Page:The Story of the House of Cassell (book).djvu/229

 Campster, in Caithness, to distinguish him from the earlier Robert Brown, the botanist. Born in 1842, he had a distinguished career in Edinburgh University, and ultimately devoted himself particularly to Botany, Geology, Zoology, and Geography in its widest sense. He carried out extensive explorations in Greenland and several of the Arctic islands, and was the first to point out the cause of the discoloration of the Arctic Ocean. He also conducted Government Expeditions into the unknown interior of Vancouver Island, and explored, at the hazard of his life, the primeval forest in vast regions of North-West America, now covered with thriving towns and villages. Brown Range, Mount Brown, and Brown's River in Vancouver Island, and the peninsula of Cape Brown in Spitzbergen perpetuate his name on the atlas. In 1870 the University of Rostock conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Letters in recognition of his services to science and geography. Later in life Dr. Brown became one of the foremost authorities on Morocco, a country with which much travel had made him intimate, and his monograph on the subject, compiled in conjunction with Sir Lambert Playfair, is a lasting monument of his knowledge of the Moors and their land.

As an expositor, Robert Brown wielded the wand of an enchanter. The first of the great books which he wrote for the House was "Races of Mankind," in five volumes, afterwards expanded into "Peoples of the World." "Countries of the World" was published in 1876–81, "Science for All" in 1877–82, and "The Earth and its Story," based on Kirchhoff's "Allgemeine Erdkunde," in 1887–88. Mr. Thomas Seccombe, in his article on Dr. Brown in the "Dictionary of National Biography," justly says of these works that they "were commended in the Press, proved widely popular, and did much to disseminate the results of geographical science." Dr. Brown was also a spreader of the light through the daily Press, being on the staff of the Standard as a leader-writer. There can be little doubt that his life was cut