i8o SIR GEORGE DARWIN 



which we have made in recent years in that 

 subject dates from those lectures and the 

 correspondence which arose upon them. 



In Council it was the established practice 

 to proceed by agreement and not by voting ; 

 he had a wonderful way of bringing a discus- 

 sion to a head by courageously 'voicing' the 

 conclusion to which it led, and frankly express- 

 ing the general opinion without hurting any- 

 body's feelings. . . . 



It is not easy to give expression to the 

 powerful influence which he exercised upon all 

 departments of official meteorology without 

 making formal contributions to meteorological 

 literature. He gave me a note on a curious 

 point in the evaluation of the velocity equiva- 

 lents of the Beaufort Scale, which is published 

 in the Office Memoirs No. i8o, and that is all 

 I have to show in print, but he was in and 

 behind everything that was done, and person- 

 ally, I need hardly add, I owe to him much 

 more than this or any other letter can fully 

 express. 



On May 6, 1904, the year of the South African 

 meeting, he was elected President of the British 

 Association. 



On July 29, 1905, he embarked with his wife 

 and his son Charles, and arrived on August 15 at 

 the Cape, where he gave the first part of his Presi- 

 dential Address. Here he had the pleasure of 

 finding as Governor, Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, 

 whom he had known as a Trinity undergraduate. 

 He was the guest of the late Sir David Gill, who 

 remained a close friend for the rest of his life. 

 George's diary gives his itinerary — ^which shows the 



