Natural-History Collectors, 4399 



help me in my forlorn condition. When I reached that town, the per- 

 sons I hoped to meet had left, some for Europe, and those I best knew 

 for Georgia in the South. I immediately wrote to these last, but re- 

 ceiving no answer determined on rejoining them. I now had a hard 

 time of it; 1 made myself ' Jack of all trades,' so as to collect the 

 money necessary for the journey. I worked at New York, Philadel- 

 phia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Wilmington, Charlestown and Augusta, and 

 after many weeks of hard labour, and harder life than I ever expe- 

 rienced in the midst of the South-American forests, I reached Rome, 

 a small town of three thousand inhabitants, and discovered my friends 

 (the Gaussoin family), living twelve miles from there, on a small 

 cotton-plantation. I was received there as a friend. My letter had 

 never reached them ; but the position of M. Gaussoin prevented his 

 giving me any pecuniary help, so 1 determined to stop with him and 

 try and make by my efforts the necessary money to carry me on fur- 

 ther South. I am quite determined, as soon as I have the necessary 

 funds, to go on to Central America. I am born for misfortune, I 

 think, but T am not easily discouraged, and am determined to fight the 

 battle of life to the very last, and not to allow myself to be beaten by 

 circumstances. I have been here some weeks now, and in my leisure 

 hours have collected specimens of clivers kinds. I am astonished at 

 the richness of the Fauna and Flora of these parts, and have collected 

 many insects which to me seem undescribed. Reptiles (especially 

 Batrachia, as Triton, Salamandra, Rana, and allied genera) and tor- 

 toises are very numerous. Do you think I could make some money 

 by insects, reptiles, birds, and land and fresh-water shells ? If so, 

 answer me immediately, and I shall set diligently to work. My only 

 aim is making the necessary money to carry me on, and every little 

 helps ; small streams make great rivers. I could easily collect four 

 to six thousand insects in a month's time, and a few hundred bird- 

 skins, which the boys would shoot for me, and which 1 would skin in 

 the evening after the day's work is over. 



" Could you not forward me a few thousand entomological pins ? 

 I cannot possibly buy them here. All my provision of them and the 

 insect-boxes I had made so carefully are lost. If you could send 

 them by some vessel coming to Charlestown, you might address them 

 to the Belgian Consul in that town, " to be given to Mr. Camille Le 

 Hardy.' This gentleman I know, and he will forward them to me. 

 I am here in a fine, hilly, well-watered and very well-wooded country, 

 but the plantations are few and far between ; and some good-sized 

 marshes in the midst of the woods are the resort of many rare animals. 



