BULLETIN OF DENISON UNIVERSITY. 151 
adopted country and in Switzerland only proved that he had taken 
root in Germany, and in 1812 he returned to Berlin with the purpose 
of giving his life to the study of nature, especially botany. The pur- 
pose had been formed in Switzerland while with the literary family of 
the famous Madame De Stael, in company with whose son Auguste 
Chamisso had taken his first botanizing excursions near Coppet. 
The years 1812 to 1815 were spent at the new University of Ber- 
lin in the most untiring study of the natural sciences. No time was 
spent in verse making. The period of Chamisso’s special studies saw 
the tremendous uprising of Germany against Napoleon’s power, now 
shaken by the disaster in Russia, yet still formidable. Germany was 
chiefly the scene of the struggle. Chamisso naturally had no place in 
it, and remained passive in the midst of one of the most determined 
and enthusiastic efforts ever made by a people for its freedom. Ber- 
lin became unendurable to him ; he retired to the country. But even 
here and in the midst of his beloved studies he could not forget the 
terrible conflict in progress. He took up his pen again, and wrote the 
story Peter Schlcmihl. This expresses, some think, fancifully but for- 
cibly, the suffering of his sensitive soul at being “a. man without a 
country.” It expresses mor.e plainly his longing to travel and study 
nature and thus forget human dissension. The opportunity soon 
came and was eagerly seized. 
To gain glory as a patron of the sciences, the Avealthy Russian 
chancellor. Count Romanzoff, Avas at this time preparing to send a ship 
on a voyage of discovery into the South Pacific and to find the north- 
east passage from Behring’s Strait into the Atlantic. Chamisso ob- 
tained a position as naturalist of the expedition and on August 9, 1815, 
reported at Copenhagen on board the Rurik, a two masted vessel of 
only 180 tons, which was his home for the next three years. The cap- 
tain was Otto von Kotzebue. 
The voyage which gave to his scientific labors definite direction 
and material for the rest of his life, was Chamisso’s first experience at 
sea. It brought him first to Plymouth, a few days after the captive 
