PREFACE. 
IX 
the appropriate articles as they occur in the work; and 
I take this opportunity of tendering them my sincere 
thanks for all such assistance. 
As fast as new materials may be discovered, we in- 
tend to give them to the world in the form of a supple- 
ment, and we shall then also have an additional oppor- 
tunity for correcting any errors which may have occur- 
red either in regard to information or in the progress of 
printing, as well as of making such additions as a more 
thorough examination of the subject may suggest, parti- 
cularly the characters of the different kinds of wood in- 
digenous to the most extended limits of the republic. 
..•••. 
Thirty-four years ago, I left England to explore the 
natural history of the United States. In the ship Hal- 
cyon I arrived at the shores of the New World; and 
after a boisterous and dangerous passage, our dismasted 
vessel entered the Capes of the Delaware in the month 
of April. The beautiful robing of forest scenery, now 
bursting into vernal life, was exchanged for the monoto- 
ny of the dreary ocean, and the sad sickness of the sea. 
As we sailed up the Delaware my eyes were rivetted on 
the landscape with intense admiration. All was new! 
— and life, like that season, was then full of hope and 
enthusiasm. The forests, apparently unbroken, in their 
primeval solitude and repose, spread themselves on either 
hand as we passed placidly along. The extending vista 
of dark pines gave an air of deep sadness to the wilder- 
ness. 
“ — — - these lonely regions, where, retired 
From little scenes of art, great Nature dwells 
In awful solitude, and nought is seen 
But the wild herds that own no master’s stall.” 
The deer brought to bay, or plunging into the flood 
