The next person who offered his services to the Association was Mungo Park, who has acquired such celebrity by the important acquisitions which he made to African Geography. As introductory to the narrative of his first expedition, we present our readers with a brief sketch of his early life.

PARK'S EARLY LIFE.

Mungo Park, the celebrated African traveller, was born at Fowlshiels, near the town of Selkirk, on the 10th September 1771. His father was a respectable farmer on the Duke of Buccleuch's estate; and his mother, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer of the name of Hislop, a woman of great good sense and prudence, who anxiously and faithfully discharged the duties which she owed to a large family of thirteen children, of whom Mungo, the subject of this memoir, was the seventh. Park's father died before his son had won that renown which so honourably distinguishes his name, though not without the satisfaction of witnessing a fair promise of his future distinction; but his mother, after hearing with much pride of her offspring's early achievements, had to lament his untimely fate; consoled, however, by the recollection of his unblemished character, and virtuous conduct, and by the thought of the legacy of fame which he had bequeathed, not to his family alone, but to his country.

With a solicitude for the education of his children, then by no means common among the Scottish farmers, Mr. Park hired a tutor to superintend their education, being anxious not to leave them to such chance instruction as they might receive before they were of a proper age for going to school; thus shewing that he was alive to the advantage of early habits of application and study. The boyhood of Mungo Park was not distinguished by any marks of peculiar talent, though he appears, when sent to Selkirk school, to have paid more than an average share of attention to his studies. Of a thoughtful and reserved disposition, he seldom took a share in the mirthful sports of his school-fellows. He was fond of reading and solitude, often wandering for hours among the hills, and along the banks of his native Yarrow. The legends of border chivalry, many of which still lingered in the district, had not been poured into an unwilling ear; they made a strong impression upon his imagination, and probably contributed, in no inconsiderable degree, to fire his spirit, and excite that love of adventure which so strongly marked his future life. Moreover, occasional gleams of ambition broke forth from amid his quiet thoughtfulness, which shewed, that beneath a cold exterior there lurked a mind of no ordinary cast. This constitutional reserve made him select in his choice of friends, but with those to whom he granted the privilege of intimacy, he was all confidence and frankness.