OBITUARY NOTICES. 



By the Editor. 



Within the past year, the Institute has had to mourn the loss of 

 several of its most distinguished supporters, amongst whom may 

 be specially named, liev. Canon Tristram, Professor Lionel S. 

 Beale and Cavaliere W. 1^. Jervis, of Turin. It would Ijo 

 impossi1)le within the limits here imposed to present anything 

 more than a brief outline of the history of these eminent men, 

 who during their lifetime rendered service to the cause of 

 religion and science, and were justly regarded as ornaments and 

 valued supporters of our Institute. But a brief sketch of their 

 life-work may not prove unacceptable to the friends and 

 colleagues who have to deplore their loss. Of the three 

 above-named, perhaps the name of Canon Tristram is the most 

 widely known, and, at the request of the Council, I proceed to 

 give a brief sketch of his remarkable career, as far as it falls 

 within my own personal cognizance. 



The Eev. Henry Baker Tristram, D.D., LL.D., F.E.S., Avas 

 born May 11th, 1822. In 1845 he was ordained to the curacy 

 of Morchard-Bishop, Devonshire, which he was obliged to resign 

 in less than two years in consequence of ill-health ; this caused 

 him to seek a warmer climate, and he accompanied Admiral Sir 

 Charles Elliot, as chaplain and secretary, to Bermuda. Upon 

 his return to England in 1849 the state of his health again 

 induced him to seek a warmer climate, and in 1855 he went 

 to Algiers. It was during his stay in Northern Africa that he 

 liad opportunities of cidtivating that love for exploration and 

 natural history with which he was so strongly ind)ued during 

 the rest of liis life, and resulted in the discovery of species of 

 fishes inlia1)iting an inland lake in the Sahara, as also the waters 

 of the Mediterranean Sea, proving (what is now generally 

 recognised) the former extension of the waters of this great 

 inland sea over the plain of the Sahara.* In 1857 Tristram 

 paid his first visit, on board a yacht, to Palestine, a country 

 wliicli from its P)iblical associations, its ])hysical cliaracters 

 and natural liistory })roducti()ns called forth all his interest and 



The Great ^Sahara, 18G0. 



