204 In Mcmoriam : Dr Robert Brown. [Sess. 



En Jftemortam: dr Robert brown. 



By Dr DA VIES, President. 



Dr Eobert Brown was the first President of the Society, and 

 at the time of his death an honorary member. I therefore 

 think it but right that I should here place on record some 

 brief memorial of his useful and laborious life. 



The son of Thomas Brown, Esq. of Campster, Caithness, 

 Bobert Brown was born on March 23, 1842. But the 

 family soon after removed to Coldstream, Berwickshire, and 

 here he received his early education. At the age of sixteen 

 he entered the University of Edinburgh, where, though he did 

 not graduate, he had a distinguished career. Afterwards he 

 studied on the Continent, and in 1868 received the degree of 

 Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Eostock. In 

 1861 he visited Jan Mayen, Spitzbergen, and the shores of 

 Baffin's Bay, and was the first to point out the now universally 

 admitted cause of the discoloration of the waters of the Arctic 

 Ocean. Afterwards he spent three years in British North 

 America, and he commanded two different exploring ex- 

 peditions to Vancouver Island. In 1867 he again visited 

 the Arctic regions ; and, together with Mr Edward Whymper, 

 he made the first attempt by Englishmen to penetrate the icy 

 regions of the interior of Greenland, and explored the glacial 

 formation and the botany of that country. From 1863 to 

 1866 he travelled for scientific purposes over a great part of 

 the world, and made many valuable discoveries. After finally 

 returning to Scotland about 1873, he lectured on Botany, 

 Zoology, and Geology at the High School and the Heriot-Watt 

 College, Edinburgh, the Mechanics' Institution, Glasgow, and 

 elsewhere. About this time Dr Brown spent most of his 

 vacations in Denmark ; and in the autumn of 1875 he 

 married Augusta Eudmose, daughter of Neal Eudmose of 

 Fersley, near Copenhagen, and shortly after settled in London. 

 Being offered a post on the ' Echo,' he finally adopted jour- 

 nalism as his profession, and in 1878 joined the editorial staff 

 of the ' Standard,' bringing to his work an experience which 

 rarely falls to the lot of any journalist. He was fond of the 

 African shore of the Mediterranean, and spent many of his 

 holidays in Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers ; and he possessed an 



