xxxiv MEMOIR. 



years earlier he had thought both of the army and 

 the bar ; but with the love of adventure and research 

 so strong within him, it is scarcely probable, had 

 he adopted either, that he would have endured its 

 trammels long. Once, too, it had seemed not un- 

 likely that his strong love of painting, which held 

 with his passion for natural history divided sway 

 over his earlier years, might have proved the more 

 powerful impulse of the two, and led him ultimately 

 to the definite pursuit of art. In choosing against 

 it, however, he probably selected well, as the some- 

 what sedentary life thereby involved would not so 

 well have harmonized with his constitutional need 

 for physical activity. 



On this expedition to America he was absent 

 about a year, a considerable portion of the time being 

 spent in Central America — chiefly in Guatemala, — 

 and a part of it in California, camping out amongst 

 the Rocky Mountains. Unlooked for circumstances 

 brought his journey to a speedier close than he 

 had intended ; but if unaccompanied by other results, 

 he was at least sucessful in forming a collection of 

 birds and insects of some interest and value, and 

 contracted several valuable friendships. "His 

 manliness and irreproachable conduct and kindli- 

 ness," wrote Sir Henry Scholfield, the British 

 Consul at Guatemala, after his decease, "gained 

 for him, during his short stay here, a friend in every 



