9 
ness, and exceedingly friable. The soil barely coats the 
rocks, which put forth their bald foreheads in every 
portion of the best cultivated fields, giving to this fertile 
island the appearance of a heap of stones, and rendering 
the spade as necessary an implement of husbandry as the 
plough. The plants found on it are not numerous, con- 
sisting chiefly of a few Orchidee, Primulacee, Sazifrage, 
Crucifere, &c.; and though the neighbouring mainland 
presents a greater variety of soil and elevation, we cannot 
believe that Mr. Carmichael would have made much progress 
in the knowledge of classification, far less have acquired his 
quick botanical eye, in a situation where he was excluded from 
the benefits to be obtained from books and sympathy, and 
where the list of native vegetables is by no means large. It 
is probable that his attention was at this time turned rather 
towards mineralogy, and that his sight was not indifferent to 
the majesty and beauty of the hills which form the great glen 
of Scotland, nor his mind inactive in speculating upon the 
manner of their formation. It was indeed a station calculated 
to arouse the slumbering spirit of the geologist into activity, 
and more callous observers than he who is the subject of 
this memoir might have their admiration excited by those 
mountains which inclose the island of Lismore as in a mighty 
amphitheatre, and which present so many and such varied 
aspects. It is believed that his knowledge of mineralogy was 
chiefly acquired at this time, while residing with his parents, 
after his return from the university. 
In 1796, being appointed assistant-surgeon to the Argyle- 
shire Fencibles, then stationed in Ireland, Mr. Carmichael 
had an opportunity of extending his knowledge of the work- 
ings of nature. Yet he has not left behind him anything . 
which enables us to trace what progress he there made in 
science. When the advantages of scientific instruction are 
wanting in youth, years of after labour become necessary for 
the student, during which we may find him labouring assidu- 
ously to compass the first elements of knowledge, and carefully 
treading the paths which others have trodden before him, in 
order to ascertain what has been already done, and what yet 
