10 A NATURE WOOING. 



tucky Colonel, a bottle of moonshine or old Bourbon 

 whiskey, but I have the next thing to it, a flask of 

 Burgundy wine, so here's to the health of the train 

 conductor who raised my rank on first sight. Long 

 may he live and prosper ! At the present rate of pro- 

 motion I shall be a Major-General many hours be- 

 fore I reach my destination. 



Beyond Lawrenceburgh, a short distance, the hills 

 or bluffs of the Kentucky River appear, clad in the 

 evergreen of the cedar and the pine. We cross the 

 river on Young's High Bridge and soon reach Lex- 

 ington, the second city in Kentucky the home of 

 Henry Clay and the Breckenridges the heart of the 

 famous blue-grass region renowned to-day among 

 the elite of this land of ours for its handsome women, 

 its famous race-track, its noted stud-farms. Among 

 men of letters a century ago, it was known chiefly as 

 being the seat of Transylvania University, then the 

 most celebrated school of learning beyond the Alle- 

 ghanies, but destined soon to be overshadowed by 

 many which sprang into existence in Kentucky's sis- 

 ter states. 



To naturalists, Lexington is chiefly interesting for 

 its having been for a term of years the abiding place 

 of that unique member of their ilk, Constantine Sam- 

 uel Rafinesque. Here he wrote his "Ichthyologia 

 Ohioensis," over which students of the finny tribe 

 puzzled for 50 years. Only recently have Rafines- 

 que's genera and species, as characterized in that 



