12 
MEJIOIR OF PENNANT. 
and it “ was fated,” Pennant says, “ to be accom- 
plished by an inferior genius.” We shall notice 
this work again in its order of publication. 
Upon his return to England, a third volume was 
added to British Zoology containing Fishes; and va- 
rious additions and improvements were made on the 
others. He let slip no opportunity of acquiring 
additional knowledge upon the various subjects he 
so ardently pursued ; his mind, he remarks, “ was 
always in a progressive state, it could never stagnate : 
it carried me farther than the limits of our island, 
and made me desirous of forming a zoology of some 
distant country.” This was the commencement of 
his Indian Zoology, but which was given up very 
soon after its commencement. Fifteen plates only 
were engraved in small folio, and the e.vpense was 
partly defrayed by Sir Joseph Banks, to whom our 
author had been some time previously introduced, 
and who never failed to encourage, by his counsel 
or purse, any work which tended to advance the 
arts or sciences. The copperplates were given to 
Reinhold Forster, who carried them abroad, and 
published them with a German translation of the 
letter-press. 
Pennant now meditated a longer excursion. Scot- 
land was at this time unexplored by any naturalist, 
and a journey to the northern parts was looked upon 
as a comparatively dangerous undertaking. It was 
accordingly selected as likely to afford a good field of 
observation, and he commenced his first tour on 
