IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC 61 



tinue, to give me the power of portraying the habits of the 

 Water Birds with more truth and completeness than has ever 

 yet been done. Next, have extracts of my letter to you, be- 

 fore the world's eye, through the medium of Papers. Visit 

 such of our friends, and ask them to say those things to their 

 acquaintance ; go on yourself, as you have done, and depend 

 upon it, we shall all be greatly benefited. In your most kind 

 letter to John you mention with unexampled modesty what you 

 are attempting to do in the way of self-improvement, but my 

 Dear Victor, you cannot convey more thoroughly to us the 

 march of your improvement than you have done by sending 

 your letters, and the result of your actions, so well delineated 

 as this is, and we all feel deeply gratified and most happy. 

 Cruickshank is right; by drawing you are enabled to study the 

 lights and shadows of bodies, again the beautiful mellowness 

 with which, altho. all powerful in the effect, these blend them- 

 selves with each other. The reflective power of bodies will 

 also strike your discerning attention, and when these com- 

 binations of the true Materia are well understood, the artist 

 is a Master ! Nature after all, has done all for us ; she groups, 

 and most beautifully, every thing that is presented to our eye 

 or mind, so completely also, that if one observes a number of 

 bodies, no matter what these bodies are, whether horses or apes, 

 he sees at once the general elegance of their arrangement in 

 contour, the force of the light and shadows, the mellowness 

 existing between these, and as the eye passes on to the finish- 

 ing of that natural picture, it at once pronounces it com- 

 plete. 



Do not forget to take from Kidd whatever pictures of ours 

 he may have finished, and take good care of them. We have 

 pretty nearly kilt G. Ord and Waterton with our Buzzard 

 experiments. You say you wish you could see us at friend 

 Bachman's ; I assure you my pleasure at such an event would be 

 equal to yours. We are indeed happy in having such a friend. 

 Miss Martin, with her superior talents, assists us greatly in 

 the way of drawing; the insects she has drawn are, perhaps, 

 the best I've seen; at night we have some music and reading. 



