William Thomas Blanford. xxix 



to two years to enable him to represent the Indian Government at the 

 meeting of the Geological Congress in Bologna. Eeturning to India in the 

 autumn of 1881, he undertook the survey of the country between the Punjab 

 and Quetta, till he was prostrated by a severe attack of fever. This 

 ultimately obliged him to return to England, where he arrived in April, 

 1882. Under medical advice he retired on pension after 27 years' service 

 on the Indian Geological Survey, and though after a time he recovered his 

 health, his constitution was less robust than in former days. 



Early in 1883 he married Miss Ida Gertrude Bellhouse, and settled at 

 Bedford Gardens, Campden Hill, converting a studio at the back into a 

 library, which was adorned by trophies of the chase collected in India. 

 Here three children — two sons and a daughter — were born, and the rest of 

 his life was spent. He enjoyed good health on the whole, though occasionally 

 liable to slight attacks of gout or bronchitis, but a year or so before his 

 death these attacks became more severe, and signs of failing physical powers, 

 happily unattended by mental weakening, began to make his friends anxious ; 

 but the end came more rapidly than they anticipated, for he passed away 

 after a brief illness on June 23, 1905, his last literary work being a notice 

 of his old friend and companion, H. B. Medlicott, contributed to these 

 obituaries. 



Kelease from official duties simply gave Blanford more time for the work 

 which he loved, but Indian zoology now received more attention than geology, 

 although the latter was anything but neglected. He was also frequently 

 consulted upon survey matters by the authorities in England, and rendered 

 them many services. He became Secretary to the Geological Society in 

 1884, was elected President in 1888, serving for the usual period of two 

 years, and in 1895 was appointed Treasurer, holding the office till his death. 

 In 1884 he presided over the Geological Section, when the British Associa- 

 tion met at Montreal, and attended the Toronto meeting in 1897, afterwards 

 joining the party to Vancouver Island. He took part in the meetings of 

 the International Geological Congress at Bologna, Berlin, London, and Paris, 

 served on the Councils of the Boyal, the Geographical, and the Zoological 

 Societies, and was a Vice-President of all. Before leaving India he had 

 been a President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and when visiting Canada 

 he received the degree of LL.D. from the McGill University, Montreal. 

 The Geological Society awarded him their Wollaston Gold Medal, and the 

 Eoyal Society marked its appreciation of the value of his Indian researches 

 by conferring on him one of the Eoyal Medals in 1901. He received the 

 Military Medal for the Abyssinian Expedition, the Cross of St. Maurice and 

 St. Lazare in 1881, and was made a Companion of the Indian Empire as 

 late as 1904. 



Not many men have made more numerous contributions to scientific 

 literature or bestowed more pains on what they wrote. His first book, 

 'Observations on the Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia,' was published in 

 1870. It begins with a written account of the expedition, and nothing could 



