EXPLORING XATL'RAMSTS. 10^3 



delightful than the anticipation of vacation lime, or a coming periotl of 

 suspended labor. The freedom obtained is used at once to place him 

 in communion with the wild haunts of birds and animals, and to sur- 

 round himself with the wild forest, where he can hear the refreshing 

 murmur of the wind, as it breathes through the lofty tree tops. It be- 

 gets impatience in such an one, when, during the frigid season, he reads 

 the memoirs of the wandering naturalist, and of his exploits in collect- 

 ing and observing, as of our Dr. Godman or the more celebrated Gilbert 

 While. But the investing garment of snow will not melt at a breath 

 from the soil, nor will the ice flow away from the river, that the earth 

 may open out its treasures of life to his eager contemplation. Winter 

 is the season for study — identify or describe the materials you may al- 

 ready have gathered — and if time serve, plan an expedition for the open- 

 ing year. Carefully consider and decide upon the place you propose to 

 visit, the object of your pursuit and study, the note book, instruments 

 for observation, and other needful appliances, which may be required, 

 and above all learn well, from all accessible sources, what others have 

 done on the same ground before you, or you may chance to make dis- 

 coveries, which will prove to be any thin^ but new. 



To the unaccustomed disciple of Limisus nothing is easier than to 

 get into a scrape, when impelled by an overflowing enthusiasm with 

 very little discretion. . Released from work and with a day before him, 

 like one possessed, he rushes forth into the suburbs, becomes at once 

 guilty of extravagance in feats of walking against time ; he crosses this 

 farmers wheat field, and another's rye, and is pursued and hallooed at 

 by men, dogs and horses. He becomes entangled in marshy or swampy 

 places, where the tall trees over-arching shut out the sun, and the brush 

 and brambles, right and left, before and behind, obstruct his progress in 

 any direction : he becomes filled with wonder how he ever got in, and 

 how he will get out. A snake under his feet hisses at him as his eyes 

 are directed upwards at a bird's nest, or a lizzard streaks along a fence 

 rail, under which he is disenterring some snails. He ploughs the shal- 

 low stream, with denuded extermities, up and down its centre, to find 

 out the lurking habits of nudibanchiate mollusks, and goes home with a 

 bad cough and sore throat, for which his wife prescribes stopping at 

 home and Sherman's Lozenges. Once more, he has a capital chance of 

 studying the eternal town-view out of his sick room window, or the fa- 

 miliar figure on the papered wall. 



Aviod all these awkward catastrophies, by reflection before hand as 

 to whither you would go and what for. Mishaps of this description 

 may spoil the forthcoming of a zealous naturalist. An old stager in 



