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 this 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, v/e 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 the 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- 



