148 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTS BRAVAIS. 



cant still lay in the polyteclinic line. After this Dr. Bravais no longei 

 hesitated, but sent his son anew to Paris, wliere he was placed in the 

 institution of M. Barbet, theu distin/jjuished as one of the best sem- 

 inaries of preparation for the Polytechnic School. 



Auguste Bravais pursued at the College of St. Louis, under M. Delille, 

 the course of special mathematics. At the end of the year he obtained 

 at the general competition the first prize of mathematics, and was re- 

 ceived at the Polytechnic School as number two of the list. On pass- 

 ing into the first division, after a year's study, he was classed as first, 

 and at his exit made choice, with his father's a])probation, of the marine 

 service. The sea ! How many opportunities did that name suggest of 

 seeing distant shores, of studying nature in its difierent aspects, and of 

 continuing, with enlarged knowledge, the studies which had formed the 

 delight of a happy childhood. 



He embarked in Jannary, 1832, on board the rinistere,which then navi- 

 gated the waters of the Mediterranean ; but he soon pjissed to the brig 

 Loiret, comman«led by M. Berard, whom we have since counted among 

 the correspondents of our section of geography, and who was at that 

 time charged with the exploration of the coasts of Algeria. The Loiret, 

 on board of which was also M. De Tessan, hydrographical engineer, and 

 now our colleague, was employed two summers in making the coast sur- 

 vey of our African possessions, and the work was completed when the 

 vessel re-entered the port of Tonlon, October 25, 1833. The minister of 

 marine, with a sagacity which does honor to his memory, had composed 

 of futnre academicians the official staff of a vessel charged with a scien- 

 tific mission, and the commander, M. Berard, in his excellent work, I)e- 

 scription JSfaniique des Gates de VAhjerie, took occasion to convey to his 

 assistants, and expressly to M. Bravais, his warm acknowledgments of 

 the important share which they had borne in the common labor. 



The Loiret was next emploj^ed in maintaining the communications be- 

 tween Algiers, Bona, and Oran, being armed on account of the hostile 

 disposition of the inhabitants of the shores. In these incessant passages 

 from one extremity of the Algerine coast to the other, it was necessary 

 to make many different ports, and M. Bravais, who had been named lieu- 

 tf^uant in 1831, lost none of these invaluable opportunities of satisfying 

 his passion for natural history. A flora and fauna, different from those 

 of the Cevennes, oflered a multitude of objects calculated to pique his 

 curiosity. Magnificent collections of plants, insects, Crustacea, fish, ter- 

 restrial or marine moUusks, rewarded his activity. Of these he made 

 frequent remittances to Annonay, and sometimes carried thither in per- 

 son the fruits of his researches, for, since leaving the Polytechnic School, 

 he invariably passed there all the vacations and furloughs he could ob- 

 tain. On these occasions of a return to his native place, he never failed 

 to revisit his dear mountains, Pilat and Eoche de Vent, and resumed, 

 though on a wider scale, the walks and herborizations which had formed 

 of old the happiness of tlie Bravais family. Knapsack on his back, the 

 young mariner then made long excursions, accompanied by his brother 

 nearest in age to himself, the Abbe Camille Bravais, now professor of 

 natural history at the College of Annonay, and keeper of the museum 

 of that city, composed in great part of his own gifts and those of his 

 family. 



But it Avas with his eldest brother. Dr. Louis Bravais, that our future 

 colleague devoted himself to the more profound investigations of botany. 

 At the beginning of the year 1835, the two brothers united in present- 

 ing to the Academy a memoir entitled: Esmi (jeometriqiie sur la syme- 

 trie des feuilles curviseriees et rcctisericcs, (Geometrical essay on cur- 



