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It is customary with us at the close of the year to look around our family circles, and note the absent faces of old and familiar friends, or "nearer still, and dearer ones," who have passed to their last home since the previous Christmas gatherings dispersed. As the present year draws near its close, it may not be inopportune for us to note the vacant chairs in the learned societies, whence death has snatched many a veteran since our first number appeared. As a nation we have suffered deeply in the loss of men whose place it would be difficult to fill. The majority of these have passed away in a ripe old age, leaving to us the duty of cherishing their memories, mourning their loss, and profiting by their labours.

Even while the odours of Christmas still lingered, while the holly was fresh and green, and before the sound of festivities ceased, we learnt that Dr. Balfour Baikie would no more wander on the banks of the Niger, since, in making preparations to revisit England, he was preparing for another land, to which, towards the close of September he passed, to take his station in the silent halls of death, from whence no visitor returns.

A still wider-known travelling naturalist, whose loss other than naturalists deeply deplore, passed from amongst us with the advent of May flowers. Admiral Fitzroy, F.R.S., was just completing his sixtieth year. It was nearly thirty-five years since he returned from the survey of the southern coasts of South America, after which, with Mr. Charles Darwin as naturalist, he again visited those coasts, and performed the voyage of research for which his name is most honoured by the student of natural history. The voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Captain Fitzroy, will long be remembered as one of the richest in results of the many voyages of exploration undertaken by Englishmen.

The month following left us to mourn the loss of another explorer, at the advanced age of seventy-eight years. This was Sir John Richardson, C.B., F.R.S., who was three times engaged in an Arctic expedition; twice under the command o Sir John Franklin, and once after he had reached threescore years of age. He first entered the navy as assistant-surgeon in 1807, and for seven years was engaged in fighting and buccaneering expeditions. His scientific career commenced with the first Arctic expedition in which he was engaged, and the publication of the Appendix to Sir John Franklin's Narrative. "His scientific writings fill up some twenty volumes, treating mainly of the zoology of mammals, birds, and fishes, and most instructively of the distribution of species." His most important work is the "Fauna Boreali-Americana," by which he will hereafter be best known.

In March Sir Robert H. Schomburgh was numbered with the dead. From his earliest years he was devoted to natural history. In 1831 he surveyed the island of Anegada, in the West Indies. In 1835 he undertook the exploration of Guiana,—a journey rich in scientific results. During this expedition he discovered that queen of flowers, the gigantic Water-lily (Victoria regia). On his return home, the Royal Geographical Society presented him with their gold medal; and in 1840 he returned to British Guiana to make a survey for the British Government. This work being completed, he received the honour of knighthood. The concluding portion of his career was spent as consul, first at St. Domingo and afterwards in Siam. It is chiefly as a naturalist that we include him in our brief mememto, in companionship with such kindred spirits as Dr. Baikie, Admiral Fitzroy, and Sir John Richardson.

What can we say of Charles Waterton, for, whether as a naturalist or a gentleman, it may be long before we look upon his like again? On the 25th of May, at the age of eighty-three years, his "wanderings" came to a close; and the Squire of Walton Hall no longer roamed amongst the denizens of the paradise which he had established for them. "Walton Hall," says a contemporary, "was famous throughout the North as a new paradise for animals, and as showing, practically, what might be the state of things even now, were man not carnivorous and