480 
OBITUARY. 
Journal of the Bath and West of England Society, he also 
liberally contributed an excellent paper on ‘The Hereditary 
Diseases of Horses and Cattle/ and the introduction to the 
volume handsomely acknowledges the services thus rendered 
by saying, ‘Nor can we fail to remark with satisfaction, how 
much Cornishmen have added to the value of our pages/ 
These separate essays and papers were afterwards published 
in various forms. But it was not as a writer alone that Mr. 
Karkeek was content to disseminate the knowledge which he 
possessed ; the members of the ‘ Probus Farmers’ Club’ will 
always gratefully remember the kind and liberal aid which he 
gave them in their inquiries and discussions, and the readiness 
with which he prepared and delivered before them many 
valuable lectures. Mr. Karkeek was for about twenty years 
the secretary of the Cornwall Agricultural Association, and 
was very instrumental in constituting it an itinerant society. 
He likewise officiated as a judge of horses at many of the 
meetings of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 
We cannot but deeply lament that in the midst of this career 
of usefulness, with all his talents expanded, and his energies 
unimpaired, at the ripe age of 55, he has been taken away. 
To numerous friends he was endeared by a long and un- 
broken attachment; for as a friend he was honest and true, 
as a man of science gathered knowledge and liberally dis- 
pensed it, and his business transactions were always stamped 
by straightforward openness and integrity. His funeral took 
place on Tuesday morning last ; the shops in Truro were 
spontaneously closed, and a long procession of sorrowing 
friends and neighbours acknowledged his worth, and lamented 
his early death.” 
Mr. Karkeek’s diploma bears date January 31st, 1825. 
On what a slender thread hang our lives ! Soon the 
like summons will be ours. Each is — 
“ Only waiting till the shadows 
Are a little longer grown ; 
Only waiting till the glimmer 
Of the day’s last beam is flown ; 
Till the night of earth is faded 
From the heart once full of day ; 
Till the stars of heaven are breaking 
Through the twilight soft and gray. 
“ Only waiting till the reapers 
Have the last sheaf gathered home ; 
For the summer-time is faded, 
And the autumn winds have come.” 
* 
