X INTRODUCTION. 



and at last have finished your examination of the oesophagus, 

 gizzard, coeca, trachea, and bronchi. On the ignited dry cast- 

 ings of a buffalo, you have laid the body, and it is now almost 

 ready to satisfy the longings of your stomach, as it hisses in 

 its odorous sap. The brook at your feet affords the very best 

 drink that nature can supply, and I need not wish you better 

 fare than that before you. Next morning you find yourself 

 refreshed and reinvigorated, more ardent than ever, for suc- 

 cess fails not to excite the desire of those who have entered 

 upon the study of nature. You have packed your bu'd's-skin 

 flat in your box, rolled up your drawing round those previous- 

 ly made, and now, day after day, you push through thick and 

 thin, sometimes with success, sometimes witliout ; but you at 

 last return with such a load on your shoulders, as I have often 

 carried on mine. Having once more reached the settlements, 

 you relieve your tired limbs by mounting a horse, and at length 

 gaining a sea-port, you sail for England, if that be your coun- 

 try, or you repair to Boston, New York, or Baltimore, where 

 you will find means of publishing the results of your journey. 

 When I presented you with the fom*th volume of this work, 

 I was in fair Edina ; and now, when I offer you the fifth, I am 

 in Edina still. What beautifid walks there are, Reader, around 

 that superlatively beautiful city ! The oftener I have rambled 

 along them, the more I have thought with deep regret, that 

 now at last I am on the eve of bidding those walks, and 

 the friends whom I know I possess there, a last adieu. No 

 man, methinks, can ever leave a country where he has been 

 kindly treated, without a deep feeling of sorrow. When I left 

 England, and all my dear friends there, that feeling was as 

 pungent as it is at this moment, when I am about being thrust 



