LIFE OF WILSON. 
xliii 
frequently heard such objections made to the eating of eels here, 
where snakes are so common, yet I do not remember to have 
heard the comparison made in Scotland. I have taken notice 
of these two observations of his, because they are applied gen- 
erally to the Scots, making them appear a weak squeamish- 
stomached set of beings, infected with all the prejudices and" 
antipathies of children. 
“ These are some of my objections to this work, which, how- 
ever, in other respects, does honour to the talents, learning, 
and industry of the compiler.” 
In the month of October, 1804, Wilson, accompanied with 
two of his friends, set out on a pedestrian journey to visit the 
far-famed cataract of Niagara, whereof he had heard much, but 
which he had never had an opportunity of beholding. The pic- 
turesque scenery of that beautiful river, the vastness and sub- 
limity of the cataract, as might be expected, filled the bosom 
of our traveller with the most rapturous emotions. And he ever 
after declared, that no language was sufiiciently comprehensive 
to convey an adequate idea of that wonderful curiosity. 
On the return of Wilson, he employed his leisure moments 
in writing a poetical narrative of the journey. This poem, 
which contains some interesting description, and pleasing im- 
agery, is entitled “The Foresters;” and was gratuitously 
tendered to the proprietors of the Port Folio, and published in 
that excellent miscellany, in the years 1809 — 10. 
This expedition was undertaken rather too late in the season, 
and, consequently, our travellers were subjected to hardships 
of which they were not aware. Winter overtook them whilst 
in the Genessee country, in their return by the way of Albany; 
and they were compelled to trudge, the greater part of the route, 
through snow midleg deep. 
TO MR. WM. BARTRAM. 
Gray’s Ferry, December 15M, 1804. 
“ Though now snug at home, looking back in recollection 
on the long, circuitous, journey which I have at length finished. 
