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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



of the sky, and the emerald hue of the bright 

 foliage, I felt that an intimacy with them, not 

 consisting of friendship merely, but bordering 

 on frenzy, must accompany my steps through 

 life ; and now, more than ever, am I persuaded 

 of the power of those early impressions. They 

 laid such hold upon me, that, when removed 

 from the woods, the prairies, and the brooks, or 

 shut up from the view of the wide Atlantic, I 

 experienced none of those pleasures most con- 

 genial to my mind. None but aerial com- 

 panions suited my fancy. No roof seemed so 

 secure to me as that formed of the dense foliage 

 under which the feathered tribes were seen to 

 resort, or the caves and fissures of the massy 

 rocks to which the dark-winged cormorant and 

 the curlew retired to rest, or to protect them- 

 selves from the fury of the tempest. My father 

 generally accompanied my steps, procured birds 

 and flowers for me with great eagerness, pointed 

 out the elegant movements of the former, — the 

 beauty and softness of their plumage, the 

 manifestations of their pleasure or sense of 

 danger, — and the always perfect forms and 

 splendid attire of the latter. My valued 

 preceptor would then speak of the departure 

 and return of birds with the seasons, would 

 describe their haunts, and, more wonderful 

 than all, their change of livery ; thus exciting 



