INTRODUCTION. Ixv 
interesting. Nor was this all ; with a true spirit of philan- 
thropy Mr. Smith assembled the scattered peasantry of 
these high and secluded valleys, explained to them the 
characters and the valuable properties of the lichens which 
covered their mountains, instructed them how to convert 
these mosses into bread that was pleasent to the taste, 
nourishing, and wholesome, and prevailed on them to 
adopt this bread instead of that miserable resource of bark 
bread, which affords but little or no nourishment, and that 
litle at the expense of health. 
The death of his father about this time put him in pos- 
session of a little fortune, which he at once resolved to 
employ in studying nature in foreign countries. His 
nomination to the professorship of botany at the university 
of Christiania did not divert him from his plan ; on the con- 
trary, he thought he could not do a greater service to the 
cause of science than to consecrate the fruits of his travels 
to the new botanical garden of that place. He came to 
London, met with a countryman who had _ been instructed 
in the King’s Gardens at Kew, and sent him to superin- 
tend his favourite garden at Christiania, with abundance 
of plants and seeds which he purchased at his own ex- 
pense. He next proceeded to Edinburgh, from whence. 
he set out on a tour across the highest mountains of 
Scotland to examine their productions. The mountains 
of the northern counties of England and of Wales did not 
escape his active researches. From Wales he crossed‘over 
to Dublin, scoured all the mountains of Ireland, and re- 
turned to London towards the end of the year 1814. It 
is needless to add, that so zealous an advocate for the ex- 
tension of human knowledge engaged at once the friendship 
k ; 
