyond all other things, a 

 geologist, devoted to the study of Devonshire. The collec- 

 tion of Devonian fossils in the Oxford Museum is spoil 

 of his hammer. He collected also the materials for the 

 " Monograph on the Lignite Formation of Bovey Tracey," 

 a joint publication with Dr. Heer, that has thrown so 

 much light on the Miocene forests which clothed the 

 slopes around the Lake of Bovey. During the second 

 quarter of the present century, the question of the anti- 

 quity of man was steadily coming to the front. In 1847 

 Boucher de Perthes published his discovery of flint 

 implements along with the extinct mammalia in the river- 

 gravels of Amiens and Abbeville. Similar discoveries 

 in Kent's Hole by Mr. M'Enery, made some time between 

 1825 and 1839, had been verified by Godwin-.A-usten in 

 1840, and the Torquay Natural History Society in 1846. 

 So strong, however, were the prejudices against the 

 antiquity of man, that the matter was not thought worthy 

 of further investigation, until the year 1858. Then it was 

 determined that a new cave at Brixham, near Torquay, 

 should be explored by a joint committee of the Royal and 

 Geological Societies, consisting, among others, of Lyell, 

 Falconer, Ramsay, Prestwich, Owen, and Godwin- 

 Austen, with Pengelly as the superintendent of the work. 

 The result of the exploration established beyond all doubt 

 the existence of palEeolithic man in the Pleistocene age, 

 and caused the whole of the scientific world to awake to 

 the fact of the vast antiquity of the human race. From 

 this time Pengelly's energies were mainly directed 

 towards cave exploration. In 1865 he undertook the 

 superintendence of the exploration of Kent's Hole by a 

 committee of the British Association. It was at this 

 time that I first became associated with him in cave- 

 digging, and as we came to know one another, I learnt 

 to admire his method, and his patient and accurate work. 

 Day by day, excepting when the work was stopped, he 

 visited the cave and recorded on maps and plans the 

 exact spot where each specimen was found, for no less 

 than sixteen years. The vast collection of palceolithic 

 implements and fossil bones, each of which bears 

 traces of his handiwork, is represented in most of 

 the museums in this country, and the annual re- 

 ports, listened to with so much pleasure by crowds 

 at the meetings of the British Association, are the most 

 complete that have ever been published. It may be 

 objected that the accumulation of so much evidence of 

 the existence of man in the Pleistocene age, in the south 

 of England, was unnecessary. It was, however, necessary 

 to sweep away the mass of prejudice, and this could best 

 be done by repeating the evidence. Had this not been 

 done, early man would not occupy the recognised 

 position which he now holds in the annals of geology. 

 The rest of Pengelly's life was mainly given up to the 

 researches in other caves in Devonshire. In estimating 

 his scientific work, it must not be forgotten that it was 

 done in addition to the daily task of bread- winning. 



NO. 1 275, VOL. 49] 



There remains one other side of Pengelly's many-sided 

 character which deserves remark. He was a fluent and 

 genial speaker and lecturer. For many years he was a 

 leading figure at the meetings of the British Association, 

 and there are but few large centres where he was not 

 knovyn as a lecturer and not welcomed as a friend. Some 

 of his jcux (fesprif, such as, for example, his saying in 

 treating of the thorny question of man's antiquity, " that 

 you may be as naughty as you like," will long be remem- 

 bered. He has died full of years, and with his services 

 honourably recognised by his private friends and by the 

 scientific world. He has left behind an example of what 

 one man can do in advancing knowledge by energy and 

 perseverance. 



W. Boyd Dawkins. 



THE LATE CAPTAIN CAMERON. 



pAPTAIN VERNEY LOVETT CAMERON, C.B., 

 ^ R.N.,died very suddenly, in his fiftieth year, on March 

 26, in consequence of being thrown from his horse while 

 returning from a day's stag-hunting. His name is 

 associated with the most stirring period of modern 

 inland exploration in Africa. In 1871 Mr. H. M. Stanley 

 met and lelieved Livingstone at Ujiji, and on returning 

 to the east coast met the Livingstone relief expedition of 

 the Royal Geographical Society, the leader of which, be- 

 lieving his work to be forestalled, declined to proceed, 

 and broke up his caravan. Lieutenant Cameron had for 

 some time been anxious to explore Africa, and had been 

 one of the unsuccessful applicants for the command of the 

 abortive expedition. On its collapse he submitted pro- 

 posals for the exploration of the Victoria Nyanza and of 

 east equatorial Africa to the Royal Geographical Society, 

 and in 1872 he was entrusted with a new Livingstone 

 relief expedition, which was to proceed from the east 

 coast, while another expedition, under Lieutenant Grandy, 

 pushed its way up the Congo. 



Leaving Bagamoyo early in 1873, Lieutenant Cameron 

 started on his march inland, but was met by the melan- 

 choly little group of Livingstone's black servants carrying 

 the body of their master. Although the main aim of the 

 expedition was thus frustrated, and all the Europeans of 

 the party were suffering severely from the climate, 

 Cameron determined to push on alone, and not return 

 until he had accomplished some new geographical work. 

 Early in 1874 he reached Lake Tanganyika, surveyed 

 its southern half, and settled the existence of an out- 

 flow by the Lukuga ; then turning north-eastward, he 

 reached the Lualaba in thd Manyema country, and 

 attempted to descend the river. He could not, how- 

 ever, overcome the difficulties in the way, and turning 

 southwards again, made his way by slow stages 

 suffering greatly in health, to the west coast at Benguela. 

 Here he arrived in November 1875, at the very time 

 when Stanley, more fortunate, was on his march west- 

 ward from Uganda to finally solve the great problem of 

 the Congo. In 1877 Cameron published his book, 

 " Across Africa," and received various marks of public 

 approval for his services, including his promotion to the 

 rank of Commander, a C.B., the degree of D.C.L. from 

 Oxford, and the gold medal of the Royal Geographical 

 Society. In 1882 he visited the Gold Coast, in company 

 with Sir Richard Burton, on a commercial mission, and 

 during his later years he became more and more deeply 

 interested in various trading companies engaged in the 

 exploitation of Africa. Captain Cameron was respected 

 as an authority on Central African affairs, and took a 

 prominent place, both in this country and in France, in 

 promoting new enterprises. 



