376 



BECOMES A SURVEYOR. 



him kindness, and thus men forgot to be jealous. 

 Devoted also to one idea at a time, he eminently 

 possessed the power of asking : no prospect of a 

 refusal, however harsh, deterred him from apply- 

 ing for what was required to advance his views. 

 I was struck by the way in which he wrote to 

 Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton for supplies and ad- 

 vances, of which the latter had no power, or 

 rather had not been empowered, to dispose. 



Thus Lieut. Speke was the first to penetrate 

 into some of the remotest corners of Little Thi- 

 bet : and here, besides indulging his passion for 

 shooting, collecting, and preserving, he taught 

 himself geodesy in a rude but highly efficient 

 manner. The Yearly Address (Journal of the 

 Eoyal Geographical Society, vol. xxxv.) asserts 

 that he learned to 'make astronomical observ- 

 ations.' This was not the case. But by watch 

 and sun — to the latter a pocket-compass was 

 presently preferred — he obtained distance and 

 direction, and his thoroujirh familiaritv with all 

 the topographical features of the mountains, en- 

 abled him to construct route-sketches and field- 

 maps which, ho7»ever rough, proved useful to 

 sportsmen and explorers. Some years of this 

 work, tracing out the courses of streams, crossing 

 passes and rounding heights, gave him an uncom- 



