The same may likewise be asserted of the wives of two distinguished geologists--Charles Lyell and Xavier Hommaire de Hell. Mrs. Lyell was intimately associated with her husband in all his scientific undertakings, and her ready intellect contributed immensely toward securing for him that enviable position which he attained of being the premier geologist of his century. Mme. Hommaire de Hell deserves special mention in the history of geology for the invaluable assistance which she gave her husband in the scientific exploration of the basin of the Caspian Sea. Not only did she share his labors and perils in this then wild part of the world, and collaborate with him in the preparation of the report for which the French government conferred on him the Cross of the Legion of Honor, but she also wrote unaided the two descriptive volumes of their great work, _Steppes de la Mer Caspienne_. Her part of this great undertaking received the special commendation of M. Villemain, who was the minister of public instruction, and had she not belonged to the disenfranchized sex, she, too, would have been decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honor. All the world has heard of the daring explorations of Baker and Livingstone in the Dark Continent, but how few are aware of the important part taken in their great enterprises by their devoted and heroic wives? Sir Samuel Baker immortalized himself by discovering Lake Albert Nyanza, one of the main sources of the Nile, but in attaining this goal, which other explorers had in vain essayed to reach, he was not alone. The companion of his triumph, as of his trials and hardships, was Lady Baker, a woman who, although delicately reared, was as brave in presence of danger as she was resourceful in trials and difficulties. More than once her husband owed his life to her intrepidity and presence of mind, when confronted by the treacherous savages of equatorial Africa; and, if he achieved success where others failed, it was in no slight measure due to her tact, her energy and perseverance in what seemed at times a forlorn hope. "She had learned Arabic with him in a year of necessary but wearisome delay; her mind traveled with his mind as her feet had followed his footsteps." And, when after preliminary toils without number, after braving dangers from climate, disease and ruthless savages, they finally stood on the shore of that unknown sea which was then first beheld by English eyes, she could, in contemplating their achievements of which Albert Nyanza was the crowning glory, exclaim with exaltation and truth, "_Quorum pars magna fui._"