1 87511 A Neglected Naturalist 



As a boy also he read many books of travel, those 

 of Captain Cook, Levaillant, and Pallas especially, 

 so that his soul was fired with the desire "to be a 

 great traveler like them." "And I became such," 

 he adds tersely, having framed his life motto in two 

 lines of doggerel: 



Un voyagexir des le berceau^ 

 Je le serai jusqiiau tomheau. 



No more remarkable figure has ever appeared in Rafimsque 

 the annals of American science. Clad in "a long, ^^^^^^^^ 

 loose coat of yellow nankeen, stained yellower by 

 the clay of the roads, and variegated by the juices 

 of plants," he arrived in Kentucky — on foot — a 

 century ago, a notebook in one hand, a hickory 

 stick in the other, his capacious pockets full of wild 

 flowers, shells, and toads. 



In his sketch entitled "A Neglected Naturalist," 

 Copeland said: 



To many of our untiring naturalists, who sixty years ago 

 accepted the perils and privations of the Far West to collect 

 and describe its animals and plants, we have given the only 

 reward they sought — the grateful remembrance of their work. 

 Audubon died full of riches and honor, with the knowledge 

 that his memory would be cherished as long as birds should 

 sing. Wilson is the "father of American ornithology," and his 

 mistakes and faults are forgotten in our admiration of his 

 great achievements. Le Sueur is remembered as the "first to 

 explore the ichthyology of the great American Lakes." Labor- 

 ing with these, and greatest of them all in respect to the extent 

 and range of his accomplishments, is one whose name has 

 been nearly forgotten, and who is oftenest mentioned in the 

 field of his best labors with pity or contempt. 



It is, nevertheless, true that while, as Agassiz 

 said, Rafinesque "was a better man than he ap- 



C 143 '} 



