60 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



our great ancestor, yet I find means, by the distribution of a few 

 five-penny bits, to make them find the way fast enough. A boy, 

 not long ago, brought me a large basket full of crows. I expect 

 his next load will be bull-frogs, if I don't soon issue orders to the 

 contrary." 



The winter of 1804-05 was very severe and the suffering was 

 great. Many scholars were unable to continue in attendance at 

 Wilson's school-house and he was in such financial straits that he 

 was forced to propose giving up his position. The trustees, how- 

 ever, would not hear of it and immediately raised sufficient funds 

 to retain his services. 



In October, 1804, Wilson took a journey mainly on foot to visit 

 his nephew at Ovid, continuing to Niagara Falls and returning 

 to Gray's Ferry in December. This trip inspired his last lengthy 

 poem, which was separately published as The Foresters being in 

 fact a narrative of the trip in verse. The varied scenery also 

 stirred up the old spirit of restlessness, and he wrote to Bartram 

 of the advisability of becoming a traveler "to commence some 

 more extensive expedition, where scenes and subjects entirely new, 

 and generally unknown, might reward my curiosity; and where 

 perhaps my humble acquisitions might add something to the store 

 of knowledge." He also asked how he might best acquire a 

 knowledge of botany and mineralogy. 



Whatever Bartram's advice may have been Wilson seems to 

 have continued his study of scientific literature with redoubled 

 vigor. His letters at this time contain comments and criticisms 

 on current publications which indicate a considerable breadth of 

 knowledge, and early in the following year he was appointed 

 assistant editor of Rees's New Cyclopaedia, then being published 

 by Bradford and Company of Philadelphia. He received a " gen- 

 erous salary" of $900 per year and was at last freed from the 

 drudgery of his school, though for a time at least his work was 

 more confining and necessitated his residence in the heart of the 

 city which he thoroughly detested. 



Almost from the time Wilson set foot on American soil he be- 

 came strongly attached to the country, and his letters to friends at 



