recommended the Duke of Newcastle to send you a large supply to help you to render a few points in Lord Raglan's position strong points of support. A single line may be got through, but two or three deep, entangled together, and put in places covered from cannon, they form an obstacle very difficult to be overcome. Forage we know you want much, and I am always urging as much as possible to be sent. If you had more forage, we should send Lord Raglan more mules and carts.

I am astonished at the ships not putting to sea when the gale of the 14th was setting in. I believe the wind was southerly, which would have enabled them to gain an offing on the port tack."

And again on December 9th:

"I would have sent the 62nd earlier, and on Admiral Houston Stewart's first suggestion (for he first suggested its going); but I am cautious not to overact the Governor, but consult with the General and Admiral. I have written both officially and privately to Sir Robert Gardiner" (Governor of Gibraltar), "begging him to send on gunpowder, projectiles, &c., by every possible opportunity to us in Malta to fill up our void by supplying you. And I have written to the Duke of Newcastle advising his Grace to send you four or five miles of tram road."

Sir William Reid's exertions at Malta told heavily on his health. There is no doubt that during this eventful period the anxieties and strain of mind he went through, laid the seeds of the illness that caused his death. He, however, continued at his post until the period for which he was appointed had expired, and returned home in 1858.

He had been promoted to the rank of Major-General in 1856.

He did not long survive his retirement from the active duties of his profession, as he died after a very short illness, on October 31st, 1858.

It is much to be regretted that a vast mass of valuable records and correspondence connected with Sir William Reid's numerous services were burnt at the great fire in the Pantechnicon. This will probably prevent the compilation of any really satisfactory history of his most instructive and eventful life.

This brief sketch of a highly interesting career may fittingly be concluded by quoting a very thoughtful and appreciative obituary notice which appeared in a Bermudian paper:

"The merchant vessels, American as well as English, in the different ports of these Islands, hoisted their colours at half-mast on receipt of the sad intelligence of the death of Sir William Reid. As Governor

of these Islands he left behind him here a name and reputation which have ever been warmly cherished by all classes of the community. The secret of this sentiment of esteem, unhappily too unusual a phenomenon in colonial history, may be found, we believe, in the conviction which all, whether friendly or hostile to Governor Reid's plans, felt of the perfect

In

sincerity of his efforts to promote the good of the colony. That he was single-hearted in this pursuit none ever doubted, and that his efforts were in general as successful as they were sincere, is most unanimously admitted. By his able and conscientious discharge of his high duties, Sir William Reid earned and obtained the approbation of the Crown, and the confidence, nay even the affection of those whom he governed. flexibly just, rigidly conscientious, and wholly disinterested in his public as in private life, Governor Reid possessed many of the faculties which enter into one's ideal of a great and good man. To these generous qualities of the soul were added no small intellectual capacity, and a determined perseverance and industry, which would have fitted him for much more conspicuous posts than those which it was his lot to fill. As a Governor he was constantly intent on tracing with precision the narrow path of duty, and when he had discovered it his courage was inflexible and his constancy unconquerable in the pursuit of it It must be allowed that Governor Reid's administration of this Government not only was successful at the time, but in fact proved an important era in our humble history. His name still continues, and will long continue, to be identified with the material prosperity of the colony, which prosperity he developed to an extent not before dreamed of."

It should be remembered that this was written twelve years after Governor Reid had quitted the island.

GENERAL SIR JOHN CHEAPE, G.C.B.,

obtained his commission in the Bengal Engineers in 1809. He served with the forces of the Marquis of Hastings in the Pindaree war of 1815-16. He also took part in the operations carried out by the Nerbudda field force under General Adams in 1817, and in the following year in those of the force under Doveton and Malcolm. He was through the first Burmese war, from 1824 to 1826. From this time until 1848 he was employed in various Engineer duties without further war service, but in that year he was appointed to command the Engineers during the second portion of the siege of Mooltan. Here, in spite of every difficulty owing to insufficient appliances, the smallness of the British force, and the disinclination of the Bengal Sepoys to work in the trenches, he carried the operation to a successful conclusion. He was afterwards present at the battle of Goojerat. For these services he was appointed Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, and made a C.B. In the second Burmese war of 1852-3, he was second in command of the army, and on the departure of General Goodwin, the command in chief devolved on him. At the termination of the campaign he was created a K.C.B., and in 1865 he was advanced to the dignity of G.C.B. He died in 1875, aged 83 years.

!

CAPTAIN THOMAS DRUMMOND

joined the Engineers in the summer of 1815, at a period most fatal to his prospects in the way of promotion. The reductions that followed the conclusion of the war rendered it impossible for those who were then entering the Corps to look forward to anything but a dreary length of service in the junior grades. Drummond, a man of marvellous inventive genius, an experimenter and investigator, whose patience and perseverance were only to be equalled by his power of grasping at results, did not allow the gloominess of his military prospects to throw a blight over his energies.

We find him, even as a student at Chatham, designing a new form of pontoon to supersede that which had proved so faulty in the late war. The form he adopted was that of a boat like a manof-war's gig, except that it was sharp at both ends. It was built in sections, partly for the convenience of transport and partly to secure the retention of buoyancy in case of damage, and the partitions, when bolted together, fell under the thwarts. This was one of four, the designs of different competitors, which were sent up to London for selection. Drummond was not successful, the Blanshard pontoon having carried off the palm.

Whilst at Chatham he very nearly lost his life by drowning. The incident, which gives a good insight into his character, is thus described by Larcom, in his Professional life of Drummond":—

"He was charged with the construction for practice of a bridge of casks in the rapid current of the Medway at Rochester Bridge, and having previously made piers of the casks in the still water above the bridge, it was necessary to move them through the rapids to get them below the bridge. The piers were, as usual, lashed two and two for security; but one remained, and as its removal was likely to involve some danger, Mr. Drummond determined to go on it himself. There were two soldiers on the pier, one of whom showed a little apprehension at setting off. Drummond placed this man next himself, and desired them both to sit quite still. They passed through the arch in safety, when the man, who had previously shewn apprehension, wishing by activity to restore himself to his officer's good opinion, got suddenly up to assist in making fast to the buoy; in an instant the pier upset, all hands were immersed in the water, and the man who had caused the accident, being on his feet, was thrown from the pier and drowned. Mr. Drummond and the other man clung to the pier, and he afterwards described his sensations when finding his body swept by the current against the underside of the pier. His last recollection was a determination to cling to one side of it, in hopes the depression of that side might be noticed. This presence of mind saved him and his comrade, for, as he expected, a brother-officer (Fitzgerald) noticing the lowness of one side, sprang from a boat upon

the other, and immediately the heads of poor Drummond and the sapper appeared above the water. Drummond was senseless, with the ropes

clenched firmly in his hands."

He joined the Ordnance Survey under Colby in 1820. and was employed in the triangulation in Scotland and afterwards in England. It was not, however, until the Irish Survey was started that his powers as an inventor and experimentalist were to show themselves. In the Chapter on that Survey a sketch has been given of Drummond's heliostat and light, and also of his share in the development of Colby's compensation measurement bars. Before these could be brought into practical use much detail had to be worked out, and here it was that Drummond's peculiar powers found a vent. The first difficulty encountered in applying Colby's principle, was the fact that the rates of changing temperature of the two metals (brass and iron) differed. This he overcame by alterations in the surface of the iron bar, the brass remaining constant. It required numerous careful experiments to decide what these alterations should be. Upwards of ninety, indeed, were made, and a table compiled giving the length of the bars under temperatures varying from 40° to 200°. The next thing to determine was the precise position of the compensating point. The mode of effecting this was thus described by Drummond :

"The approximate position of the compensated point was in the first instance calculated from the mean expansions of brass and iron, but being found to differ from this determination it became necessary to alter its distance from the pivots. There being no adjustment for this purpose a slip of silver was attached to the tongue, and a series of dots marked upon it, so as to extend on either side beyond the true but unknown compensation point. These dots were within 0527 inch of each other, and were brought under the microscope in quick succession by means of transverse screws, and when the position of the true compensated point was determined with respect to these dots, the plate was removed, a silver pin inserted (in the tongue) at the requisite distance, and a dot marked upon it."

The unremitting application with which Drummond had pursued these investigations brought on a severe illness, and after he had proceeded to Ireland to carry on the practical operations of the Survey the hardships and exposure to which he was subjected once more prostrated him. On this second occasion he was discovered by a doctor in a miserable hut swamped in water, and unable to move. A gentleman living in the neighbourhood having heard of his deplorable condition insisted upon carrying him off. He had him wrapped in blankets, placed in his carriage, and driven to his hospitable house, where he was carefully nursed

for six weeks, until he was sufficiently convalescent to be sent home. His sister thus speaks of the incident :

"He was about a fortnight with us before he was able to go out just a little. I remember the Survey people wanted to stop his pay. He wrote them a threatening letter. 'Was there ever anything equal to this?' he said. 'They throw away thousands of pounds, and would rob me when I am become disabled in their service.'"

There is no doubt that these two illnesses laid the seeds of the disease that carried him off at such an early age.

Returning to London in the autumn of 1829, he once more turned his attention to the development of his light. It has already been recorded how successful the application of this light was on the mountain of Slieve Snaght. It may here be mentioned that on his first application of the principle, before he proceeded to Ireland, he exhibited the light at the Armoury in the Tower to a number of savans. Sir John Herschell, who was present, thus describes the scene in a letter written to Mrs. Drummond, after her husband's death :

"The common Argand burner and parabolic reflector of a British lighthouse were first exhibited, the room being darkened, and with considerable effect. Fresnel's superb lamp was next disclosed, at whose superior effect the other seemed to dwindle, and showed in a manner quite subordinate. But when the gas began to play, the lime being now brought to its full ignition, and the screen suddenly removed, a glare shone forth overpowering, and, as it were, annihilating, both its predecessors, which appeared by its side, the one as a feeble gleam which it required attention to see, the other like a mere plate of heated metal. A shout of triumph and admiration burst from all present. Prisms to analyse the rays, photometric contrivances to measure their intensity, and screens to cast shadows were speedily in requisition, and the scene was one of extraordinary excitement.

The light thus exhibited, and afterwards used on the Irish Survey was produced by oxygen passing through the flame of spirits of wine. He now proposed, as a matter of economy, to substitute hydrogen gas for the flame of alcohol. In its new form the apparatus was arranged as follows: The oxygen and hydrogen gases were separately conducted into a mixing chamber, the former being projected horizontally, and the latter vertically through minute apertures. The blended gases, after passing through wire gauze, to ensure more complete mixture, issued through two gas jets and played upon the lime ball, which was made to rotate slowly in order to diffuse uniform heat, and to prevent unequal wasting. In this form he carried out numerous experiments by order of the Trinity House. Most of these took place in a small lighthouse at Purfleet. Captain Basil Hall, who witnessed some