INTRODUCTION. 7 
room, Mr. Bull, and a host of attendants under him. Any one 
of the million volumes stored upon the shelves was at my dispo- 
sition, and after pondering over some of them to my liking, I 
came away with one poignant regret, viz., that in America we 
have nothing that even approaches to this vast treasure-store of 
the world’s literature; that on this point England stands alone, 
unapproachable ! 
I desire, in this connection, to express my obligations to Dr. J. 
Forbes Watson, of the India Office, for his obliging and polite 
attentions in many ways: to Lord Calthorpe, for using his influ- 
ence in my favor with the Board of the Zoological Society of 
London: to Lord Odo Russell, British Ambassador to Berlin, 
for letters of introduction so kindly furnished by him: and to 
Robert Bunch, Esq., Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Bogota, 
United States of Colombia, for letters to Earl Granville, &c., &c. 
I permit myself to indulge the hope that, although this task 
has been a repugnant one, and attended by such great risks as no 
one knows of who has not wrought in the same field, yet directions 
herein given may enable some one who peruses this work to save 
thereby some fellow-mortal’s life. To know of such a case will 
more than repay my efforts, and afford me the consolation which 
follows after the performance of every labor of love. 
5. B. Hrearns. 
Grerensporo, NortH CAROLINA, 
January, 1873. 
