64 NARBATIVE OF A JOUEXEY 



be conceived, except by persons who have travelled for weeks 

 without beholding a green thing, save the grass under their feet. 

 We encamped in the evening in a beautiful grove of cottonwood 

 trees, along the edge of which ran the Platte, dotted as usual 

 with numerous islands. 



In the morning, Mr. N. and myself were up before the dawn, 

 strolling through the umbrageous forest, inhaling the fresh, 

 bracing air, and making the echoes ring with the report of our 

 gun, as the lovely tenants of the grove flew by dozens before us. 

 I think I never before saw so great a variety of birds within the 

 same space. All were beautiful, and many of them quite new to 

 me ; and after we had spent an hour amongst them, and my 

 game bag was teeming with its precious freight, I was still loath 

 to leave the place, lest I should not have procured specimens of 

 the whole. 



None but a naturalist can appreciate a naturalist's feelings — 

 his delight amounting to ecstacy — when a specimen such as he 

 has never before seen, meets his eye, and the sorrow and grief 

 Avhich he feels when he is compelled to* tear himself from a spot 

 abounding with all that he has anxiously and unremittingly 

 sought for. 



This was peculiarly my case upon this occasion. We had 

 been loncp travelling over a sterile and barren tract, where the 

 lovely denizens of the forest could not exist, and I had been daily 

 scanning the great extent of the desert, for some little oasis such 

 as I had now found ; here was my wish at length gratified, and 

 yet the caravan would not halt for me ; I must turn my back 

 upon the El Dorado of my fond anticipations, and hurry forward 

 over the dreary wilderness which lay beyond. 



What valuable and highly interesting accessions to science 

 might not be made by a party, composed exclusively of natural- 

 ists, on a journey through this rich and unexplored region ! The 

 botanist, the geologist, the mamalogist, the ornithologist, and 



