to take some step in this direction; but it was thought at that time impossible to do anything. In 1881 a great loss fell upon the sister University of Oxford in the death of Prof. George Rolleston; and soon after very vigorous efforts were made to induce Balfour to become a candidate for the vacant chair. The prospect was in many ways a tempting one, and Balfour seeing no very clear way in the future for him at his own University, was at times inclined to offer himself, but eventually he decided to remain at Cambridge. Hardly had this temptation if we may so call it been overcome when a still greater one presented itself. Through the lamented death of Sir Wyville Thomson in the winter of 1881-2, the chair of Natural History at Edinburgh, perhaps the richest and most conspicuous biological chair in the United Kingdom, became vacant. The post was in many ways one which Balfour would have liked to hold. The teaching duties were it is true laborious, but they had in the past been compressed into a short time, occupying only the summer session and leaving the rest of the year free, and it seemed probable that this arrangement might be continued with him. The large emolument would also have been grateful to him inasmuch as he would have felt able to devote the whole of it to scientific ends; and the nearness to Whittinghame, his native place and brother's home, added to the attractions; but what tempted him most was the position which it would have given him, and the opportunities it would have afforded, with the rich marine Fauna of the north-eastern coast close at hand, to develop a large school of Animal Morphology. The existing Professors at Edinburgh were most desirous that he should join them, and made every effort to induce him to come. On the part of the Crown, in whose hands the appointment lay, not only were distinct offers made to him, but he was repeatedly pressed to accept the post. Nor was it until after a considerable struggle that he finally refused, his love for his own University in the end overcoming the many inducements to leave; he elected to stay where he was, trusting to the future opening up for him some suitable position. In this decision he was undoubtedly influenced by the consideration that Cambridge, besides being the centre of his old friendships, had become as it were a second home for his own family. By the appointment of Lord Rayleigh to the chair of Experimental Physics his sister Lady Rayleigh had become a resident, his sister Mrs Sidgwick had lived there now for some years, and his brother Gerald generally spent the summer there; their presence made Cambridge doubly dear to him.

At the close of the Michaelmas term, with feelings of relief at having completed his Comparative Embryology, the preparation of the second volume of which had led to almost incessant labour during the preceding year, he started to spend the Christmas vacation with his friend Kleinenberg at Messina. Stopping at Naples on his way thither he found his pupil Caldwell, who had been sent to occupy the University table at the Stazione Zoologica, lying ill at Capri, with what proved to be typhoid fever. The patient was alone, without any friend to tend him, and his mother who had been sent for had not yet arrived. Accordingly Balfour (with the kindness all forgetful of himself which was his mark all his life through) stayed on his journey to nurse the sick man until the mother came. He then went on to Messina, and there seemed to be in good health, amusing himself with the ascent of Etna. Yet in January, soon after his return home, he complained of being unwell, and in due time distinct symptoms of typhoid fever made their appearance. The attack at first promised to be severe, but happily the crisis was soon safely passed and the convalescence was satisfactory.

While yet on his sick bed, a last attempt was made to induce him to accept the Edinburgh offer, and for the last time he refused. These repeated offers, and the fact that the dangers of his grave illness had led the University vividly to realize how much they would lose if Balfour were taken away from them, encouraged his friends to make a renewed effort to gain for him some adequate position in the University. This time the attempt was successful, and the authorities took a step, unusual but approved of by the whole body of resident members of the University; they instituted a new Professorship of Animal Morphology, to be held by Balfour during his life or as long as he should desire, but to terminate at his death or resignation unless it should be otherwise desirable. Accordingly in May, 1882, he was admitted into the Professoriate as Professor of Animal Morphology.

During his illness his lectures had been carried on by his Demonstrator, Mr Adam Sedgwick, who continued to take his place during the remainder of that Lent Term and during the ensuing Easter Term. The spring Balfour spent partly in the Channel Islands with his sister Alice, partly in London with his eldest brother, but in the course of the Easter Term returned to Cambridge and resumed his work though not his lectures. His recovery to health was steady and satisfactory, the only drawback being a swelling over the shin-bone of one leg, due to a blow on the rocks at Sark; otherwise he was rapidly becoming strong. He himself felt convinced that a visit to the Alps, with some mountaineering of not too difficult a kind, would complete his restoration to health. In this view many of his friends coincided; for the experience of former years had shewn them what a wonderfully beneficial effect the Alpine air and exercise had upon his health. He used to go away pale, thin and haggard, to return bronzed, clear, firm and almost stout; nor was there anything in his condition which seemed to forbid his climbing, provided that he was cautious at the outset. Accordingly, early in June he left Cambridge for Switzerland, having long ago, during his illness in fact, engaged his old guide, Johann Petrus, whom he had first met in 1880, and who had always accompanied him in his expeditions since.

His first walking was in the Chamonix district; and here he very soon found his strength and elasticity come back to him. Crossing over from Montanvert to Courmayeur, by the Col du Géant, he was attracted by the peak called the Aiguille Blanche de Peuteret, a virgin peak, the ascent of which had been before attempted but not accomplished. Consulting with Petrus he determined to try it, feeling that the fortnight, which by this time he had spent in climbing, had brought back to him his old vigour, and that his illness was already a thing of the past.

There is no reason to believe that he regarded the expedition as one of unusual peril; and an incident which at the time of his death was thought by some to indicate this was in reality nothing more than a proof of his kindly foresight. The guide Petrus was burdened by a debt on his land amounting to about £150. In the previous year Balfour and his brother had come to know of this debt; and, seeing that no Alpine ascent is free from danger, that on any expedition some accident might carry them off, had conceived the idea of making some provision for Petrus' family in case he might meet with sudden death in their service. This suggestion of the previous year Balfour carried out on this occasion, and sent home to his brother Gerald a cheque of £150 for this purpose. But the cheque was sent from Montanvert before he had even conceived the idea of ascending the Aiguille Blanche. It was not a provision for any specially dangerous ascent, and must be regarded as a measure prompted not by a sense of coming peril but rather by the donor's generous care for his servant.

On Tuesday afternoon, July 18, he and Petrus, with a porter to carry provisions and firing to their sleeping-place on the rocks, set out