Robert Brown (explorer)
Encyclopedia
Robert Brown was a Scottish
scientist, explorer, and author.
He was born in Camster, Caithness
, and studied in the universities of Edinburgh
, Leyden
, Copenhagen
, and Rostock
. He took the habit of referring to his home town, Campster (Campsterianus), to distinguish himself from his famous contemporary of the same name: Robert Brown of Montrose
. He visited Spitsbergen
, Greenland
, and the western shore of Baffin Bay
while still an undergraduate, and subsequently carried on scientific investigations among the islands of the Pacific
and on the Venezuela
n, Alaska
n, and Bering
shores, leading an expedition to map the interior of Vancouver Island
and writing much on the fauna
and flora
of those countries.
in the spring of 1863 to explore the Colony of Vancouver Island
. In the early summer of 1863, he explored from Barkley Sound
to Kyuquot
. The following year he accepted the leadership of the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition
, a venture which covered about 2000 km over four and a half months. The expedition named many of the mountains, rivers and lakes of Vancouver Island
.; members of expedition, which included Frederick Whymper
as its artist, insisted that Browns River be named after him. They found gold at the Leech River
, causing much excitement, but the results were limited to $60,000. Brown attributed more importance to their discovery of coal in the Comox Valley
.
With Edward Whymper
, brother of Frederick, he attempted to penetrate the inland ice of Greenland in 1867, and made many discoveries concerning its nature which were later confirmed by Robert Peary
. He traveled in the Barbary States of North Africa
, and became the foremost British authority on Morocco
almost by accident, having gone there for a holiday but having found himself unable to enjoy idleness.
He was a lecturer on geology
, botany
, and zoology
in Edinburgh and Glasgow
, and was a member of many learned societies
in England
, America
, and on the Continent
. He was president of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, and a member of the council of the Royal Geographical Society
.
Brown moved to London
in 1876 and spent the rest of his life writing, earning his living as a journalist. In addition to botany, he also wrote prolifically on zoology, geology, and geography, for both learned and popular audiences. One example of this ability to write for generalists and specialists is the extensive commentary he contributed to a 1896 reprint of the 1807 slave narrative
of John R. Jewitt
, in which Brown reflects on the changes in the lives of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
from the time of the first European explorers in the late eighteenth century, to Maquinna
's chiefdom and Jewitt's captivity, to his own explorations in 1863, when intertribal warfar was still rife, to the situation in the mid-1890s, by when many of the nations were on the brink of extinction.
Brown had been a strong, confident, fun-loving young man, but worked too hard, and was both incapable of relaxing and at the same time exhausted by London life. He grew jaded that his best work went unrecognised, and died 26 October 1895, only 53 years old, working to the night of his death as a writer..
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
scientist, explorer, and author.
He was born in Camster, Caithness
Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
, and studied in the universities of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, Leyden
Leiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
, Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
, and Rostock
University of Rostock
The University of Rostock is the university of the city Rostock, in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.Founded in 1419, it is the oldest and largest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Sea area...
. He took the habit of referring to his home town, Campster (Campsterianus), to distinguish himself from his famous contemporary of the same name: Robert Brown of Montrose
Robert Brown (botanist)
Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...
. He visited Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...
, Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, and the western shore of Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea...
while still an undergraduate, and subsequently carried on scientific investigations among the islands of the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
and on the Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n, Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
n, and Bering
Bering Sea
The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....
shores, leading an expedition to map the interior of Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
and writing much on the fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
and flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
of those countries.
Exploration and travel
Brown arrived at Fort VictoriaFort Victoria
Fort Victoria may refer to:* Fort Victoria, Alberta, Canada* Fort Victoria , Canada* Fort Victoria * Fort Victoria , England* Masvingo, Zimbabwe, named Fort Victoria until 1982...
in the spring of 1863 to explore the Colony of Vancouver Island
Colony of Vancouver Island
The Colony of Vancouver Island , was a crown colony of British North America from 1849 to 1866, after which it was united with British Columbia. The united colony joined the Dominion of Canada through Confederation in 1871...
. In the early summer of 1863, he explored from Barkley Sound
Barkley Sound
Barkley Sound, also known historically as Barclay Sound, is south of Ucluelet and north of Bamfield on the west coast of Vancouver Island and forms the entrance to the Alberni Inlet...
to Kyuquot
Kyuquot
Kyuquot, meaning "people of Kayukw" in the Nuu-chah-nulth language, may refer to:* Kyuquot, British Columbia, an unincorporated settlement on northwestern Vancouver Island, British Columbia...
. The following year he accepted the leadership of the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition
Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition
The Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition explored areas of the Colony of Vancouver Island that remained unknown outside the capital of Victoria and settlements in Nanaimo and the Cowichan Valley. The expedition went as far north as the Comox Valley over four and one half months during the summer...
, a venture which covered about 2000 km over four and a half months. The expedition named many of the mountains, rivers and lakes of Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
.; members of expedition, which included Frederick Whymper
Frederick Whymper
Frederick Whymper was a British artist and explorer.Whymper was born in London in 1838, the eldest son of Elizabeth Whitworth Claridge and Josiah Wood Whymper, a celebrated wood-engraver and artist...
as its artist, insisted that Browns River be named after him. They found gold at the Leech River
Leechtown, British Columbia
-Location:The site now is only a clearing in the forest, with little remaining except for some rotting foundations, and is accessible by bike or foot on the Galloping Goose Trail, which follows a portion of the former Canadian National rail line between Victoria and the town of Youbou, on the north...
, causing much excitement, but the results were limited to $60,000. Brown attributed more importance to their discovery of coal in the Comox Valley
Comox Valley
The Comox Valley is a region on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada that includes the city of Courtenay, the town of Comox, the village of Cumberland, and the unincorporated settlements of Royston, Union Bay, Fanny Bay, Black Creek and Merville. The communities of Denman...
.
With Edward Whymper
Edward Whymper
Edward Whymper , was an English illustrator, climber and explorer best known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. On the descent four members of the party were killed.-Early life:...
, brother of Frederick, he attempted to penetrate the inland ice of Greenland in 1867, and made many discoveries concerning its nature which were later confirmed by Robert Peary
Robert Peary
Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole...
. He traveled in the Barbary States of North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, and became the foremost British authority on Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
almost by accident, having gone there for a holiday but having found himself unable to enjoy idleness.
Lecturing and writing
Before he was 30 years old Brown had written over 30 academic papers and an advanced textbook on botany, in addition to more popularising works. He wrote up his Vancouver Island travels and was awarded a doctorate based on this by the University of Rostock in 1869.He was a lecturer on geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, and zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
in Edinburgh and Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
, and was a member of many learned societies
Learned society
A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and on the Continent
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. He was president of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, and a member of the council of the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
.
Brown moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1876 and spent the rest of his life writing, earning his living as a journalist. In addition to botany, he also wrote prolifically on zoology, geology, and geography, for both learned and popular audiences. One example of this ability to write for generalists and specialists is the extensive commentary he contributed to a 1896 reprint of the 1807 slave narrative
Slave narrative
The slave narrative is a literary form which grew out of the written accounts of enslaved Africans in Britain and its colonies, including the later United States, Canada and Caribbean nations...
of John R. Jewitt
John R. Jewitt
John Rodgers Jewitt was an armourer who entered the historical record with his memoirs about the 28 months he spent as a captive of Maquinna of the Nuu-chah-nulth people on the Pacific Northwest Coast of what is now Canada...
, in which Brown reflects on the changes in the lives of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those historical peoples. They are now situated within the Canadian Province of British Columbia and the U.S...
from the time of the first European explorers in the late eighteenth century, to Maquinna
Maquinna
Maquinna was the chief of the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Nootka Sound, during the heyday of the maritime fur trade in the 1780s and 1790s on the Pacific Northwest Coast...
's chiefdom and Jewitt's captivity, to his own explorations in 1863, when intertribal warfar was still rife, to the situation in the mid-1890s, by when many of the nations were on the brink of extinction.
Brown had been a strong, confident, fun-loving young man, but worked too hard, and was both incapable of relaxing and at the same time exhausted by London life. He grew jaded that his best work went unrecognised, and died 26 October 1895, only 53 years old, working to the night of his death as a writer..
Publications
In addition to many scientific papers, articles, and reviews in various languages, his publications included:- Manual of Botany (1874)
- Science for All (five volumes, 1877–82)
- The World Its Cities And Peoples (volumes IV-IX, 1882–85)
- The Story of Africa and Its Explorers (four volumes, 1892–95; new edition, 1911)
- The adventures of John Jewitt : only survivor of the crew of the ship Boston during a captivity of nearly three years among the Indians of Nootka Sound in Vancouver Island (1896) reprint with notes and 30-page introduction by Robert Brown at Internet Archive.
Sources
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- A four-page description of his life and work, by an "A.J.W.", as preface to The adventures of John Jewitt, a memoir to which Brown had contributed extensive commentary. Also includes a photographic portrait of him in 1870. Full text at Internet Archive.