COMPILATION O]? THE ORNITHOUXiY IO9 



way the grave of his old friend, Governor Meri- 

 weather Lewis of the Lewis-Clark Expedition. 

 The mystery of this distinguished man's death has 

 never been explained, there being many circum- 

 stances which point to the probability of his hav- 

 ing been killed and robbed by the man Grinder, 

 at whose cabin he was stopping for the night. 

 Wilson, however, does not mention this rumor, 

 but seems to have accepted without hesitation the 

 very improbable story of suicide which Mrs. 

 Grinder herself related to him. To show his re- 

 spect for his dead friend, Wilson not only wrote 

 verses to Lewis's memory, but he also gave 

 Grinder money, out of his own scanty store, to 

 have the grave enclosed. 



After reaching Natchez and searching through- 

 out the surrounding country for subscribers and 

 new birds, Wilson traveled on through west 

 Florida, New Orleans, east Florida, and many of 

 the islands near the coast. On September 2, 

 1810, he again reached Philadelphia after having 

 been traveling, sometimes in a boat, sometimes 

 on horseback, but chiefly on foot, for seven con- 

 tinuous months. 



While at Nashville our traveler met with a mis- 

 fortune which he accepted and remedied with that 

 dauntless spirit which had marked his whole life. 

 He somewhat carelessly intrusted the drawings 

 which he had made since leaving home to the 

 mail, and they never reached their destination. 

 The loss was of similar nature to that -which Au- 

 dubon suffered in the destruction by mice of a 



