Memoir of William C\ Redfield. 357 



This journal is now in my possession, and I have perused it with 

 deep interest for the graphic sketches it contains of the countries 

 he passed through, then mostly new settlements, and for the 

 indications it affords of those powers of observatioUj which after- 

 wards led to the development of the laws of storms. The stj'le 

 of composition is far superior to what might reasonably have 

 been expected from one who had enjoyed so few literary advan- 

 tages, evincing two qualities for which Mr. Eedfield was always 

 distinguished — good sense and good taste. The sketches of 

 Western New York, and of Northern Ohio, taken while the 

 sites of Rochester and Cleveland were dark and gloomy forests, 



and Buffalo was a mere hamlet, possess no ordinary degree of 

 historical interest. Instead of a "Lake Shore" road, traversed, 

 by the iron horse, as at present, our young pedestrians could find 

 no better paths in which to travel over the southern side of Lake 

 Erie, than to course along the beach. Yet in twenty -seven days 

 they made good their journey, having rested four days on tlie 

 way, making an average of about thirty-two miles per day. 

 After passing the winter with his friends in Ohio, he resumed 

 his way homeward on foot and alone, returning hj a more south- 

 ern route, through parts of the states of Virginia, Maryland, and 

 Pennsylvania, We shall soon see to what valuable account he 

 afterwards turned the observations made on these early pedes- 

 trian tours, in tracing the c'ourse as well as originating the pro- 

 ject, of a great railway connecting the Hudson and the Missis- 

 sippi rivers. 



Returning to his former borne in 1811, Mr. Redfield commenced 

 the regular business of life. No circumstances could seem more 

 unpropitious to his eminence as a philosopher, than those in 

 which he was placed for nearly twenty years after his first settle- 

 ment in business. A small mechanic in a country village, eking 

 out a scanty income by uniting with the products of his trade the 

 sale of a small assortment of merchandize, Mr. Redfield met 

 with obstacles whicli in ordinary minds would have quenched 

 the desire of intellectual progress. Yet every year added largely 

 to his scientific acquisitions, and developed more fully his intel- 

 lectual and moral energies. Meanwhile his active mind left its 

 impress on the quiet community where he lived, in devising and 

 carrying out various plans for advancing their social c<^fort and 

 I'espectabilitv, in the improvement and embellishment of their 

 streets, school houses and churches, and in promoting the inter- 

 ests of the literary club, from which lie himself, in early youth, 

 had derived such signal advantages. From deep domestic trials 

 '^hich afflicted him about the year 1820, he had recourse for 

 solace both to the word and the works of God. It was soon after 

 OTie of the severest of these trials, that his attention was first 

 directed to the subject of Atlantic Gales. 



