PREFACE. O 



Although the lives of studious men may, gene- 

 rally speaking, present fewer striking incidents than 

 those of warriors, navigators, and politicians, yet 

 the memoirs of naturalists are always extremely in- 

 teresting, on account of the connexion in which 

 they are necessarily placed with whatever is curious, 

 beautiful, or sublime in creation. Some of them, 

 too, will be found to have occupied a high station in 

 society; others to have forced their way through num- 

 berless obstacles, before obtaining the end of their 

 ambition ; while a third class are seen perishing in 

 the midst of their career, the victims of indiscretion, 

 or of neglect. Certain highly-gifted individuals, 

 again, shine as bright luminaries in tlie firmament of 

 science, and extend their influence over the whole of 

 the civilized world ; while the labours of nearly all 

 have been in some degree productive of good. Per- 

 haps there is no order of men to whose charge so 

 little positive evil can be laid; and if their stu- 

 dies do not always elevate the mind above the 

 corroding cares and cankering jealousies of life, they 

 at least tend to bring it into a more immediate re- 

 lation with the great Creator and Governor of the 

 universe. 



It is not therefore imagined that the general reader 

 will find the following sketches destitute of interest, 

 even although he should possess only a superficial 

 knowledge of the principles and phenomena to which 

 they refer. The professional student, on the other 

 hand, cannot fail to obtain in them information 

 which will prove of the utmost value to him, whe- 

 ther viewed as a guide, or as a stimulus to exertion ; 

 and even the accomplished naturalist may derive 

 pleasure from the general review of the labours of 



