MEMOIR. xxiii 



the scope and bearing of the ensuing pages, and 

 bring to view the motives which led him to enter on 

 his life of travel. What I have said, indeed, may 

 perhaps, it is true, help to show — what I was anxious 

 early to point out — how very catholic were the 

 interests of the deceased, how strong the hold each 

 separate department of the world's life, and history, 

 and daily growth, had laid upon him. Devoted to 

 the study of natural history, as I have already 

 pointed out, and especially to that of birds — the 

 pursuit of which might be called his ruling passion 

 ■ — he yet never closed his eyes to those varied 

 interests of other kinds, which were constantly 

 opening round him in his life of foreign travel. 

 "He was not" indeed, as has been said of the 

 young French naturalist Jacquemont, who, like 

 Frank Oates himself, died early and in harness, — 

 "He was not at all one of those specialists who 

 shut themselves up in a narrow speciality, and 

 become blind and deaf to the great interests of 

 human life." 1 Rather may it be said of him, that 

 his interests were perhaps too wide, and that he 

 overtaxed his strength and powers in following the 

 promptings of his nature. Speaking indeed in 

 homely phraseology, whilst out in Africa, he 

 admitted himself that he had "too many irons in 

 the fire," and some of the difficulties and vexations 



1 Mr. P. G. Hamerton, ' Lives of Modern Frenchmen,' p. 95. 



