124 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



objects new and rare, be pleased when you publish your work, 

 to place my name in the list of subscribers, and be assui'ed 

 that I will not leave you in the lurch. 



Now supposing that you are full of ardor and ready to 

 proceed ; allow me to offer you a little advice. Leave nothing 

 to memory, but note down all your observations with m^, not 

 with a black-lead pencil, and keep in mind, that the more par- 

 ticulars you write at the time, the more you will recollect 

 afterwards. Work not at night, but anticipate the morning 

 dawn, and never think, for an instant, about the difficulties 

 of ransacking the woods, the shores, or the barren grounds, 

 nor be vexed when you have traversed a few hundred miles 

 of country without finding a single new species. It may, 

 indeed, it not unfrequently happens, that after days, or even 

 weeks of fruitless search, one enters a grove, or comes upon 

 a pond, or forces his way through the tall grass of a prairie, 

 and suddenly meets with several objects, all new, all beautiful, 

 and perhaps all suited to the palate. Then how delightful 

 will be your feelings, and how marvelously all fatigue will 

 vanish. 



Think, for instance, that you are on one of the declivities 

 of the Rocky Mountains, with shaggy and abrupt banks on 

 each side of you, while the naked cliffs tower high over head, 

 as if with the wish to reach the sky. Your trusty gun has 

 brought to the ground a most splendid ' American Pheasant,' 

 weighing fully two pounds ! What a treat ! You have been 

 surprised at the length of its tail ; you have taken the precise 

 measurement of all its parts, and given a brief description of 

 it. Have you read this twice and corrected errors and defi- 

 ciencies ? ' Yes,' you say. Very well ; now you have begun 

 your drawing of this precious bird. Ah ! you have finished 

 it. Now then, you skin the beautiful creature, and you are 

 pleased to find it plump and fat. You have, I find, studied 

 comparative anatomy under my friend, Macgillivray, and at 

 least, have finished your examination of the oesophagus, giz- 



