SIR JOHN MURRAY 183 



also Aeneas Mackay, Sheriff of Fife and Kinross, 

 for some time Professor of Constitutional History 

 in the University, with his stately mien and the 

 humorous twinkle in his eye, and Mr. J. Irvine 

 Smith, small, neat, and exquisitely polite, artistic 

 to the finger-tips. Amongst this company of 

 brilliant men Murray spent many an evening at 

 QOA, George Street, and no doubt held his own in 

 conversation, for he had ever much to say and a 

 remarkably clear voice with which to say it, a 

 voice which stood him in good stead when pre- 

 siding at home or abroad at conferences of scientific 

 men. At the time of his death he was President- 

 elect of the International Meteorological Congress 

 to be held the following September at Edinburgh, 

 and was actually engaged in making arrange- 

 ments for a successful meeting the day before 

 his tragic end. 



Sir John was rather a short man, with broad, 

 somewhat stooping shoulders. His eyes were 

 blue and penetrating, and he had the light hair 

 which so often goes with blue eyes. He had 

 a very fine head, and indeed a noticeable figure 

 in any company. He was a man of force and 

 presence, and what Dr. Johnson said of Burke 

 might as truly be said of Murray : 



