AN AMERICAN'S ADVENTURES. 311 



me to make a brief visit to that interesting country, 

 where the life, both animal and vegetable, is so unlike 

 anything I had ever seen. 



It is needless to say Thursday accompanied me, and 

 that we went well armed and fully prepared to add to my 

 already extensive collection, which a skilled professional 

 was mounting and arranging for me at home. In fact, 

 I was able to keep a number of taxidermists continually 

 employed, mounting the specimens I sent back. My barn 

 had been transformed into a natural-history museum ; 

 the hay intended for living quadrupeds distending the 

 skins of dead ones, shot over many a field under tropic 

 suns. It would have given a nervous person a sad turn 

 to go into the building at night, when the moonlight 

 came in floods through window and skylight, falling 

 upon gorilla and orang-outang and every known variety 

 of ape, arranged systematically, and flanked by tiger and 

 lion, bear and giraffe, rhinoceros and hippopotamus, in 

 most picturesque confusion. 



I longed to return to these treasures, but, before doing 

 so, turned to this new field for one or two needed additions 

 to my collection. 



