COMPI.ETION OF THE ORNITHOU^GY 93 



earnest enthusiasm of the man was contagious, and 

 from all over the country came letters, drawings, 

 and sketches from people whose interest in birds 

 had been awakened by him. 



The drawings were not such that he could make 

 actual use of them in his book, nor were the obser- 

 vations or the skins of birds which were sent to him 

 often of much worth, but they all served as so much 

 evidence by which he could make comparisons with 

 what he himself had collected, and these things thus 

 made it possible for him to examine his data very 

 critically. 



Soon he had exhausted his collected materials 

 and was determined on another journey. His 

 travels this time were to extend from Pittsburg to 

 Florida through the interior. On this trip he again 

 hoped to be accompanied by his old friend, William 

 Bartram, but once more Bartram's advancing years 

 made it scarcely possible for him to endure such 

 hardships, and Wilson set out alone. After consid- 

 ering the three modes of travel open to him, by 

 horse-back, by stage-coach or on foot, he finally 

 decided that walking was better adapted to both his 

 observations and his pocket-book — he figured that 

 he could thus keep his expenses down to an average 

 of a dollar a day. Accordingly, he began his jour- 

 ney, first stopping at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 

 where the Governor subscribed to his book. 

 Columbia proved a fruitless field, and after crossing 

 the Susquehanna, through the floating ice, he 

 reached York. At Hanover "a certain judge took 

 upon himself to say, that such a book * * * 

 ought not to be encouraged, as it was not within the 



