or trying to measure, the height of the hills around with a mountain barometer.
Brought up as a Roman catholic, Ball at thirteen was sent for three years to the Roman catholic college at Oscott, whence he went on to Christ's College, Cambridge, being admitted in 1835. There, like Darwin, he fell under the influence of Professor John Stevens Henslow [q. v.], whose botanical lectures he attended, and in whose family the 'wild Irishman' was a prime favourite. He came out as twenty-seventh wrangler in 1839, but was prevented by his religion from taking a degree. After leaving the university Ball travelled for four years in different parts of Europe, seeing much of men and manners, and also of mountains and flowers. A valuable paper on the botany of Sicily was one of the results of these early travels. In 1845 he stayed for some time at Zermatt in order to study glaciers, making a series of observations. The conclusions he was led to, however, coincided so closely with those of James David Forbes [q. v.] that he refrained from publishing them, though he afterwards contributed several papers to the 'Philosophical Magazine,' in which he contested the hypothesis with regard to the action of glaciers in the formation of Alpine valleys and lake basins that had been lately put forward. Ball was called to the Irish bar in 1845, but never practised. In 1846 he was appointed assistant poor-law commissioner. This was at the period of the Irish potato famine. The work was severe, and in the following year he was forced by ill-health to resign. In 1848 he stood unsuccessfully for the borough of Sligo. In 1849 he was again appointed as second commissioner, a post which he held for two years, when he resigned it in order to stand as a liberal for county Carlow, for which he was elected on 26 July 1852. In the House of Commons he advocated most of the liberal measures that have since become law: the disestablishment of the church of Ireland, a readjustment of land tenure, the reduction of rents, and a new land valuation. He was not a frequent or a lengthy speaker, but he made so decided a mark in the house that in 1855 Lord Palmerston offered him the under-secretaryship for the colonies.
In this position (which he held for two years) Ball was able to advance the interest of science on several notable occasions. It was mainly due to his energetic representations that the Palliser expedition was properly equipped and sent out to ascertain the best routes within British terrritory for uniting by rail the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, Canada and British Columbia.
Among the results of this enterprise was the discovery of four practicable passes, one of which is now followed by the Canadian Pacific Railway [see Palliser, John].
Ball was also instrumental while in office In inducing the home government to give its support to Sir W. Hooker's efforts for the publication of floras of all our colonies, compiled on a definite system, which he himself drew up, an undertaking equally important whether from the commercial or from the scientific point of view.
The combination of scientific zeal and sound judgment as to the extent of the support which science might reasonably claim from the state that Ball displayed while at the colonial office led to his opinion being often asked, and sometimes acted on. But to the end of his life he deplored the comparative indifference to science, and the ignorance of its practical bearings on the prosperity of nations, shown by the British treasury, as well as by British travellers and administrators in all quarters of the globe.
In 1858 Ball contested Limerick. His ardent sympathy with Italian liberty (Cavour and Quintino Sella were among his close friends) did him harm on this occasion with the Irish priests, and through their action he was defeated after a keen contest. This result he accepted, despite subsequent opportunities of a seat offered him, as a definite discharge from public life and office.
To a man with the tastes he had shown from childhood there was little struggle in resigning himself to the career of a natural philosopher. At the same moment a definite direction was given to his leisure by his nomination as the first president of the Alpine Club. That association (founded in 1857) was composed of a small band of enthusiastic lovers of the mountains, who, having in common one of the chief pleasures of their lives, were anxious to provide fixed opportunities for meeting, comparing notes, and developing projects for new adventures or extended researches. Ball was selected as the man who most thoroughly united in himself and represented the various motives which inspired the first members of the club — the zest for adventure, the love of the glories of the mountains, or the patient pursuit of natural science in the many branches that are open to the mountaineer.
He found another link with the Alps in his first wife, a daughter of the Nobile Alberto Parolini, a distinguished naturalist, through whom he subsequently came into property near Bassano. The task he now set himself was the compilation of a guide to the whole Alpine chain from the Col di
