206 TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN FOSTER. May 1829. 
friend, and lamenting, with many others, the severe loss which 
science suffered in his death. He was a fellow of the Royal, 
and Astronomical Societies, and to the former had contributed, 
to use the words of His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, 
as President of the Royal Society, a most valuable and exten- 
sive series of observations upon the diurnal variation, diurnal 
intensity, and dip of the magnetic needle; and upon other 
subjects connected with the terrestrial magnetism and astro- 
nomical refraction, which formed an entire fourth part of the 
Philosophical Transactions for the year 1826. For these papers 
he received the Copley medal ; and the Lords of the Admiralty 
acknowledged their sense of the honour which was thus con- 
ferred upon the profession to which he belonged, by immediately 
raising him to the rank of Commander, and by appointing him 
to the command of the Chanticleer, upon a voyage of discovery 
and observation in the South Seas. The address of the Presi- 
dent of the Royal Astronomical Society, at the anniversary 
meeting,* also bears ample testimony to his active and useful 
services in the expedition, under Captain Parry, towards the 
North Pole ; as well as to his ardent zeal, very great attention, 
and accuracy, in every thing which he undertook for the pro- 
motion of science ; and concludes the notice of his death in the 
following words: “In the premature death of this young and 
accomplished officer, the Society has to deplore the loss of a 
zealous and active votary to science; and his memory will be 
long held dear by those who were’ more intimately acquainted 
with him in the relations of private life.” Captain Foster was 
unfortunately drowned, near the close of his voyage, while 
descending the River Chagres in a canoe. 
No sooner had we cleared the land, than we found a strong 
westerly wind, and a heavy sea; so that if we had entertained 
any expectation of making a quiet passage to the westward, we 
should have been disappointed. 
The land of Hermite Island, and its vicinity, has a most 
remarkable appearance when seen from the south. Its outline 
is a series of peaks, following each other in regular succession, 
* Ann. Meeting, 30th Noy. 1832, 
