without books; for a person, who had always been 

 thus situated, to attempt to discourse upon the general 

 subject of Natural History, before the Naturalists of 

 Boston and vicinity, who have enjoyed years of mutual 

 aid and intercourse, and who have been privileged 

 with easy access to ample collections of specimens and 

 books, appeared to me as absurd as would be an 

 attempt of Le Vender's new planet, Neptune, to illu- 

 minate the Sun. 



Having delayed, for a few days, the transmission of 

 this reply, and having in the meantime reflected some- 

 what upon the subject, I finally changed my determi- 

 nation, and concluded that, if it would be consistent 

 with the occasion for me to confine my remarks princi- 

 pally to the sphere of my own observations to the 

 productions of my own neighborhood and to the 

 advantages and difficulties in the way of the cultivation 

 of Natural History in newly settled country places, I 

 would venture to accept the invitation. This change 

 of my determination was not on account of any change 

 of views of my own qualifications to discuss the gen- 

 eral subject of Natural History, but because I thought 

 it possible that I might say something respecting the 

 productions of a country so little known as Vermont, 

 which would be new and interesting to many of the 

 members of this Society; and, if I failed in this, my 

 veiy failure would confirm the truth of my statements 

 in relation to the difficulties in the way of the cultivation 

 of Natural History in country places. 



The State of Vermont, in which I reside, being 

 entirely without a sea-board, is, consequently, wholly 

 destitute of that great and interesting variety of pro- 

 ductions furnished by the ocean, with the exception of 



