23 
I have visited. Many of the shells herein de- 
scribed, I procured during a residence of six months 
at Claiborne, a village on the Alabama river, beauti- 
fully situated on an abrupt bluff, two hundred feet in 
elevation, and whose base is shaded by the ever- 
green magnolia, and the umbrella tree, with its gigan- 
tic leaves. In company with the kindest friends 
which it has been my lot to meet with in my pilgrim- 
age through life, Charles Tait, Esq. and Mrs. Tait, 
whom I must always remember with feelings akin to 
filial attachment, time passed rapidly and agreeably 
away. May the evening of life be calm and serene, 
and, as the meridian was passed in exertions honour- 
able to himself and useful to his country, my friend 
needs no eulogium from a humble votary of Natural 
Science. To John B. Toulmin, Esq. of Mobile, I 
return my thanks for his hospitality and disinterest- 
ed exertions in my behalf. I shali also ever remem- 
ber my kind friend, Dr. Robert Withers, of Greene 
county, Major Chamberlain and Judge Harris, of 
St. Stephens, and many other gentlemen in various 
parts of Alabama. Mr. A. H. Gazzam, of Mobile, 
sent me a flattering letter, offering me, as a mission- 
ary in the cause of science, a free passage in his 
steamboats on the waters of Alabama, a privilege 
which has never been extended for a similar purpose 
to an individual in any other state in the Union. 
