3 
My last interview with Capt. Carmichael was in the sum- 
mer of 1826, when linvited him to join an excursion with 
the students of my class, which it was proposed should ex- 
tend that year to Icolmkill, Staffa, and others of the more 
northern islands of the Hebrides. He met us in our vessel, 
immediately opposite his residence, when we proceeded to 
Mull, Skye, and thence, returning through the Sound of 
Mull, we visited Fort- William, Ben Nevis, and the majestic 
scenery of Glencoe. But it was easy to see that disease had 
made rapid progress in his constitution. His spirits were 
depressed, and his strength did not enable him to undergo 
any of the fatiguing ascents of the mountains; nor, at all 
. times, to go ashore among the islands. But he brought a 
beautiful set of drawings of Confervs, and other Algae, and 
while showing and describing these to the more zealous 
botanists of our party, his powers of mind seemed to be as 
vigorous as ever, and the interest which the subject possessed 
for him, appeared almost to reanimate his drooping frame. 
In the month of September, of the following year, I re- 
ceived the melancholy tidings of his death. 
The botanical mss., specimens, and drawings, have come 
into my possession, and in the publication of whatever is new 
amongst these, I hope to render some justice to the author _ 
in the forthcoming volume of the British Cryptogamie. It 
has, farther, been a wish nearest my heart, to lay before the 
public some account of the life and labours of this zealous and 
indefatigable naturalist. Yet, honoured as I was with his friend- 
ship, and the greater part of his correspondence, I felt that our 
personal interviews had not been sufficient to furnish me with 
the necessary materials for such a memoir. I had recourse 
then to my valued friend, the Rev. Colin Smith, Minister of 
Inverary, who, previous to his present residence, lived at 
Appin, in the immediate neighbourhood of Capt. Carmichael, 
had frequent and unreserved intercourse with him, and whose 
own acquirements and scientific research * rendered him 
* Botany has engaged a portion of Mr. Smith's attention ; and while writing, 
I am favoured by him with an interesting packet of plants from the woods and 
B 2 
