DAMARAS, OVAMPO, AND NAMAQUAS 151
plished that which every geographer in this room must feel is of eminent advantage to the science in which we take so deep an interest. Accept, with these expressions, my belief that, so long as England possesses travellers with the resolution you have displayed, and so long as private gentlemen will devote themselves to accomplish what you have achieved, we shall always be able to boast that this country produces the best geographers of the day. "
The Geographical Medal gave me an established position in the scientific world. In connection with subsequent work, it caused me to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1856, and to receive in the same year the very high honour of election to the Athenaeum Club under Rule II., which provides that the Council may elect not more than nine persons in each year on the ground of distinction in Science, Literature, Art, or Public Service, being at the average rate of a little more than two elections annually, under each of these
four 111'(},d hr'1114' The is ther-elby salved
many, sometimes sixteen or more, years of waiting, before his turn would arrive to be balloted for in the ordinary course of election. So I have much to be grateful for to the Royal Geographical Society, and I loyally did my best to promote its interests during the many years that I served on its Council in various capacities.
