CHARLES PICKERING. 409 



of about equal extent, is ready for the printer. This formi- 

 dable treatise is entitled " Man's Record of his own Exist- 

 ence." Its character is indicated in the brief introductory 

 sentences : — 



" In the distribution of species over the globe, the order of 

 Nature has been obscured through the interference of man. 

 He has transported animals and plants to countries where 

 they were previously unknown ; extirpating the forest and 

 cultivating the soil, until at length the face of the globe itself 

 is changed. To ascertain the amount of this interference, 

 displaced species must be distinguished, and traced each to 

 its original home. Detached observations have already been 

 given in the twenty-first and succeeding chapters of my 

 ' Races of Man ' ; but when such observations are extended 

 to all parts of the globe, the accumulated facts require some 

 plan of arrangement. A list will naturally assume the 

 chronological order, beginning with Egypt, the country that 

 contains the earliest records of the human family, and reced- 

 ing geographically from the same central point of reference." 



Then, starting with " 4713 B. C," and " 4491 B. C, be- 

 ginning of the first Great Year in the Egyptian reckoning," 

 he begins the list, which, under the running heading of 

 " Chronological Arrangement of Accompanying Animals and 

 Plants," first treats of the vegetables and animals mentioned 

 in the book of Genesis, and of the " Commencement of Be- 

 douin or Nomadic Life in the Desert ; " passes to the." Colo- 

 nization of Egypt," and to critical notices (philological and 

 natural-historical) of its plants and animals, as well their ear- 

 liest mention as their latest known migrations ; reaches the 

 beginning of the Christian era at about the 470th page ; and 

 so proceeds, till our wonder at the patience and the erudition 

 of the writer passes all bounds. We are ready to agree with 

 a biographer who declares that our associate was "a living 

 encyclopaedia of knowledge," — that there never was a natu- 

 ralist " who had made more extended and minute original 

 explorations ; " and we fully agree that " no one ever had less 

 a passion or a gift for display ; " " that he was engaged dur- 

 ing a long life in the profoundest studies, asking neither fame 



