192 Obituary — Jolrn Francis Camphell, F.G.8. 



by Constantinople and Southern Europe. In 1874-75 lie made a 

 voyage round tlie world, during which he visited Japan, China, 

 Java, and Ceylon, etc. ; in 1876-7 he spent some months at various 

 stations of India, and witnessed at Delhi the ceremony of proclaiming 

 the Queen Empress ; during 1878 to 1880 and 1881 he visited Syria 

 and Palestine, and twice resided in Egypt. In all these wanderings 

 his instinctive powers as a practical linguist were very valuable to 

 him ; his ready skill as a draughtsman not less so. 



His chief published works are : " Popular Tales of the West 

 Highlands " (in four vols.), a work for which his fluent com- 

 mand of the Scotch Gaelic and his enthusiastic memories of his 

 boyhood's island home eminently fitted him ; "Leabhar na Feinne," 

 genuine Texts of Gaelic Folk-lore, too recondite for any but Celtic 

 scholars ; " Frost and Fire," a book in which incidents of travel 

 and matters of scientific observation, geological and otherwise, are 

 mingled in an original fashion ; " My Circular Notes," an enter- 

 taining account of his journey round the world ; " Something from 

 the Gold-Diggings of Sutherland," specially geological. Among 

 his minor writings are articles on " Glaciation," read before the 

 Geological Society, and published in their Quarterly Journal.^ 



His mind was acute, ingenious, and indefatigably active ; but he 

 had never subjected it to received methods of scientific training, and 

 he was more disposed towards detecting the weak point in the argu- 

 ments and inferences of other thinkers than willing to adopt them. 

 His mental stores, whether gleaned in the field of Folk-lore and 

 Myth or in that of experimental Science, were original, not derived 

 from other workers. This circumstance gave a special kind of in- 

 terest to his observations and opinions, even where the listener 

 might not accept his conclusions. 



His invention of the " heliometer,"^ an instrument in use at 

 Greenwich, and which was mentioned with honour by Professor 

 Balfour Stewart at the meeting of the Bi'itish Association in 1883, 

 is probably the only distinction that will survive him. But he was 

 not only entirely uninfluenced by any desires after a lucrative result 

 of such work as he did, but comparatively indifferent even to the 

 fame which it might have brought him. He loved knowledge for 

 its own sake ; his desire was for " more light." His best praise 

 will dwell in the hearts of his many friends ; all who knew what 

 his own heart was — those who have shared his refined and genial 

 hospitality, or benefited by his ready generosity, counsel, and help — ■ 

 will never lose their warm remembrance of his truly noble spirit and 

 kindly bearing, and will apply to him with added emphasis the well- 

 known lines — 



"Who broke no promise, served no private end, 

 Who knew no enemy, and lost no Meud.'^ 



He died at Cannes, February 17th, 1885. 



1 Another work by Mr. Campbell, "A short American Tramp," contains many 

 valuable observations on Climate (see Geol. Mag. 1868, Vol. V. p. 299). 



* See List of Instruments set forth by the Meteorological Society. 



2 Pope. The original second line is, 



" Who served no patron, etc." 



