MEMOIR OF C. F. BEAUTEMPS-BEAUPRE.' 135 



ducing the noble features, the kiudliuess, united with penetration, which charac- 

 terized the original. Under a physiognomy impressed with so much goodness, 

 we are easily persuaded that we see one of those ancient savants of the primitive 

 type whose renown is the property of ages. To the skilful statuary (JM. 

 Desprez) who executed it, the more honor should accrue, inasmuch as ]\I. Beau- 

 temps-Beaupre had reached the age of eighty-six without having ever permitted 

 any one to take his portrait. After the ceremony, the minister, the admiral, 

 and the whole body of assistants pi'ocecded to the modest residence of M. 

 Beautemps-Bcaupre, ia the street dcs Saints-Peres, there to render to the illus- 

 trious old man in person, and amidst the applause of all present, an homage 

 which must have sensibly touched his heart. 



Nor were the scientiiic bodies, to which he belonged by more than one 

 title, less conscientious in their acknowledgments. In 1824 l>e had been named 

 member of the bureau of longitudes, and assiduously attended the meetings 

 whenever he was in Paris. Ilis advice in all that regarded navigation was 

 here listened to with invariable deference. He had been also named one of the 

 commission of light-houses from the commencement in 1826, and was especially 

 intrusted with the suitable location of those invaluable aids to navigation. The 

 active and inllucntial part which he took ia the deliberations of the board was 

 warmly acknowledged at his funeral by i\l. Leonce lleynaud, the skilful con- 

 structor of the light-house of Brehat, the site of which was fixed by M. Beau- 

 temps-Bcaupre himself, after the difficult and dangerous exploration of the 

 Roches- Doicrres at the entrance of the British channel. His character, his long 

 experience of the sea, his solicitude for the public good, conspired, with the 

 intrinsic ivisdom of his counsels, to secure their constant adoption. Even on 

 his death-bed his thoughts were still occupied with the interests and dangers 

 of maritime enterprise ; and if he manifested a sensibility, it was to the assur- 

 ance that the member of the commission of light-houses had completed the 

 work of the hydrographcr, and that thenceforward all important questions 

 bearing on the lighting of our sea-coast were resolved. 



Whatever related to the sea interest(!d him to the last. In 1853 a commission 

 was appointed to investigate, under the direction of M. Dumas, certain ques- 

 tions touching the existence of the tangue, a product of marine origin which the 

 sea throws up at the entrances of certain rivers of Normimdy and Brittany. 

 Agriculture dreaded the disappearance of this fertilizer. Tlie commission, de- 

 sirous of consulting M. Beautemps-Beaupre on this production of shores which 

 be had so thoroughly explored, repaired in a body to his residence. 'Y\\ii aged 

 navigator i^^covered all his animation in speaking of places which lie had so 

 often visited : "We know not," lie said, " how the tangue is reproduced at 

 those points ; it is the fuiol whiclt lai/s golden eggs ; it must not be interfered 

 with." 



In the presence of the great spectacles of nature, IM. Beantemps-BeanpnJ had 

 contracted a taste for natural history. If he did not cultivate it himself, he 

 zealously aided those who did. In the expedition of d'Entrecasteaux he had 

 formcid intimate relations with its botanist, M. de la Billardiere, and it was he 

 who brought to France the beautiful nautilus vitre now in the Museum of 

 Natural History which was bequeathed to the government by M. de Kermadec, 

 captain of the Espcrance, on his death in New Caledonia. Many of our col- 

 leagues recall with sensibility the cordial and obliging reception extended to 

 them on our coasts by M. Beautemps-Bcaupre while prosecuting his own 

 arduous hydrographic labors. 



Ileared among the savants of the close of the eighteenth century, he had pre- 

 served that almost religious respect for science which was one of their dis- 

 tinctive characteristics. Hence the dignity, united with friendliness, which per- 

 vaded all his relations. "He was," said the Marchioness de Laplace, whose 

 remembrance is itself a eulogy, "a man of an antique character." He possessed 



