XIV BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



made on a grant of land taken up by his grandfather, who then resided there. His 

 father, Timothy Pickering, jr., died in the twenty-eighth year of his age, leaving to the 

 care of the mother — who lived to a good old age — the two sons, Charles and his 

 brother Edward, who were much united in their earlier and later lives, and were not 

 long divided in death, the subject of this notice having been for only a year the 

 survivor. 



Dr. Pickering was a member of the class of 1823 at Harvard College, but left 

 before graduation. He studied medicine, and took the degree of M. D. at the Har- 

 vard Medical School in 1826. Living in these earlier years at Salem, he was asso- 

 ciated with the late William Oakes in botanical exploration ; and it is believed that 

 the two first explored the White Mountains together, following in the steps of the 

 first botanist to ascend Mount Washington, Dr. Manasseh Cutler of Essex County, 

 and of Francis Boott and Dr. Bigelow. His taste for natural history showed itself 

 in boyhood, both for botany and zoology, and probably decided his choice of a pro- 

 fession. He may have intended to practise medicine for a livelihood when, about the 

 year 1829, he took up his residence at Philadelphia; but it is probable that he was 

 attracted thither more by the facilities that city offered for the pursuit of natural his- 

 tory than by its renown as a centre of medical education. We soon find him acting 

 as one of the curators of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and also as librarian, 

 and with reputation established as the most erudite and sharp-sighted of all the 

 young naturalists of that region. His knowledge then, as in mature years, was 

 encyclopedic and minute ; and his bent was toward a certain subtlety and exhaustive- 

 ness of investigation, which is characteristic of his later writings. Still, in those 

 days in which he was looked up to as an oracle, and consulted as a dictionary by his 

 co-workers, he had published nothing which can now be recalled, except a brief essay 

 on the geographical distribution and leading characteristics of the United States 

 flora, which very few of our day have ever seen. 



When the United States surveying and exploring expedition to the South Seas, 

 which sailed under the command of then Lieutenant Charles Wilkes in the summer 

 of 1.838, was. first organized under Commodore T. Ap-Catesby Jones, about two 

 years before, Dr. Pickering's reputation was such that he was at once selected as the 

 principal zoologist. Subsequently, as the plan expanded, others were added. Yet 

 the scientific fame of that expedition most largely rests upon the collections and the 

 work of Dr. Pickering and his surviving associate, Professor Dana ; the latter taking, 

 in addition to the geology, the Corals and the Crustacea, and other special depart- 

 ments of zoology being otherwise provided for by the accession of Mr. Couthouy and 

 Mr. Peale. Dr. Pickering, although retaining the ichthyology, particularly turned 

 his attention, during the nearly four years' voyage of circumnavigation, to anthro- 

 pology, and to the study of the geographical distribution of animals and plants ; to 

 the latter especially, as affected by or as evidence of the operations, movements, and 

 diffusion of the races of man. To these the subjects of his predilection, and to in- 

 vestigations bearing 'upon them, all his remaining life was assiduously devoted. The 



