Biology in America 



In the interims between his journeys to England, Audubon 

 was busy in his search for birds and also mammals, visiting 

 among other places, Labrador and Florida, and finally making 

 his last expedition, that up the Missouri River to the mouth of 

 the Yellowstone, primarily to collect material for his ' l Quad- 

 rupeds of America," one volume of which was published 

 before his death, and the other two, by his sons, Victor and 

 John, subsequent thereto. 



In the early morning of Jan. 27, 1851, in the country home 

 of "Minniesland" on the banks of the Hudson, there passed 

 away the premier of America's early pioneers in science. 

 Today towering apartment houses, and a splendid driveway, 

 look down on " Minniesland, " but his work lives after him 

 and his spirit pulses still in the "Audubon Societies" through- 

 out our land. 



Both of Audubon 's sons followed in their father's foot- 

 steps as naturalists and artists, and were early associated 

 with him in his ornithological work, and later in his work on 

 the "Quadrupeds," in the course of which the younger of 

 the sons, John, visited both Texas and California, making the 

 journey overland in search of specimens of natural history. 



Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, both public and 

 private interest awakened in the unknown resources of the 

 vast territory beyond the Missouri and its head waters. An 

 expedition to visit this region, cross the Eockies and descend 

 the Columbia to its mouth was early planned by President Jef- 

 ferson, under the leadership of his secretary Captain Merri- 

 wether Lewis, accompanied by Francois Andre Michaux, a 

 French botanist visiting America under the auspices of the 

 French government. Michaux had traveled extensively 

 through eastern North America on botanical explorations, the 

 result of which were his "Flora boreali- Americana," and his 

 ' ' North American Sylva. ' ' Before this plan could be executed, 

 however, he was recalled by his government to France. Noth- 

 ing daunted by failure Jefferson planned a second expedition, 

 and in 1804-5 Captains Lewis and Clark of the IT. S. Army 

 crossed the continent via the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. 

 On this expedition they collected voluminous scientific data 

 dealing in part with the natural history of the region trav- 

 ersed. 



It is worth while at this point to glance for a moment at 

 the scientific work of that remarkably versatile man, Thomas 

 Jefferson, a man who in many respects was the prototype 

 of that other statesman-naturalist who has so recently de- 

 parted from us. Jefferson's interests were very broad. 

 Astronomer, physicist, engineer, anatomist, geologist, zoolo- 

 gist, botanist, palaeontologist, litterateur, educator, lawyer, 



