fjt; HISTORY OF OHIO. 



tend their researches into this obscure, and as yet, quite mis- 

 understood subject. 



Having said what we have, for scientific readers, we proceed 

 in the common method to treat this matter, in a way, to suit 

 common readers. 



We have taken but a few steps into the path of Natural His- 

 tory leading the way and pointing ahead, for the young men 

 of this state, to follow us, and when we stop short, and stand 

 by the way side, we pray them to march forward to the end of 

 the path. Any one of them who feels within his own bosom, 

 that he holds an appointment, to make a correct survey of Na- 

 ture, not from any civil ruler, but from Nature's God, let such 

 an one move onward, and fame and glory will follow his labors. 

 No governor will appoint him, nor Legislature pay him. The 

 Creator will reward him. 



We have fresh water clams — (unio) in all our tributaries of 

 the Ohio river, as well as in that river itself. AVe have strong 

 reasons for believing that this family of shell fishes inhabit all 

 the streams in the Mississippi valley. Thirty or forty years 

 since, this family were divided by conchologists into four species 

 of unio. Since that thne one naturalist, makes them three 

 hundred species! We have seen this animal in all the larger 

 streams of the Ohio river; in that stream, in the Wabash, Illi- 

 nois, Missouri, Upper Mississippi, Rock river, loway, and Wis- 

 consin rivers, but we believe that every species of this- family, 

 existing any where in the western states and Territories, may 

 be found in the Scioto river. We are not among those who be- 

 lieve that natural history gains any thing by multiplying spe- 

 cies of animals, on paper, which have no existence any where 

 else. 



Linnaeus simplified science, and rendered it easy to under- 

 stand, so that any child of twelve years old could understand 

 and comprehend it. Miss Elizabeth Buchanan of Cincinnati 

 is an excellent botanist. Since the days of Linnsus, weak 

 men have often been, the pests of science, by using terms not 

 understood by common readers. These quacks in science, 

 would be quite below our notice, did they not impose upon those 



