DAM ARAS, OVAMPO, AND N AM AQUAS 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 broad bends, The recipient is thereby saved 
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.