F. M. BALFOUR 249 



second in the First Class of the Nat. Sci. Tripos, of this 

 year, and no doubt the next Fellow of Trinity. Younger 

 brother of Balfour of Whittin gehame. He is exceedingly 

 quiet and modest. He will be a very great man, and I 

 should be sorry to lose him from Cambridge. ... He 

 will be more known as a student and from his researches 

 than in any other way, unless he gets over his 

 shyness.* 



Nor did his interest in young zoologists cease when 

 they left the University. Most of them came back at 

 one time or another to see him at Cambridge, and he 

 was always generous in giving help and advice to his 

 friends :— 



I don't say you are wasting time over Palaearctic 

 mammals. It is a great thing for a man to have a 

 special subject, of which he can become master; but 

 the more he is able to generalise the better, and this 

 especially in the matter of travel and observation in 

 foreign countries. Hence my great regret that you are 

 not going witii Skeat, who (by the way) was here last 

 night. A twelvemonth in the Tropics could not faU to 

 do you a world of good... I know what a benefit it was 

 for me to have been six months and more in the West 

 Indies. A journey to Siberia would, of course, be very 

 profitable to you ; but it would not enlarge your view 

 as to Nature in the same way that working in the 

 Malay Peninsula would. 



I always regret that I did not do more in the 

 travelling way, but various obstacles presented them- 

 selves. I ought to have gone to the Cape and to Aus- 

 tralia, to say nothing of the Sandwich Islands, f 



* Letter to J. A. Harvie-Bro-wn, August 17, 1874. 



t Letter to G E. H. Barrett-HamiltOA, January 19, 1899. 



