8 
for it present themselves to our view. The pathless forest, 
the arid plain, the alpine rock, the desert island, tender by 
turns their varied and inexhaustible stores, and demand of 
us only exercise of body as the price at which they will 
furnish us with food for the mind. Even the boundless waste 
of ocean, which the common traveller views with an eye of 
apathy or apprehension, yields to the naturalist a rich harvest 
of amusement and instruction. A man possessed of a taste 
for natural history, has it in his power to amass a store of 
subjects, wherewith he can associate a train of agreeable 
recollections sufficient to afford him amusement during 
the remainder of his life; not to mention the pleasure he 
must feel in sharing his discoveries with those who have the 
same taste. with himself, but who. want the: opportunity of 
indulging it. 
* There is no denying that thia branch of education may 
engender a host of unfledged philosophers, who will fancy, 
on their outset in life, that every thing must be new to others 
. which appears so to themselves; and when such undertake 
to visit remote countries and communicate to the world the 
result of their observations, we must be prepared to: meet 
with a little vanity and egotism, inflated language, extrava- 
gant theories, and deductions not always the most legitimate. 
With these drawbacks, however, the journal of a young 
traveller moderately skilled in natural history, will prove 
infinitely more interesting to the intelligent class of readers 
than that of a person who is totally ignorant of that branch 
of science." 
After taking his diploma as surgeon, in the University of 
Edinburgh, Mr. Carmichael returned to reside with his 
father at Lismore, where, as may. be imagined, he again 
applied to his favourite pursuits, But his circle of observa- 
tion was limited, for this island does not abound in such 
productions as attract the eye of a young botanist. It is but 
little elevated above tbe level of the sea, and entirely formed 
of a blueish coloured limestone, more or less crystallized, 
which is occasionally traversed by veins of greenstone, and 
once only by a vein of pitchstone, scarcely an inch in thick- 
