313 



some of the letter-press having been found defective and re- 

 jected, the entire publication of that work was retarded for 

 several years ; it was at last completed in 1846 by the late 

 Dr. Lambert, a protege and pupil of Nuttall. 



The preface appended to that work is a beautiful piece of 

 elocution. In reading it, you feel carried along with him 

 through all his adventurous journeys; you partake of his 

 fatigues and dangers, of his feelings of awe in the midst of 

 the wilderness, and of admiration at the sight of the luxuriant 

 vegetation of the tropics ; you enjoy his delight, amounting to 

 ecstasy, whenever he discovers objects that have not met his 

 eye before, and you shudder with him amidst the mountains 

 of ice, which in an unusual array oppose his passage around 

 Cape Horn, the dreary extremity of South America. At last, 

 you see him landing again on the shores of the Atlantic, and 

 in his transports of joy, he exclaims : " Once more I hail those 

 delightful scenes of nature, with which I have been so long 

 associated," Then, he closes his elegant peroration with this 

 warm farewell to this country, " But the oft told tale ap- 

 proaches to its close, and I must bid adieu to the New World, 

 its sylvan scenes, its mountains, wilds, and plains, — and 

 henceforth, in the evening of my career, I return, almost an 

 exile, to the land of my nativity !" 



Poor Nuttall ! Yes, indeed, he may well say " almost an 

 exile, to the land of his nativity." He had left it thirty-four 

 years past, and was returning almost a stranger to its people 

 and customs. He was strongly attached to the United States. 

 Here were almost all his associations ; he had friends who 

 were dear to him ; and, wherever he went, whether in the 

 valley or on the mountain, by the shores of the sea or the 

 margin of the quiet stream, he felt surrounded by old ac- 

 quaintances, his dearest flowers ; or met, by chance, a new 

 object for his admiration. 



But an uncle, without family of his own, had bequeathed 

 to him an estate, called Nutgrove, in the neighborhood of 

 Liverpool, and he must go and take possession of it. The 

 will was incumbered with a clause most distasteful to him, 

 requiring him to reside at least nine months of the year in 

 England for the remainder of his life. He hesitated, for a 



VOL. VII. — 2 P 



