!6o PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



of the Institute, among whom, he writes, " I felt awkward and 

 uncomfortable. After living among such people I felt clouded 

 and depressed ; remember that I have done nothing, and fear 

 that I may die unknown. I feel I am strange to all but the 

 birds of America. In a few days I shall be in the woods and 

 quite forgotten." On the next day : " My spirits low, and I 

 long for the woods again ; but the prospect of becoming known 

 prompts me to remain another day." He was invited by the 

 artist, Vanderlyn, to sit for a portrait of General Jackson, 

 whom his figure was thought to resemble considerably. 



From New York he proceeded up the Hudson and into the 

 lake region, visiting Niagara, but not crossing over to Goat 

 Island on account of the low state of his finances ; then re- 

 turned by way of Erie, Pittsburg, and the rivers, to his home 

 in Bayou Sara. His wife was receiving an income of nearly 

 three thousand dollars a year from her labours in teaching, and 

 he took charge of a class in dancing by which he cleared two 

 thousand dollars ; and with this capital and his wife's savings 

 he was now able to foresee a successful issue to his great orni- 

 thological work. 



He had determined upon going to England, where, although 

 he knew no one, he hoped that he might find a way to get his 

 plates engraved. He sailed from New Orleans in May, 1826, 

 and arrived in Liverpool on the 2oth of July. He exhibited 

 his pictures, with satisfaction to his visitors at Liverpool and 

 Manchester, to their admiration at Edinburgh. He made 

 friends of Herschel, Sir Walter Scott, and " Christopher North," 

 who has left the record of his warm admiration for the man 

 and his work in two of his essays, and of Cuvier, Humboldt, 

 and Saint-Hilaire in France. He resolved to go on with the 

 publication of his works, although his friends advised him that 

 the risk was too great to venture upon. In 1827 he issued 

 the prospectus of The Birds of America, to be published in 

 numbers of five folio plates each, the whole to be included in 

 four volumes, and to be sold for one thousand dollars a copy. 

 The entire cost of the work would exceed one hundred thou- 

 sand dollars; yet when the prospectus was published he had 

 not money enough to pay for getting out the first number. 

 With the aid of Sir Thomas Lawrence he sold some pictures, 

 and was enabled to carry himself over this difficulty ; and this 

 led the way to his finding a regular means of support while his 



