My last interview with Capt. Carmichael was in the sum- 

 mer of 1826, when 1 invited him to join an excursion with 

 the students of my class, which it was proposed should ex- 

 tend that year to Icolmkil], 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 Confervse, and other Algse, 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 Cryptogamiae. 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 



