NUTTALL. 25 
resume their course.. At such times he would be 
found far off in the prairies, up the course of some 
The Canadian voyagers, who know nothing out 
of their immediate line, and with constitutional 
levity, make a jest of anything they cannot un- 
derstand, were extremely puzzled by this passion 
for collecting what they considered useless weeds. 
When they saw the worthy botanist coming back 
heavily laden with his specimens, and treasuring 
them up as carefully as a miser would his hoard, 
they use to make merry among themselves at his 
expense, regarding him as a somewhat whimsical 
kind of madman. 
In 1819 he explored the Arkansas, and pub- 
lished his travels in 1821; crossed the continent 
in 1834 to Oregon, California and the Sandwich 
Islands. The impassioned naturalist thus de- 
scribes his wanderings in search of knowledge : 
‘‘ How often have I realized the poet’s buoyant 
hopes amidst these solitary rambles thro’ in- 
terminable forests. For thousands of miles my 
chief converse has been in the wilderness with 
the spontaneous productions of nature; and the 
study and contemplation has been to mea source 
of constant delight. This fervid curiosity led me 
the banks of the Ohio, thro’ the dark forests 
and brakes of the Mississippi, to the distant lakes 
of ee 2 orthern frontier; thro’ the wilds of Flor- 
ida up Red River and the Missouri, and thro’ 
the aay of Arkansas; at last over ‘the 
* Vast Savannahs, where the w sain a toe eye, 
Unfixt, is in a verdant ocean lost 
