64 
MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 
gist ; yet, unwilling to fling away all my labours, 
do now deliver them to the public under the title of 
the Arctic Zoology.” In winding up his ta.sk, 
Pennant concludes ■with the following remarks, 
which are worthy of being recorded, as equally 
honourable to his enthusiasm in the cause of physi- 
cal science, and to the amiable modesty with which 
he estimates his own exertions : — “ I have now- 
done as much as the lights of my days have fur- 
nished me with. In some remote age, when the 
British offspring shall have pervaded the whole of 
their vast Continent (North America) or the 
descendants of the hardy Eussians colonized the 
western parts, from their distant Kamtschatka — 
the road in future time to new conquests; aftei; 
perhaps, bloody contests between the progeny of 
Britons and Russians about countries to which 
neither have any right ; after the deaths of thousands 
of claimants, and the extirpation of poor natives by 
the sw-ord andnew'-imported diseases ; — then a quiet 
settlement may take place, civilization ensue, and 
the arts of peace he cultivated ; — then may learning, 
the luxury of the soul, diffuse itself through the 
nation, and some Natmalist arise, ■who, with spirit 
and abilities, may explore each boundary of the 
ocean which separates the Asiatie and American 
Continents ; — may render certain what I can only 
suspect ; and by his observations on the feathered 
tribes, their flights and migrations, give utility to 
mankind, in moral and economical operations, by 
