444 CHARLES PICKERING. 



each to its original home. Detached observations have ah-eady been 

 given in the twenty-first and succeeding chapters of my ' Races of 

 Man ; ' but, when such observations are extended to all parts of the 

 globe, the accumulated facts require some plan of arrangement. A 

 list will naturally assume the chronological order, beginning with 

 Egypt, the country that contains the earliest 'records of the human 

 family, and receding geographically from the same central point of 

 reference." 



Then, starting with " 4713 B.C.," and "4491 B.C., beginning of the 

 first Grfeat Year in the Egyptian reckoning," he begins the list, which, 

 under the running heading of'' Chronological Arrangement of Accom- 

 panying Animals and Plants," first treats of the vegetables and animals 

 mentioned in the book of" Genesis, and of the " Commencement of 

 Bedouin or Nomadic Life in the Desert ; " passes to the '' Colonization 

 of Egypt," and to critical notices (philological and natural-historical) 

 of its plants and animals, as well their earliest mention as their latest 

 known migrations; reaches the beginning of the Christian era at about 

 the 470th page; and so proceeds, till our wonder at the jtatience and the 

 erudition of the writer passes all bounds. We are ready to agree with 

 a biographer who declares that our associate was '' a living encyclo- 

 paedia of knowledge," — that there never was a naturalist " who had 

 made more extended and minute original explorations ; " and we fully 

 agree that " no one ever had less a passion or a gift for display ; " " that 

 be was engaged during a long life in the profoundest studies, asking 

 neither fame nor money, nor any other reward, but simply the privi- 

 lege of gaining knowledge and of storing it up in convenient forms for 

 the service of others ; " that " tlie love of knowledge was the one pas- 

 sion of his life," and that " lie asked no richer satisfaction than to search 

 for it as for hidden treasure." He was singularly retiring and reticent, 

 very dry in ordinary intercourse, but never cynical ; delicate and keen ' 

 in perception and judgment ; just, upright, and exemplary in every 

 relation ; and to those who knew him well communicative, sympathetic, 

 and even genial. In the voyage of circumnavigation, he was the soul 

 of industry, and a hardy explorer. The published narrative of the 

 commander shows that he took a part in every fatiguing excursion 

 or perilous ascent. Perhaps the most singular peril (recorded in the 

 narrative) was that in which this light-framed man once found himself 

 on the Peruvian Andes, when he was swooped upon by a condor, evi- 

 dently minded to carry off the naturalist who was contemplating the 

 magnificent ornithological siiecimen. 



Dr. Pickering married in the year 1851, and leaves a widow, but 

 no children to inherit this honored name. 



