LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



button of Animals and Plants. But, in the course of the 

 printing, the appropriations by Congress intermitted or 

 ceased, and the publication of the results of this cele- 

 brated expedition was suspended. Publication it could 

 hardly be called, for Congress printed only one hundred 

 copies, in a sumptuous form, for presentation to States 

 and foreign courts; and then the several authors were 

 allowed to use the types and copperplates for printing 

 as many copies as they required and could pay for. 

 Under this privilege, Dr. Pickering brought out in 1854 

 a small edition of the first part of his essay, per- 

 haps the most important part, and in 1876 a more 

 bulky portion, On Plants and Animals in their Wild 

 State, which is largely a transcript of the note-book 

 memoranda as jotted down at the time of observation 

 or collection. 



' We are ready to agree with a biographer, who de- 

 clares that our associate was ' a living encyclopaedia 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 ' he 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 con- 

 venient forms for the service of others ' ; that ' the love 

 of knowledge was the one passion of his life,' and that 

 ' he asked no richer satisfaction than to search for it as 

 for hidden treasure. ' He was singularly retiring and reti- 

 cent, very dry in ordinary intercourse, but never cynical; 

 delicate and keen in perception and judgment; just, up- 

 right, 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 pub- 

 lished 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 him- 

 self on the Peruvian Andes, when he was swooped upon 

 by a condor, evidently minded to carry off the naturalist 

 who was contemplating the magnificent ornithological 

 specimen." 



60 



