ALEXANDER WILSON. 



WILSON arrived in Philadelphia in 

 1794, and his first experiences of 

 America were thoroughly disappointing. 

 No employment coidd be secured at weav- 

 ing, and although he took any work he 

 could get, he found it very hard to make 

 a living. 



In the course of the next four years he 

 tried his hands at many things, became a 

 pedlar again, and was fairly success- 

 ful, and was in turn copper-plate engraver, 

 pedlar, schoolmaster, wandering a great 

 deal, and in allhis wanderings studying the 

 habits of man and beast and bird, as far as 

 he had opportunity, keeping a diary of his 

 observations. As schoolmaster he used 

 all his opportunities for self-instruction, 

 and advanced considerably in mathematics, 

 so that he was enabled to take up survey- 

 ing, and add to his income by practicing 

 it out of school hours. 



But he drifted away from Philadelphia 

 through New Jersey, and in 1801 we find 

 him keeping school in Bloomfield, which he 

 describes as " a settlement of canting, 

 preaching and praying, and snivelling, ig- 

 norant Presbyterians, who pay their minis- 

 ter twelve hundred and fifty dollars a year 

 for preaching twice a week, and their 

 teacher forty dollars a quarter for the 

 most spirit-sinking laborious work." 



His bright dreams had become clouded, 

 and he was meditating the possibility of re- 

 turning to old Scotia, when he obtained a 

 better appointment as schoolmaster on the 

 Schuylkill, near Gray's Ferry, about four 

 miles from Philadelphia. 



In the first letter he wrote to his parents, 

 after landing in America, he made mention 

 of the birds, whose rich coloring had struck 

 him as in strong contrast to the more 

 sober plumage of birds of the old country, 

 and in all his subsequent wandering he had 

 made such notes of those he saw, as would 



suggest themselves to a novice; but settled 

 in his appointment on the Schuylkill, he 

 soon made the acquaintance of his near 

 neighbor, the venerable Bartram, a dis- 

 tinguished naturalist, who had a charming 

 place on the western bank of the Schuyl- 

 kill, known as"Bartram's botanical gar- 

 den." 



In this charming place, with his condi- 

 tion in life improved, and enjoying the 

 daily intimacy of a man of Bartram's cul- 

 ture, life presented itself from quite a new 

 and more cheerful aspect. He saw the 

 amusement of his leisure subjected to 

 order, and his newly-found friend, a mas- 

 ter of the science, which he was both quali- 

 fied to teach, and ready to impart to one 

 who, like Wilson, felt a greater charm 

 in the contemplation and study of nature 

 than in the pursuits of men. 



Mr. Bartram induced him to take up 

 drawing, but his first attempts at landscape 

 and the human figure discouraged him; 

 however, he was prevailed on to make a 

 second attempt on birds and other objects 

 of natural history, and this time he suc- 

 ceeded altogether beyond his anticipations. 

 But the duties of his profession appear to 

 have occupied the whole day, his drawing 

 was mostly done by candlelight, and that, 

 he complained entailed the sacrifice of the 

 pleasures of social life. 



He consequently did not apply himself 

 to this new study very assiduously; never- 

 theless he began to acquire proficiency, 

 and, having an ambitious turn of mind, he 

 compared his drawings with those in such 

 works of natural history as he could get 

 hold of, and the idea of illustrating the 

 ornithology of the United States presented 

 itself to him as a task he was capable of 

 achieving. 



Long and earnestly he pondered over the 

 subject before he had sufficient confidence 



