XXV111 PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
tinued, with little intermission, until advancing years and infirmities 
obliged him to come to rest once more. The history of these wander¬ 
ings, as contained partly in the published fragments of his journals and 
partly in episodes scattered thoughout his ornithological writings, re¬ 
veals some of the most thrilling and romantic scenes and incidents 
that are to be found in the records of modern travel. In those days, 
before the steamboat and the railroad had prepared the way for the 
advance of civilisation, large tracts of the North American continent 
were as unknown as the heart of Africa is at the present day. No 
danger or difficulty, however, was able to quell the spirit of the 
Naturalist. Often he would set out on a journey through woods and 
prairies with only his dog, his gun, his sketch books, and his flute. 
At night he would seek shelter in the hut of some back-woodsman 
or the tents of friendly Indians. Frequently, when he arrived at 
some distant town or village with empty purse, he would replenish 
his funds by rapidly-executed crayon portraits' of some of the citizens 
who wished to be immortalised in that way, or perhaps by giving 
dancing lessons to the younger portion of the community ! Several 
times he embarked in commercial undertakings, but each time, 
either from adverse circumstances or from the counter attraction of 
his gun and his pencil, they ended in failure. Frequently his wife 
had to supplement the slender income by what she could earn by 
teaching, and once she even took a situation as a governess in order 
to provide funds for her husband to take his drawings to England; 
and yet she never seems to have repined at his eccentric habits, nor 
to have lost hope that he would one day make a great name for 
himself. 
At length, as the result of years of unceasing toil and hardship, 
he had accumulated a large amount of material, in the form of both 
drawings and notes, for his long-projected work on the Birds of 
America, and now he had to commence the scarcely less difficult 
task of getting the work published. Finding that it was impossible 
to accomplish this in America, he packed up his portfolios, and, with 
the assistance of his wife’s savings, sailed for England on 26th April, 
1826. After exhibiting his drawings in Liverpool for the purpose of 
raising some needful funds, he went to Edinburgh, where he quickly 
won the hearts of some of the men who then made Edinburgh society 
famous, such as Sir Walter Scott, Francis Jeffrey, Professor Wilson 
(“Christopher North”), Professor Jameson, Sir William Jardine, and 
Sir David Brewster. For a time he was lionised in the Scottish 
capital, and the American back-woodsman, with his noble features, 
his long hair falling in thick clusters over his shoulders, and his 
unconventional and pictuiesque garb, must have been a striking 
picture in many brilliant assemblies. His journal of this period con¬ 
tains many most interesting incidents illustrative of the people and 
the manners of the time. I shall only quote a single sentence— 
“Went to the Society of Arts and saw many beautiful and remarkable 
inventions, among them a carriage propelled by steam, which moved 
with great rapidity and regularity.” 
After making arrangements for the engraving and colouring of his 
drawings of the Birds of North America, on a scale which has hardly 
