tinued until November, pursuing the same indefatigable course of observation, early and late, and regardless of the discomforts which more than one fearful tempest spread over the camp. He then left the mountain, and the author completed the observations of the station about the 4th of November, Lieut. Larcom reflecting to him with a heliostat from Anglesey, when the party descended, looking, as they wended their way through the deep snow, each carrying his load, like actors in the polar scenes of Parry, Ross, and Franklin. The personal superintendence of the great triangulation was from this time confided to the author, but Colonel Colby still continued to pay him an occasional visit, and to enter with his wonted ardour into the duties of the observatory; nor was it his custom to make these visits on stations of easy and pleasant access, but, on the contrary, he usually selected the most difficult and remote. It was thus that he appeared on Sawell, a mountain in a wild district of the county of Derry, early in a most gloomy morning, which had followed a night in which the wind had raged with almost unexampled fury, overturning in dire confusion the tents of the men though protected by walls of turf, whilst the rain deluged them, and obliging the author to dismount the great instrument, amidst the crash of all around, and in darkness only broken by the flickering light of a lamp, and remove it, step by step, at each lull of the storm, to the shelter of the cook-house lower down. Colonel Colby assisted in restoring it to its position, and seemed to enjoy the

spectacle of desolation, as it proved to him that his example of unshaken nerve on such occasions had not been lost upon his officers. Again accompanied by Lieutenant Larcom, he visited the author on Cnocanafrion, in the county of Waterford, a very picturesque station, as the observatory was placed on a stage, erected against the face of a rock, the actual peak of which was the station, and stood on the very brink of a precipice. From this noble and rugged mountain crag, Colonel Colby looked over the varied and vast expanse of mountain, plain, and sea before him with a fervid enthusiasm; and it was from the readiness and warmth with which he thus on all occasions identified himself with the feelings of his officers, and made himself one with them in thoughts and acts, that his visits were so welcome, so encouraging, and so profitable.

Turning from these recollections of unalloyed gratification, the visit to Kulteagh, or Culcagh, was one of painful interest, as Colonel Colby was then accompanied by the late Sir James Carmichael Smith and Lieutenant-Colonel Hoste, R.E., who were acting as commissioners, of inquiry into the management and progress of the Irish Survey. Culcagh, a lofty mountain near Swadlinbar, on the borders of the counties of Cavan and Fermanagh, is rendered laborious, if not difficult of access, by a deep and much fissured bog at its base; and it was up this mountain that the commissioners were conducted by Colonel Colby, in order that they might see the system pursued in the great triangulation, and for

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themselves question the present writer on its merits; and if, as they certainly did, they toiled, panted, and blowed upon their ascent, envying, no doubt, the elastic and never-faltering step of their more experienced comrade, they appeared, on arriving at the summit, to forget their fatigues and to be repaid for their exertions. On this mountain the new observatory was first pitched; the old canvas sides having, with the exception of a rim at the top of about nine inches deep, been replaced by framed wooden panels, tied together with iron clamps, and secured in a similar manner to the posts, or pillars, which supported the roof. This alteration was planned by the author; and though in itself very simple, gave to the observatory a degree of stability and security which banished from the observer's mind those terrors which had before haunted and harassed him in stormy weather. Not far from the great observatory stood a miniature one, exactly similar in construction to the other, in which were the various meteorological instruments. The observatories, the marquee, and the tents, partly sheltered by hummocks of rock, and surrounded by stone walls, and the smoke-begrimed gipsy-like cook-house, formed a picture in which the soldier visitors must have recognised many of the features of a military campaign, though lighted up by the fire of science and not of war. Both Sir James Carmichael Smith and Lieut.Colonel Hoste expressed the highest admiration of what they saw but alas, whilst they praised the executive officer, they overlooked or failed to appre

ciate the merit of the man who had planned the work which the other executed, and thus fell into that error which has been only too common in estimating the services and talents of General Colby.

The Survey of Scotland, which had been suspended for many years, was resumed in 1838, and on this occasion Colonel Colby once more appeared on the mountains, again to perform on Ben Hutich the part of an instructor, his assistants being Major Robe and Lieutenant (now Major) Robinson; and as this appears to be the last time of his taking the field, the record of this section of the stirring life of a man of ceaseless activity and boundless energy must here with a sigh be closed.

It is hoped and believed that enough has been said in the preceding narrative to illustrate the remarkable character and the services of General Colby in one branch of the duties he so ably performed; but were it not so, the vivid sketch of a season's doings, which Major Dawson has drawn up from the letters which he wrote at the time, and kindly contributed to this memoir, would more than supply the defi ciencies. The author gives this sketch in Major Dawson's own words, and feels assured that the perusal of it will leave on every reader's mind a deep impression, not only of the zeal, energy, and abilities, but also of the moral worth of General Colby. DEAR PORTLOCK,

You have asked me for an account of a year on the hills with our late chief, General Colby, and I will give you the first that I was out with

him, which I am the better able to do, as I find that the letters which I wrote to my family that year from the hills have by chance been preserved.

In the month of May, 1819, Lieutenant Robe (the late Lieut.-Col. Robe, R.E.) and myself were appointed assistants to Captain Colby on the Trigonometrical Survey; and on the 5th of June following I embarked, in charge of a selected party of artillerymen, the instruments and camp equipage, for Aberdeen, at which place Robe joined the party, and, after disembarking the stores, &c., and hiring cars for their conveyance, we set out on Tuesday the 15th of June for Corrie Habbie or Cathadh, a mountain in Banffshire, which had been selected by Captain Colby for our first station.

It was our intention to march only to Inverarie (sixteen miles) the first day; but the men surprised us with a petition to be allowed to go on to Huntley (thirty-eight miles); to which we assented. We were there joined on the following morning by Captain Colby, he having travelled through from London on the mail coach, with a rest probably of only a single day at Edinburgh; the journey occupying at that time four or five days and nights. This was Captain Colby's usual mode of travelling: neither rain nor snow, nor any degree of severity in the weather, would induce him to take an inside seat, or to tie a shawl round his throat; but, muffled in a thick box coat, and with his servant Fraser, an old artilleryman, by his side, he would pursue his journey for days and nights together, with but little