xxii MEMOIR. 



stirring adventures in the bush. Lastly, but yet not 

 least, were those scientific instruments he had used 

 in taking observations of his journey with so much 

 faithful perseverance ; the note books ; the letters of 

 friends (some of these unopened, containing those 

 trifling items of home news, so sweet to the far-off 

 traveller, which his eyes had never seen, for they 

 had arrived after his decease) ; the pencilled outlines 

 of the country's scenery ; the water-colour drawings 

 of those fatal Falls ; how much did not these records 

 breathe to the silent bystander, how much suggest 

 of what had been, and still more what might have 

 been ! Poor fellow ! not there himself to speak to 

 us, those records of an earnest life, those cared-for 

 and well-worn letters which he had received and 

 treasured, how far more eloquent they were to us 

 than any words could have been ! They told 

 us all more than any words which he could, or at 

 least would, have spoken — so lightly did he ever 

 treat his own achievements — and seemed to leave 

 the world and ourselves poorer and yet richer by 

 his death ! 



But the subject has led me, in my capacity of 

 editor of these pages, beyond the proper limits of 

 my duties, and I must crave the indulgence of the 

 reader for this long digression. My object is merely 

 to relate, as briefly as I can, such simple facts of 

 Frank Oates's earlier life as may serve to illustrate 



