X INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 



now let us return, for who cares to listen to the love-tale of a 

 naturalist, whose feelings may be supposed to he as light as the 

 feathers which he delineates ! 



For a period of nearly twenty years, my life was a succession 

 of vicissitudes. I tried various branches of commerce, but they 

 all proved unprofitable, doubtless because my whole mind was 

 ever filled with my passion for rambling and admiring those ob- 

 jects of nature from which alone I received the purest gratifica- 

 tion. I had to struggle against the will of all who at that period 

 called themselves my friends. I must here, however, except my 

 wife and children. The remarks of my other friends irritated me 

 beyond endm-ance, and, breaking through aU bonds, I gave 

 myself entirely up to my pursuits. Any one unacquainted with 

 the extraordinary desire which I then felt of seeing and judg- 

 ing for myself, would doubtless have pronounced me callous to 

 every sense of duty, and regardless of every interest. I under- 

 took long and tedious journeys, ransacked the woods, the lakes, 

 the prairies, and the shores of the Atlantic. Years were spent 

 away from my family. Yet, reader, will you believe it, I had 

 no other object in view, than simply to enjoy the sight of na- 

 ture. Never for a moment did I conceive the hope of becoming 

 in any degree useful to my kind, until I accidentally fonned ac- 

 quaintance with the Prince of Musignano at Philadelphia, to 

 which place I went, with the view of proceeding eastward along 

 the coast. 



I reached Philadelphia on the 5th April 1824, just as the 

 sun was sinking beneath the horizon. Excepting the good Dr 

 Mease, who had visited me in my younger days, I had scarce- 

 ly a friend in the city ; for I was then unacquainted with 

 Harlan,Wetherei.l,Macmuiitrie,Lesueuii, or Sully. 



