LIFE OF WILSON, Ixix 



" I had a rough journey home through the Genessee country, 

 which was covered with snow to the depth of fifteen inches, 

 and continued so all the way to Albany. If you know of any 

 gentlemen in your neighbourhood acquainted with botany, be 

 so good as introduce Mr. Michaux to them." 



TO MR. WM. DUNCAN. 



Philadelphia, April 8, 1807. 



" Enclosed is a proof-sheet of our prospectus; as soon as the 

 impressions are thrown off on fine paper, I will transmit one 

 for Mr. L. This afternoon Mr. Lawson is to have one of the 

 plates completely finished; and I am going to set the copper- 

 plate printer at work to print each bird in its natural colours, 

 which will be a great advantage in colouring, as the black ink 

 will not then stain the fine tints. We mean to bind in the pro- 

 spectus at the end of the next half volume, for which purpose 

 twenty-five hundred copies are to be thrown off; and an agent 

 will be appointed in every town in the Union. The prospectus 

 will also be printed in all the newspapers; and every thing done 

 to promote the undertaking. 



" I hope you have made a beginning, and have already a 

 collection of heads, bills and claws, delineated. If this work 

 should go on, it will be a five years affair; and may open the 

 way to something more extensive; for which reason I am anx- 

 ious to have you with me to share the harvest. 



" I started this morning, by peep of day, with my gun, for 

 the purpose of shooting a nuthatch. After jumping a hundred 

 fences, and getting over the ancles in mud, (for I had put on 

 my shoes for lightness,) I found myself almost at the junction 

 of the Schuylkill and Delaware, without success, there being 

 hardly half an acre of woodland in the whole neck; and the 

 nuthatch generally frequents large-timbered woods. I returned 

 home at eight o'clock, after getting completely wet, and in a 



graved by George Cooke of London, and illustrate his poem of the "Forest- 

 ers," which was published in the Port Folio. These well-engraved views, 

 which are two in number, convey a good idea of the famous Cataract; the 

 "Great Pitch," in particular, is admirably represented. 





