b MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF JOHN HANCOCK, 



various islands, mountains, fiords, waterfalls, and lakes ; they 

 penetrated to tlie island Bodo, south of the Lofoden group, but 

 a little within the Arctic circle, and where the sun was visible 

 at midnight. They kept a journal of their expedition, illustrated 

 by Mr. Hewitson's sketches, drawings from which were after- 

 wards made by Mr. T, M. Eichardson, Jun., and they drew out 

 a map of their track, which was added to Mr. Hewitson's jour- 

 nal.— See "Memoir of Life of Mr. W. C. Hewitson, l^at Hist. 

 Trans. North, and Durh., Vol. YII., p. 223. They had so much 

 difficulty at times in obtaining ordinary food that they were 

 obliged to subsist on the birds they shot, and once when on an 

 island, to which they were confined by stormy weather, they 

 had to fast for twenty-four hours, with only a little tea and 

 sugar, the last of their stores. Their expedition lasted three 

 months. In August they landed at Leith, on their way to 

 Newcastle. They brought home a valuable collection of skins 

 and eggs of birds, plants, insects, etc., and much new informa- 

 tion on the ornithological subjects in quest of which chiefly 

 they went abroad, had been obtained. Some of the plants col- 

 lected are in the possession of Miss Hancock. In 1834 Mr. 

 Hewitson read a portion of his journal before the Natural His- 

 tory Society of Northumberland and Durham, and in 1835, 

 "Notes on the habits of Birds observed by him in Norway." 

 A few notes also "On the Ornithology of Norway" were con- 

 tributed to the second volume of Jardine's Magazine of Zoology. 

 His journal was not published in the Nat. Hist. Trans, of the 

 time. In 1833 Messrs. Hewitson and Hancock presented to the 

 Natural History Society skins of thirteen species of birds, seven 

 species of shells, and 143 species of plants from Norway. Both 

 before and after that date Hancock, up to 1836, had presented 

 numerous specimens of birds' skins. 



In their early days of manhood John and Albany had in con- 

 templation the projection of a work on British Birds, with plates, 

 to be published in quarto. This work was dropped, for John 

 found that they had not stuffed birds enough to enable them to 

 follow up their project at that time, though he had already 

 executed some of the drawings. Both were for some years 



