342 AMERICA THE FIELD FOR A NAITKALIST. 



to be the domain of wild animals. The savages of 

 America, who have been the objects of so many sys- 

 tematic reveries, and on whom M. Volney has lately 

 published some accurate and intelligent observations, 

 inspire less interest since celebrated navigators have 

 made known to us the inhabitants of the South Sea 

 islands, in whose character we find a striking mixture of 

 perversity and meekness. The state of half-civilization 

 existing among those islanders gives a peculiar charm to 

 the description of their manners. A king, followed by 

 a numerous suite, presents the fruits of his orchard ; or a 

 funeral is performed amidst the shade of the lofty forest. 

 Such pictures, no doubt, have more attraction than those 

 which pourtray the solemn gravity of the inhabitant of 

 the banks of the Missouri or the Maranon. 



"America offers an ample field for the labours of the 

 naturalist. On no other part of the globe is he called 

 upon more powerfully by nature to raise himself to 

 general ideas on the cause of phenomena and their mu- 

 tual connection. To say nothing of that luxuriance 

 of vegetation, that eternal spring of organic life, those 

 climates varying by stages as we climb the flanks of the 

 Cordilleras, and those majestic rivers which a celebrated 

 writer (Chateaubriand) has described with such graceful 

 accuracy, the resources which the New World a'ffords 

 for the study of geology and natural philosophy in 

 general have been long since acknowledged. Happy the 

 traveller who may cherish the hope that he has availed 

 himself of the advantages of his position, and that he 

 has added some new facts to the mass of those previously 

 acquired ! 



" Since I left America, one of those great revolutions, 



