This Economical, Silent, Bald Young Man

On his printer's type case was propped before a young apprentice in a shop in Liverpool a book on Natural History which he read while he ought to have been setting the type for Priestly's great treatise on chemistry. The other young printers eyed their fellow worker, Thomas Nuttall, askance, and wondered just how long it would be before the master printer would come in and, discovering how Nuttall passed his time, would discharge him. Perhaps he was dismissed, for aught we know; to this day all too little is known of one of the greatest botanists and ornithologists of America. Certainly he drifted about from place to place frequently, very much in favor with his rich relatives, until chance brought him on a tempestuous voyage to America.

The very first year that Nuttall came to America, all on fire to explore the field and forest, he revelled in collecting and naming the plants of the interesting peninsula that lies between Chesapeake Bay and the estuary of the Delaware. Rafinesque, too, had explored this region, and many botanists have since visited it, yet no one has ever gained knowledge of this flora so thorough that he could write a complete account of it. The task lies open to someone still—a work to be done. The training was splendid tor Nuttall, even if the task was too great.

He continued his journey through Virginia and North Carolina, along the coasts, in the hottest and most unhealthy time of year and was so bitten on the face by insects that his features became inhuman, and in one place he was refused admittance to a tavern on account of his ruffianly appearance. The next year Nuttall, in company with a Scotch naturalist. Bradbury, ascended the Missouri River. They were the first naturalists to penetrate west of the Mississippi. On this trip the two scientists were captured and robbed by Indians, and Bradbury only saved his life by taking his watch to pieces and distributing its parts among the childishly delighted savages.

As for Nuttall, he got lost, became unconscious with hunger, and was found by a friendly Indian who paddled him down river to a white settlement. During the years that followed Nuttall traveled constantly, along the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, to Florida and through all the southern states. Not a bird escaped his eyes, and wherever he went rare flowers were found by his swift observation. At other times he was back in Philadelphia, studying his collections. Even his intimate friends scarcely knew where he boarded, this economical, silent, bald young man who had already acquired all the reticent and precise manners of an old bachelor. Frequently he forgot to leave the old museum in Philadelphia even to eat his meals.

By: davidbunch

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