﻿Ix PEOCEEDIJN^GS OP THE GEOLO&ICAL SOCIETY. [May I908, 



that of the Under-Secretaryship to Government in the Public 

 Works Department, from which he was transferred in 1857 to be 

 Secretary to Sir John Peter Grant in the Government of the Central 

 Provinces. He afterwards became Consulting Engineer for Rail- 

 ways, and acted as Secretary of Public Works in the North-West 

 Provinces. In 1866 he was made Inspector-General of Irrigation, 

 but in three years thereafter he returned to his former office of 

 Secretary for Public Works. In this commanding position he was 

 enabled greatly to further progress in India, not only by fostering 

 the construction of irrigation-works and of railways, but in influ- 

 encing the general administration of the country. He retired from 

 India in 1871, and received the thanks of the Indian Government 

 for his valuable services. 



But, though he returned to England, he continued for many years 

 to take an active share in the administration of our Indian Empire. 

 He was appointed a member of the Council of India, and in that 

 capacity was able to bring his ripe experience and wide knowledge 

 of Indian conditions to the assistance of his colleagues. In 1877 

 he was sent once more to India with reference to arrangements for 

 the purchase of the East India Eailway, and he was then put at 

 the head of the first Famine Commission, and for a time acted as 

 Finance Minister. When he came back to this country in 1879 

 he was reappointed to the Council of India, and held the position 

 for ten years, when he resigned it in order to accept the Chairman- 

 ship of the East India Railway. At the head of this important 

 organization he had the opportunity of displaying his remarkable 

 powers of administration and his engineering skill. Under his 

 chairmanship the railway was largely increased in mileage and 

 became the most prosperous trunk-line in the world. He continued 

 to hold this office, combined with the Chairmanship of the Bengal- 

 Assam Railway, until the beginning of last year, when his increasing 

 deafness caused him to resign these appointments. 



In the midst of all this official and professional work General 

 Strachey continued to find time for scientific pursuits. It was to 

 meteorology that he more especially devoted himself in his later 

 years. While in India he had recognized the great practical value 

 of meteorological investigation in regard to prognostications of 

 drought and prospective famine. But he saw that this investigation 

 must be based on strictly scientific lines, and on these lines he laid 

 the foundations of the meteorology of India. He was thus easily led 

 to interest himself in the prosecution of meteorological enquiries 

 in this country when he once more became resident here, and it 



