ORIGINAL .MEMBERS. 



131 



Superior. Here they engaged two Canadian " voyageurs/' 

 and travelled on foot through the backwoods to the upper 

 waters of the St. Croix River. This they descended in a 

 birch-bark canoe to the Mississippi. Sclater subsequently 

 published an account of this journey in the third volume 

 of 'Illustrated Travels.' Returning by steamboat and 

 railway to Philadelphia, he spent a month studying the 

 splendid collection of birds belonging to the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences in that city, where he formed the acquaint- 

 ance of John Cassin, Joseph Leidy, John Le Conte, and other 

 then well-known members of that Society. He returned to 

 England shortly before Christmas 1856. For some years 

 after this he lived in London, practising occasionally at the 

 bar, but always at Avork on natural history. He was a 

 constant attendant at the meetings of the Zoological Society 

 of London, of which he was elected a Fellow in 1850, and 

 in 1857 became a Member of the Council. In 1858, as is 

 stated in the ' Short History ot: the B. 0. U.,' he took a 

 prominent share in founding ' The Ibis/ and became its 

 first Editor. 



In January 1859, Sclater made a short excursion to Tunis 

 and Eastern Algeria, in company with his great friend, E. C. 

 Taylor. They visited the breeding-places of the Vultures 

 and Kites in the interior, and gathered many bird-skins, 

 returning to London at the end of March. 



At this time Mr. D. W. Mitchell, Secretary of the Zoo- 

 logical Society,'was about to vacate his post, in order to take 

 charge of the newly instituted Jardin d'Acclimatation in 

 Paris. For his successor Sclater was selected by Owen and 

 Yarrell, then influential members of the Council, and was 

 unanimously elected at the Anniversary Meeting on April 

 30th, 1859. 



He found it necessary to devote himself entirely for 

 several years to the reorganization of the affairs of the 

 Society. The ' Proceedings ' and ' Transactions ' Avere at 

 that time several years in arrear — they were brought up 

 to date ; the ' Garden Guide,' which was out of print, was 

 re-written : the large staff at the Gardens was re-arranged 



