CHAELES PICKERING. 443 



pological investigator, those occupied in early times by the race to which 

 we belong, and by the peoples with which the Aryan race has been 

 most in contact. Desirous to extend his personal observations as far 

 as possible. Dr. Pickering, a year after the return of the expedition, 

 and at his own charges, crossed the Atlantic, visited Egypt, Arabia, 

 the eastern part of Africa, and western and northern India. Then, 

 in 18-i8, he published his volume on "The Races of Man, and their 

 Geographical Distribution," being the ninth volume of the Reports 

 of the Wilkes' Exploring Expedition. Some time afterwards, he pre- 

 pared, for the fifteenth volume of this series, an extensive work on 

 the Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants. But, in the 

 course of the printing, the appropi-iations by Congress intermitted or 

 ceased, and the publication of the results of this celebrated expedition 

 was suspended. Publication it could hardly be called : for Congress 

 printed only one hundred copies, in a sumptuous form, for presentation 

 to States and foreign courts ; and then the several afuthors were allowed 

 to use the types and copperplates for printing as many copies as they 

 required and could pay for. Under this privilege. Dr. Pickering 

 brought out in 1854 a small edition of the first part of his essay, — 

 perhaps the most important part, — and in 1876 a more bulky por- 

 tion, " On Plants and Animals in their Wild State," which is largely 

 a transcript of the note-book memoranda as jotted down at the time 

 of observation or collection. 



These are all his publications, excepting some short communications 

 to scientific journals and the proceedings of learned societies to which 

 he belonged. But he is known to have been long and laboriously 

 engaged upon a work for which, under his exhaustive treatment, a 

 lifetime seems hardly sufficient ; a digest, in fact, of all that is known 

 of all the animals and plants with which civilized man has had to do 

 from the earliest period traceable by records. When Dr. Pickering 

 died, he was carrying this work through the press at his own individual 

 expense, had already in type five or six hundred quarto pages, and it 

 is understood that the remainder, of about equal extent, is ready for 

 the printer. This formidable treatise is entitled " Man's Record of 

 his own Existence." Its character is indicated in the brief introductory 

 sentences : — 



" In the distribution of species over the globe, the order of Nature 

 has been obscured through the interference of man. He has trans- 

 ported animals and plants to countries where they were previously 

 unknown ; extirpating the forest and cultivating the soil, until at 

 length the face of the globe itself is changed. To ascertain the amount 

 of this interference, displaced species must be distinguished, and traced 



