Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/330

 work of societies that promote natural knowledge, and he occupied a responsible position on most of the London societies. At the Belfast meeting of the British Association in 1902 Howes was president of section D (zoology). His skill as a draughtsman was great, and the work by which he is best known to students, 'Atlas of Elementary Biology' (1885), was entirely illustrated from his own drawings; the zoological part was revised as 'Atlas of Elementary Zootomy' (1902); another well-known text-book, Huxley and Martin's 'Elementary Biology ' (1875), was issued in a revised form by Howes in conjunction with Dr. Dukinfield Scott in 1888.

As an investigator, Howes dealt chiefly with the comparative anatomy of the vertebrata, to the knowledge of which he made many contributions, his chief memoir being an account, written in collaboration with Dr. H. H. Swinnerton, of the development of the skeleton of the rare Norfolk Island reptile, 'Sphenodon' (Trans. Zool. Soc. 1901). He was elected F.R.S. in 1897, LL.D. St. Andrews in 1898, and D.Sc. Manchester, 1899.



HOWITT, ALFRED WILLIAM (1830–1908), Australian anthropologist, born on 17 April 1830 at Nottingham, was eldest son in a family of four sons and three daughters of [q. v.] and his wife [q. v.], the well-known writers. After home instruction at Nottingham and Esher, his parents in 1840 took him and their other children to Heidelberg to continue their education. They returned in 1843, living successively at Clapham (1843-8) and St. John's Wood (1848-52), while Alfred studied at University College, Gower Street. In 1852 William Howitt with two of his sons, Alfred and Herbert Charlton, went to Australia, partly to visit his own brother Godfrey, who had been for some time settled at Melbourne in medical practice. After two years' wandering in Australia William Howitt returned to England, leaving his two sons in Australia. Herbert Charlton was subsequently drowned while bridge-making in New Zealand.

Alfred first farmed land belonging to his uncle at Coalfield near Melbourne, and then took to cattle droving. He soon acquired the reputation of an able, 'careful, and fearless bushman. In Sept. 1859 a committee at Melbourne commissioned him to explore Central Australia from Adelaide. He reported adversely on the character of the country. After serving as manager of the Mount Napier cattle station near Hamilton he was sent by the Victoria government in 1860 to prospect for gold in the unknown region of Gippsland. He made a scientific and practical study of gold mining and of the local geology, and by his advice the goldfields on the Crooked, Dargo, and Wentworth rivers were opened. On 18 June 1861 he was appointed leader of the expedition in search of the explorers [q. v.], and [q. v.], who had disappeared the year before in the then unknown region toward the Gulf of Carpentaria. He was absent from Melbourne from 14 July to 28 Nov. 1861, advancing rapidly despite the difficulties of travel, and found the one survivor of the last expedition (John King) on Cooper's Creek, far in the north, and brought him back to Melbourne. At the end of the same year Howitt again visited Cooper's Creek, and succeeded, after a leisurely journey, in bringing back the remains of Burke and Wills to Melbourne on 28 Dec. 1862. For these services Howitt was made in 1863 police magistrate and warden of the goldfields in Gippsland. He held these posts till 1889.

From his early days in Australia he had devoted himself to scientific observation. With especial eagerness he studied the aboriginal population. During the expedition of 1862 he thoroughly familiarised himself with the social organisation of the Dieri tribe about Cooper's Creek. At Gippsland he came into close touch with the Kurnai tribe, who adopted him by formal initiation as a member and admitted him to their secret ceremonies. He thus went beyond any other European in his study of the Australian aboriginal. Moreover, he spared himself no pains in corresponding with others who were to any extent in a position to observe any facts in connection with his own favourite subject, and he sifted and arranged the information thus gained with extraordinary care and aptitude. To Brough Smith's 'Aborigines of Victoria' (Melbourne, 1878) Howitt contributed 'Notes on Aborigines of Cooper's Creek' and 'Notes on the System of Consanguinity and Kinship of the Brabrolong Tribe, North Gippsland.' [q. v. Suppl. II], whom he had casually met in the bush some years before, joined him in 1871 in his investigations,'and helped him to interpret his facts. Together the two friends published 'Kamilaroi and 