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indifference, or something more like scorn: he resolved to proceed at all risks and hazards, and, for some time afterwards, busily employed himself in collecting all the rarer specimens of birds in his own neighbourhood. In October, 1804, he set out, accompanied by his nephew Duncan, and another individual, upon an expedition to the Falls of Niagara, which wondrous scene, according to his own account, he gazed upon with an admiration almost amounting to distraction. On their return, the three friends were overtaken by the storms of winter. Wilson's companions successively gave in, and left him at different parts of their route; but he himself toiled on through the mud and snow, encumbered with his gun and fowling bag, the latter of which was of course always increasing in bulk, and arrived safely at home, after an absence of fifty-nine days, during which he had walked nearly 1260 miles, 47 of which were performed the last day. Instead of being daunted by the fatigues and hardships of the journey, we find him writing an account of it to his friends with something like exultation, and delightedly contemplating future expeditions of the like nature; and this when his whole stock of money amounted to three-fourths of a dollar! For some time after his return, he amused himself with penning a poetical narrative of his journey, called " The Foresters," (afterwards published;) a piece much superior to any of his former descriptive poems, and containing many even sublime apostrophes. From this time forward, Wilson applied his whole energies to his ornithological work, drawing, etching, and colouring all the plates himself, for he had in vain endeavoured to induce his cautious friend Mr Lawson, to take any share in the undertaking. In the spring of 1806, a favourable opportunity seemed to present itself for prosecuting his researches, by a public intimation being given of the intention of president Jefferson to despatch parties of scientific men to explore the district of Louisiana. At Wilson's request, Mr Bartram, who was intimate with the president, wrote to him, mentioning Wilson's desire, character, and acquirements, and strongly recommending his being employed in the proposed survey. Wilson also wrote a respectful and urgent letter to Jefferson, detailing the extensive plans of his work, and explaining all his proceedings and views. To these applications the president vouchsafed not one word in reply; a circumstance which convinced Wilson more and more—nor did he shrink from the conviction—that he must stand self-sustained in the executing of his great national undertaking. But his intrinsic and sterling merits soon procured him a patronage which to his independent mind was, perhaps, infinitely more gratifying than the condescending favours of a great man. He received a liberal offer from Mr Bradford, a bookseller of Philadelphia, to act as assistant editor in bringing out a new edition of Rees's Cyclopædia, and he gladly relinquished the toilsome and ill-rewarded duties of a schoolmaster to betake himself to his new employment. Soon after this engagement, he laid before Mr Bradford the plan of his Ornithology, with the specimens of composition and delineation which he had already executed; and that gentleman was so satisfied of Wilson's ability to complete it, that he at once agreed to run all the risk of publication. All obstacles to the fulfilment of his great design being now removed, Wilson applied himself night and day to his double task of author and editor, occasionally making a pedestrian excursion into various districts for the benefit at once of his health (which was beginning to decay) and of his great work. At length, in 1808, the first volume of the American Ornithology made its appearance, and, much as the public had been taught to expect from the advertisements and prospectuses previously issued, the work far exceeded in splendour anything that had ever been seen in the country before. Immediately on its publication, the author set out on an ex-