xxviii MEMOIR. 
the bar ; but with the love of adventure and research 
so strong within him, it is scarcely probable, had he 
adopted either, that he would have endured their 
trammels long. Once, too, it had seemed not 
unlikely that his strong love of painting, which held 
with his passion for natural history divided sway 
over his earlier years, might have proved the more 
powerful impulse of the two, and led him ultimately 
to the definite pursuit of art. In choosing against 
it, however, he probably selected well, as the some- 
what sedentary life thereby involved would not so 
well have harmonized with his constitutional need 
for physical activity. 
On this expedition to America he was absent 
about a year, a considerable portion of the time being 
spent in Central America — chiefly in Guatemala, — 
and a part of it in California, camping out amongst 
the Rocky Mountains. Unlooked for circumstances 
brought his journey to a speedier close than he 
had intended ; but if unaccompanied by other results, 
he was at least successful in forming a collection of 
birds and insects of some interest and value, and 
contracted several valuable friendships. " His 
manliness and irreproachable conduct and kindli- 
ness," wrote Sir Henry Scholfield, the British 
Consul at Guatemala, after his decease, "gained 
for him, during his short stay here, a friend in every 
one he met." And wherever else in the country he 
