BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OP THE LATE F. A. MICHAUX. 



Besides these advantages, Michaiix proposed to increase the number of forest 

 trees, which, in France, is limited to tliirty-six attaining the height of thirty feet ; 

 eighteen of these form the bullv of the forests, and seven only arc employed in 

 civil and naval constructions — whilst he alone had ol)served in the North American 

 forests as many as one hundred and forty species of similar height and utility. 



The means proposed by Michaux to attain these desiderata were simply "to 

 send a naturalist to the United Status, with the mission to collect seeds and young 

 trees, and to forward the same to the national nurseries in France." His proi)0- 

 sitions were forcibly suiijiortcd in a rei)ort made to the Central Society of Agri- 

 culture by Messrs. l)e Perthuis, Correa de Serra and Cels, and he was finally 

 intrusted with this mission, under the special ])atronage of the Duke De Gaete, 

 then minister of Finance and for the account of the Administration of the Forests. 



He subsequently embarked at Bordeaux, on the 5th of February, 1806, in a 

 vessel bound for Charleston. After being three days at sea, they were boarded 

 by the British man-of-war Leander, Commander Witheby, who, suspecting the 

 vessel to be laden for the account of French merchants, sent her to Halifax, there 

 to be disposed of by the Court of Admiralty, which would decide whether she 

 was a legitimate prize or should be liberated. Of all the passengers, Michaux 

 was the only one ordered on board the Leander, where he remained during a 

 cruise of forty-three days, after which they reached the Bermuda Islands. While 

 in port he was permitted freely to go ashore, and had thus the opportunity to 

 make some interesting observations, the details of which he addressed to the Pro- 

 fessors of the Paris Museum of Natural History, in a memoir entitled Notice siir 

 les lies Bermudes, et, particidierement, svr St. Georges. 



Michaux was finally released and permitted to sail for the United States, which 

 he reached towards the end of May. Beginning his explorations at the district 

 of Maine, where the winter is as rigorous as in Sweden, though ten degrees farther 

 south, he travelled over all the Atlantic States as far as Georgia, where the heat, 

 during six months of the year, is as great as in the West Indies. Besides a 

 journey of 1800 miles from northeast to southwest, he made five explorations into 

 the interior of the country. The first, along the rivers Kennebec and Sandy; 

 the second, from Boston to Lake Charaplain, crossing the States of New Hamp- 

 shire and Vermont ; the third, from New York to lakes Ontario and Erie ; the 

 fourth, from Philadelphia to the rivers INIonongahela, Alleghany and Ohio ; the 

 fifth, from Charleston to the sources of the Savannah and Oconee Rivers. In 

 travelling along the sea-coast, he visited the ]n-ineipal dock-yards, with the view 

 to examine the timber employed in ship-building; he also examined all the work- 

 shops where wood was worked into forms. As the knowledge of which he was in 

 need was, principally, in the possession of artisans, he consulted the most skilful 

 workmen, and by means of a series of questions, previously prepared, he collected 

 a mass of valuable information. 



In his different journeys into the interior he paid particular attention to the 

 trees that formed the bulk of the forests, with reference to the nature and uses of 

 their woods, or as objects of commerce between the different States or of exporta- 

 tion abroad. He ascertained the sources of the different barks employed in tan- 

 ning; inquired into the quality and price of the various woods used for fuel, and 

 formed a complete collection of polished specimens of the species employed in 

 cabinet work or otherwise. In a word, the range of his observations was un- 

 limited, and could not fail to interest exceedingly the peoi)le of the United States, 

 as well as Europeans, and to become one of the main points of the splendid work 

 which he published almost immediately after his return. 



chaux remained nearly three years in the United States, diligently employed 



