ALEXANDER WILSON 63 



Savannah, in which latter city he succeeded in bringing the total 

 of his subscription list up to the requisite two hundred and fifty; 

 " having," to quote his own words, " visited all the towns within 

 one hundred miles of the Atlantic from Maine to Georgia and 

 done as much for this bantling book of mine as ever author did 

 for any progeny of his brain." His experience in the south was 

 much like that in the north. "In Annapolis," he writes, "I passed 

 my book through both Houses of the Legislature; the wise men 

 of Maryland stared and gaped, from bench to bench; but having 

 never heard of such a thing as one hundred and twenty dollars 

 for a book, the ayes for subscribing were none." 



In Charleston he found such "listlessness and want of energy" 

 that he could get no one to draw him up a list of likely subscribers 

 and "was obliged to walk the streets and pick out those houses, 

 which, from their appearance indicated wealth and taste in the 

 occupants, and introduce myself." However, his task was ac- 

 complished, and flushed with success he embarked for Philadel- 

 phia in March, 1809, ready to push the publication of his volumes 

 with all possible haste. 



Wilson's canvassing trips were profitable in other ways than the 

 securing of subscribers. His scientific acquaintances had hitherto 

 been mainly limited to Philadelphia or to such visitors as he 

 met at Bartram's hospitable mansion. He knew Thomas Say, 

 George Ord, Benjamin S. Barton, and the Peales, while he had 

 met Michaux and Muhlenberg, the botanists. Now, however, in 

 every town he sought out those interested in Natural History. As 

 he himself put it: "Whatever may be the result of these matters, 

 [subscriptions] I shall not sit down with folded hands. ... I am 

 fixing correspondents in every corner of these northern regions, 

 like so many pickets and outposts, so that scarcely a wren or tit 

 shall be able to pass along, from New York to Canada, but I shall 

 get intelligence of it. . . ." 



Notable among his new acquaintances was Abbott of Georgia, 

 famous for his publication on the insects of his native state. With 

 him he arranged for the forwarding of such southern birds as he 

 was personally unable to secure as well as any that were in Abbott's 



