Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Montaigne de Nogaret, Charles Stanislas

MONTAIGNE DE NOGARET, Charles Stanislas (mon-tang), West Indian naturalist, b. in St. Croix, W. I., in 1667 ; d. in Paris in 1742. His mother took him in 1672 to Paris, where he received his education in the College Louis le Grand. In 1689, having obtained a pension in consideration of the services of his ancestors, he resolved to devote his life to science. He was assistant demonstrator in the laboratory of the Academy of sciences when he was sent in 1701 to explore the West Indies and Guiana, and to study the mineralogy and botany of those countries. Sailing from Brest in May, 1703, he visited successively the greater part of the West Indian islands, and, passing to the continent, explored the Guianas till 1717, remaining altogether fourteen years in America. He formed a collection of minerals and plants, the greater part of which he lost in a shipwreck on his return to France, but he saved his papers and drawings. He published •' Etudes sur la mineralogie des Antilles" (Paris, 1720); "Geodesic de I'ile de Saint Croix" (1721); "Plan de mineralogie de la Guiane" (1724); "Études sur les gisements mineralogiques des Antilles" (1730); "Herbier de la flore des Antilles explique " (1733) ; and " Description des couches mineralogiques de I'ile de Saint Domingue" (1735).