EEVIEWS OF HIS BOOK. 173 



"March 13, 1831. My book is now on the eve of being 

 presented to the world. The printing will be completed in a few 

 days, and I have sent copies of the sheets to Dr. Harlan and 

 Mr. McMurtrie, at Philadelphia, and also one hundred pounds 

 sterling to Messrs. T. Walker and Sons, to be paid to Dr. 

 Harlan to secure the copyright, and have the book published 

 there. 



"March 20, 1831. Made an agreement with Mr. J. B. Kidd, 

 a young painter whom I have known for the last four years, to 

 copy some of my drawings in oil, and to put backgrounds to 

 them, so as to make them appear like pictures. It was our 

 intention to send them to the exhibition for sale, and to divide 

 the amount between us. He painted eight, and then I pro- 

 posed, if he would paint the one hundred engravings which 

 comprise my first volume of the ' Birds of America,' I would 

 pay him one hundred pounds. 



" April 15. We left Edinburgh this day, and proceeded towards 

 London by the way of Newcastle, York, Leeds, Manchester, and 

 Liverpool. At the latter place we spent a few days, and 

 travelled on that extraordinary road called the railway, at the 

 rate of twenty-four miles an hour. On arriving at London I 

 found it urgent for me to visit Paris, to collect monies due me 

 by my agent (Pitois) there. 



" Several reviews of my work have appeared ; one in ' Black- 

 wood's Magazine ' is particularly favourable. The editor, John 

 Wilson of Edinburgh, is a clever good fellow, and I wrote to 

 thank him. Dr. Tuke, an Irishman of lively manners, brought 

 the editors of the * Atlas ' to see my Birds, and they have praised 

 also. We have received letters from America of a cheering 

 kind, and which raised my dull spirits, but in spite of all this 

 I feel dull, rough in temper, and long for nothing so much as 

 my dear woods. I have balanced my accounts with the ' Birds of 

 America,' and the whole business is really wonderful; forty 

 thousand dollars have passed through my hands for the com- 

 pletion of the first volume. Who would believe that a lonely 

 individual, who landed in England without a friend in the whole 

 country, and with only sufiicient pecuniary means to travel 

 through it as a visitor, could have accomplished such a task as 

 this publication? Who would believe that once in London 



