Botanical Writings of Rafinesque. 223 



I visited Maryland twice ; the second time I explored the Cotocton Moun- 

 tains of Maryland, and the Alleghany Mountains as far as Sherman Val- 

 ley and the Juniata, quite at leisure, residing sometimes at the top of the 

 mountains. In the year 1833 I proposed to visit the Apalachian Moun- 

 tains as far as Alabama, but was prevented by an accident and heavy 

 rains. I only went as far as those of Virginia, and again in the Cotoc- 

 ton Mountains. In a second journey I undertook to visit the sources of 



the Delaware and Susquehannah. The year 1834 saw me twice in 



the Alleghany Mountains of the North, once by following the course of 

 the Delaware, the second time westward by the Welsh Mountains, Cone- 

 wago Mountains, Albany Mountains, Locust Mountains, to the Pottsville 

 mines and sources of the Schuylkill River, returning by Mauchchunk 

 and Allentown. My travels of 1835 were in the central Alleghanies, up 

 the rivers Juniata and Susquehannah, exploring the mountains of Peters, 

 Buffalo, Wisconisco, Mahantango, Tuscarora, Jack, Seven-mountains, 



&:.c., with their valleys. Since then I have chiefly explored South 



New Jersey and the pine barrens." 



He draws a lively picture of the discomforts, as well as the 

 enjoyments of a travelling naturalist. 



" During so many years of active and arduous explorations, I have met 

 of course all kinds of adventures, fares and treatment. I have been wel- 

 comed under the hospitable roof of friends of knowledge and enterprise, 



else laughed at as a mad botanist by scornful ignorance. Such a life 



of travels and exertions has its pleasures and its pains, its sudden delights 

 and deep joys mixed with dangers, trials, difficulties and troubles. No 

 one could better paint them than myself, who has experienced them all. 

 Let the practical botanist, who wishes like myself to be a pioneer of sci- 

 ence, and to increase the knowledge of plants, be fully prepared to meet 

 dangers of all sorts in the wild groves and mountains of America. The 

 mere fatigue of a pedestrian journey is nothing compared to the gloom of 

 solitary forests, when not a human being is met for many miles, and if 

 met he may be mistrusted ; when the food and collections must be car- 

 ried in your pocket or knapsack from day to day; when the fare is not 

 only scanty but sometimes worse ; when you must live on corn bread and 

 salt pork, be burned and steamed by a hot sun at noon, or drenched by 

 rain, even with an umbrella in hand, as I always had. Musquitoes and 

 flies will often annoy you or suck your blood if you stop or leave a hur- 

 ried step. Gnats dance before the eyes, and often fall in unless you shut 

 them ; insects creep on you and into your ears. Ants crawl on you 

 whenever you rest on the ground ; wasps will assail you like furies if you 

 touch their nests. But ticks, the worst of all, are unavoidable whenever 

 you go among bushes, and stick to you in crowds, filling your skin with 

 pimples and sores. Spiders, gallineps, horse-flies, and other obnoxious 



