124 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
objects new and rare, be pleased when you publish your work, 
to place my name in the list of subscribers, and be assured 
that I will not leave you in the lurch. 
Now supposing that you are full of ardor and ready to 
proceed ; allow me to offer you a little advice. Leave nothing 
to memory, but note down all your observations with ink, not 
with a black-lead pencil, and keep in mind, that the more par- 
ticulars you write at the time, the more you will recollect 
afterwards. Work not at night, but anticipate the morning 
dawn, and never think, for an instant, about the difficulties 
of ransacking the woods, the shores, or the barren grounds, 
nor be vexed when you have traversed a few hundred miles 
of country without finding a single new species. It may, 
indeed, it not unfrequently happens, that after days, or even 
weeks of fruitless search, one enters a grove, or comes upon 
a pond, or forces his way through the tall grass of a prairie, 
and suddenly meets with several objects, all new,-all beautiful, 
and perhaps all suited to the palate. Then how delightful 
will be your feelings, and how marvelously all fatigue will 
vanish. 
Think, for instance, that you are on one of the declivities 
of the Rocky Mountains, with shaggy and abrupt banks on 
each side of you, while the naked cliffs tower high over head, 
as if with the wish to reach the sky. Your trusty gun has 
brought to the ground a most splendid ‘American Pheasant,’ 
weighing fully two pounds! What a treat! You have been 
surprised at the length of its tail ; you have taken the precise 
measurement of all its parts, and given a brief description of 
it. Have you read this twice and corrected errors and defi- 
ciencies? ‘Yes,’ you say. Very well; now you have begun 
your drawing of this precious bird. Ah! you have finished 
it. Now then, -you skin the beautiful creature, and you are 
pleased to find it plump and fat. You have, I find, studied 
comparative anatomy under my friend, Maouiliivray, and at 
least, have finished your examination of the cesophagus, giz- 
