94 Biography of the late Captaiii Dugald Carmicha£l. 



by veins of greenstone, and once only by a vein of pitclistone, 

 scarcely an inch in thickness, and exceedingly friable. The soil 

 barely coats the rocks, which put forth their bald foreheads in 

 every portion of the best cultivated fields, giving to this fertile 

 island the appearance of a heap of stones, and rendering the 

 spade as necessary an implement of husbandry as the plough. 

 The plants found on it are not numerous, consisting chiefly of 

 a few OrchidecB, PrimulacecB, SaxifragcB, CrucifercB, &c. ; and 

 though the neighbouring mainland presents a greater variety of 

 soil and elevation, we cannot believe that Mr Carmichael would 

 have made much progress in the knowledge of classification, far 

 less have acquired his quick botanical eye, in a situation where 

 he was excluded from the benefits to be obtained from books 

 and sympathy, and where the list of native vegetables is by no 

 means large. It is probable that his attention was at this time 

 turned rather towards mineralogy, and that his sight was not 

 indifferent to the majesty and beauty of the hills which form 

 the great glen of Scotland, nor his mind inactive in speculating 

 upon the manner of their formation. It was indeed a station 

 calculated to arouse the slumbering spirit of the geologist into 

 activity, and more callous observers than he who is the subject 

 of this memoir might have their admiration excited by those 

 mountains which enclose the island of Lismore, as in a mighty 

 amphitheatre, and which present so many and such varied as- 

 pects. 



In 1796, being appointed assistant-surgeon to the Argyle- 

 shire Fencibles, then stationed in Ireland, Mr Carmichael had 

 an opportunity of extending his knowledge of the workings of 

 Nature. Yet he has not left behind him anything which enables 

 us to trace what progress he there made in science. When the 

 advantages of scientific instruction are wanting in youth, years 

 of after labour become necessary for the student, during which 

 we may find him labouring assiduously to compass the first ele- 

 ments of knowledge, and carefully treading the paths which 

 others have trodden before him, in order to ascertain what has 

 been already done, and what yet remains to be effected. For 

 nine years, during which he was stationed in Ireland, Mr Car- 

 michael seems to have been preparing his mind for future disco- 

 veries, and, by a fortunate coincidence, Robert Brown, the first 



