322 Biographical Memoir of [Ma\, 



of their proceedings, which were fortunately preserved, and have 

 been given to the public in a volume published by permission of 

 the Lords of the Admiralty. Besides other interesting matter 

 which is collected in this volume, it contains biographical notices 

 of the professional and literary men who fell a sacrifice to their 

 ardour in the pursuit of science. Of these Professor Smith 

 and Mr. Cranch, the former at the head of the botanical depart- 

 ment, the latter appointed the collector of objects of natural 

 history, were young men of great promise, who had already 

 made considerable advances in their respective pursuits, and 

 whose premature death may be justly regarded a real loss to 

 science. We conceive that we cannot employ the introductory 

 pages of our journal in a more appropriate manner than by giving 

 a brief sketch of the lives of these two individuals. 



Chetien Smith was born of respectable parents, in the year 

 1785, near the town of Drammen, in Norway. He received the 

 first part of his education at Kongsberg, and completed his 

 studies under Prof. Hornemann in the University of Copenhagen. 

 He was destined for the profession of medicine, but he very early 

 in life acquiied a decided taste for botany, and especially for that 

 part of it which belongs to the investigation of the cryptogamic 

 plants. In the prosecution of this object, when only in his 22d 

 year, he undertook a journey into the mountains of Tellemarck, 

 where he made so maliy discoveries of new mosses and lichens as 

 to acquire considerable celebrity for his botanical acumen. He 

 paid a second tisit to these mountains in the year 1812, when, 

 besides botany, he extended his observations to various other 

 departments of natural philosophy, so as to prove that his abili- 

 ties were not exclusively confined to that department which he 

 had selected as his favourite pursuit. The reputation which he 

 acquired by this expedition was such as to point him out to the 

 Patriotic Society of Norway as a proper person to explore a 

 mountainous tract, at that time almost unknown, which separates 

 the valleys of W alders, Guldtransdal, and Romsdal, about the 

 62d degree of latitude. This object he accomplished in a most 

 satisfactory manner, he made many valuable additions to the 

 knowledge of botany and natural history, and, what places his 

 character before us in a new and very interesting point of view, he 

 devoted his attention in an especial manner to ameliorating the 

 condition of the inhabitants of that sequestered district, and 

 endeavoured to teach them the best means of improving the few 

 advantages which were afforded them by a barren soil and an 

 inclement climate. 



By the death of his father, which occurred about this time, 

 Mr. Smith came into possession of a small patrimonial estate, 

 and he determined to devote the independence which he had 

 thus obtained to travelling into foreign countries for the purpose 

 of studying natural history. He had received the appointment 

 of Professor of Botany in the University of Christiania ; and one 



