ALEXANDER WILSON 59 



that will assist me in this agreeable amusement. ... I declare 

 that the face of an owl, and the back of a lark, have put me to a 

 nonplus; and if Miss Nancy will be so obliging as to try her hand 

 on the last mentioned, I will furnish her with one in good order, 

 and will copy her drawing with the greatest pleasure; having 

 spent almost a week on two different ones, and afterwards de- 

 stroyed them both, and got nearly in the slough of desppnd." 



The next two years passed rapidly at Gray's Ferry. Wilson 

 concentrated his attention upon the collecting and drawing of 

 birds, while his leisure moments were spent in the company of his 

 friend and adviser, for whom his love and esteem were constantly 

 increasing. "I confess," he writes, "that I was always an enthu- 

 siast in my admiration of the rural scenery of Nature; but since 

 your example and encouragement have set me to attempt to imitate 

 her productions, I see new beauties in every bird, plant, or flower 

 I contemplate; and find my ideas of the incomprehensible First 

 Cause still more exalted, the more minutely I examine His work." 

 And again regarding some more drawings sent to Bartram, " Criti- 

 cise these, my dear friend, without fear of offending me this 

 will instruct, but not discourage me. For there is not among all 

 our naturalists one who knows so well what they are, and how 

 they ought to be represented. In the mean time accept of my 

 best wishes for your happiness wishes as sincere as ever one hu- 

 man being breathed for another. To your advice and encourag- 

 ing encomiums I am indebted for these few specimens, and for all 

 that will follow. They may yet tell posterity that I was honored 

 with your friendship, and that to your inspiration they owe their 

 existance." 



Meanwhile the school went on and the scholars became inter- 

 ested in gratifying their master's tastes. "I have had live crows, 

 hawks and owls, oppossums, squirrels, snakes, and lizards," 

 writes Wilson, "so that my room has sometimes reminded me of 

 Noah's ark ; but Noah had a wife in one corner of it, and in this 

 particular our parallel does not altogether tally. I receive every 

 subject of natural history that is brought to me and though they 

 do not march into my ark from all quarters, as they did that of 



