234 



and of a great number of Memoirs, chiefly in the Annales da Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle, which were for the most part descriptive of 

 new genera and species of plants cultivated in the Jardin du Roi, 

 the management of which had devolved upon him conjointly with 

 MM. de Jussieu and Thouin. 



M. Desfontaines was a person of mild and inoffensive manners, 

 and perfectly free from those feelings of jealousy which tend to pro- 

 voke either opposition or controversy. For a considerable period be- 

 fore his death he laboured under the anliction of total blindness, 

 and was thus debarred from the continuation of those pursuits which 

 had constituted at once the delight and the business of his life : and 

 it was a fortunate circumstance that a visitation of Providence, 

 which under ordinary circumstances would have produced a spirit 

 of repining and discontent, was deprived of more than half its bit- 

 terness and severity by the spirit of contentment and resignation 

 with which it was met. 



At the conclusion of my Address to you, Gentlemen, last year, I felt 

 called upon, at once by my subject and my feelings, to pass from the 

 notice of the certain losses which the Society had sustained during 

 the preceding year, to one which circumstances at that time rendered 

 too probable. The long absence of Captain Ross and his companions, 

 the perilous enterprise upon which they were engaged, the fearful 

 alternative of shipwreck or famine which seemed their almost ine- 

 vitable fate, had left few elements for hope, except in those who 

 steadily trust in the unlimited resources of Providence to accomplish 

 its ends, however remote and wonderful. I rejoice at the unlooked- 

 for accomplishment of that hope, and I know that you, Gentlemen, 

 one and all, will equally participate with me in these feelings. 

 Captain Ross and his brave companions were "lost, and are found 

 and I trust that the enthusiastic welcome which has met them upon 

 their return will convince them that the heart of their country is that 

 of a parent. 



I forbear, Gentlemen, to mix up other topics with the expression 

 of those feelings to which this happy event naturally gives rise, and 

 however important may be the contributions to geography or to sci- 

 ence which these perilous and painful adventures may have pro- 

 duced, I consider them, in the present condition of my feelings, but 

 as dust in the balance, when compared with the knowledge of the 

 important fact of the recovery of our long lost brethren. 



Permit me then, Gentlemen, in your name as well as in my own, 

 to offer to Captain Ross, whom I rejoice to see amongst us, our most 

 cordial congratulations upon his happy return, and to express our 

 hope that the sympathy and respect of his countrymen which he has 

 already experienced, and which, I trust, he will retain for the re- 

 mainder of his days, will form one of the best compensations for the 

 long sufferings which he has endured, and for the incomplete suc- 

 cess of an enterprise presenting difficulties from the certain operation 

 of the laws of the physical world, which not merely baffle, but al- 

 most annihilate, the powers of the bravest, the strongest, and the 

 most persevering of men. 



