7 



of opinions which necessarily elicits further 

 inquiries and discoveries. At a still earlier 

 period we may refer to our colonial situa- 

 tion, the embarrassments arising from our 

 exposed and peculiar position, and the ex- 

 ample of the mother country, as among the 

 most prominent causes which impeded the 

 cultivation of Natural History in the United 

 States. 



Since, however, the period to which we 

 have alluded, and the general peace which 

 subsequently ensued, a spirit of inquiry has 

 been awakened. The forest, and the moun- 

 tain, and the morass have been explored. 

 The various forms and products of the ani- 

 mal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms have 

 been carefully, and, in many instances, suc- 

 cessfully investigated. A proper feeling of 

 nationality has been widely diffused among 

 our naturalists ; a feeling which has impelled 

 them to study and examine for themselves, 

 instead of blindly using the eyes of foreign 

 naturalists, or bowing implicitly to the de- 

 cisions of a foreign bar of criticism. This, 

 if restrained within due bounds, if it is 

 not perverted into a narrow and bigotted 

 sentiment, that has not unfrequently been 



