Litchfield enquirer., 1877-03-29

ing at six. Hislwages were SO small that he could not yentuIe tp abridge his work ing hours. Hehever spent moment 1uly nor penny uselessly.
 aAmeQpmaehis weEkwas dOneshe woqld see lA lis supDer stoWed away ID h A tA 4osa Ind stlme, and so Slong as it was light he secured the country, look for moths, beetles, birds. or any other living thing that came in his way. When it became 90 dark that he could no longer observe. he dropped down by the side of aba. bank or sssss ss.sesvsr sss s slept until. light returned. Then he got up and again began his observations, which he continued till it was time to go to work. Sunday was his only day Of zests~ By atwelve o'clock Sunday night, Hpv1Ker, B Aun a4d aws His nsleh night that keeps that man Edward in the house" h fact, he never staid at home except Sundays. N Feather never daunted him. .W1ea ,RiAed, @ woql9 Clqok put for a hole in a=bank and thrust himself into it, feet foremost. He kept his head and his gun out, watching and waiting for any causualties that might happen. He know of two such holes, both in sand ban6s npdy ybethins woods, which he occa : sionalIS ffednented They were foxes or badgers dens. If any of these gentry were inside when he took up his position. they did mot venture to disturb him. If on one occasion, when badger eddeavor- ~1 k~nl ma<m.1r l chnw fkc Ia was obliged fO shoot it A He could often have stiot deers and hares, which came close up to where he was; but they were forbidden animals, and he resisted the temptation. He shot owls and bobcats came dancing about him, and many of these he sscuFed and boxed, sending them to their long sleep with little drop of chloroform.
 Gometimea he Yould take up his quar- yMslz.1 AlEis h6bjsciion to these places was the greater number of unpleas- ant 2yisitcEs. than elsewhere-polecats, weasels, bats, rats, and mice, not to speak of hosts of night-wandering insects. mol. lusks, beetles. skaters, centipedee, and snails. Think Of having 9 pole-cat or 2 WC&A$A &&MA8724tAMu& db %Vu1 AaSCsa3WA asleep, or two or three big rats tug-tug glng at your pockets and attempting to steal away your larderl Boyudie church yard, a most uncanny place after dark, was frequently bis lodging place, greatly neighbors. He sometimes had severe en- counters with-Boctuxnals. r0ameFs. One night. while sleeping in 4he6 ruined castle of the Boyne, about five miles west of BanG. he was attacked by a large and fe- rOcious pelecat. Edward could have shot the creature, but he never wasted powder and elad sup6n< anything he could take with his hands. The animal leaped upon him mg he lay upon the foor. and was seiz- cd by the throat by the watchful natural ist. 'sI thought" says Edward, "that he wonld have, tern my hand 10 pieces. with his clAwG endeavoredJ 10 get him turn ed round, so as to get my hand to the back of his neck How he screamed andwnlledi. ~ And thea what an awful steneh he emitted during hiss strugglesr' After struggling with the brute nearly two huurx, Edward bethought him of his chlorOf0rm bottle. and, with dose from that, ended the fight. He was quite ex- hausted with the long contest. but he had secnred q large and vHluable specimen for his collection, ,she felt repaid for all it had cost him.
 In this manner Edward passed several years. working at his trade by day and making his rounds as a naturalist by night. In four years he had made e col lection of nearly Q thousand insects, se- cured in twenty boxes, which were piled one upon another, face downward, to keep ont the dust On-lookipg at them one day he found that rats or mice had destroyed the Khole. collection. This was q heavy misf0rtune for a man in Edwards position. His wife, seeing the empty cas- es, asked him what he would do. "Well. said he. ...it,a an awful disappointment, but I think the best thing to do will be to set to work and i'll them ID again" He did %; and in anoIhsrt to1f 1ekTAT he had as large q collection hsf the ffsts By the year IS45 he had preserved fiearly two thousand specimens of living creatures found in the neighborhood of Banff. About halt the number consisted of quad rnpeaK bfniE feptiles, fishes.. crustacea. s.aF- hzsss. ccrsls sIGnges and immense number of plants Some of the specimens were in bottles. but the great CT number were in cases with glass fronts. He could not afford 10 have the cases made bY 8. Joiner; 80 he make the whole of them hfmselE with the aid of his shoe- makeF6 knife. saNs and a hammer. There wefs about three hundred cases in alL. An exhibition of this collection at a fair held at Banff yielded him a small sun of money, and encouraged him to try the same experiment at Aberdeen, in the hope that he might be able to give up his trade and devote all his time to natur. al history. But he was doomed to sad disappointment. Few people went to see the collection, andIhe was obliged to part uith it to defray thes debt incurred i'd moving it to Aberdeen. The sale brought only E20 los. The collection, went into the hands of A private gentleman, who suffered it to go to ruin. Edward went back to Banfs disappointed, but neither soured nor disheartened. and resumed his trade and afeasearches. is. 5a-usd esit
 Edward got plenty of good advice from people who had seen his collection or had heard of his devotion to natural history, but outside of his own family he rarely received any practical assistance. For many years no one sent him books, and he had no money to buy them. A terrible fall over the rocky cliffs of Tarl air laid nfm up Tor many weeks, ana ne was com. pelied to sell portion of a second collec- tiOa of specimens to support his family during his illness. He was at lengthss sc fortunate as to interest a neighborine claE8Rman in his researches, and to ob tain fs0m his slibraFy Athe sloan of some woFks on natural history. By this gentle mans advice he began to publish in the BGnGahire Journal the results of his ob servations. Edward piledsaway the pa pers containing his articles. but on look ing &onkhem. d. the reauestsof MT. Smiles he lgdha lhey lad bssa moslly ussd for kindline fires.
 Reports of Edwards researches ai length began to attract the notice oi scientific men of London and elsewhere, and his name was sometimes mentioned in scientific journals ,ineonnectlon with some interesting discovery. He also funnas n vaauable friend and adviser ir chs Rev. Mr. Boyd, the parish minister oi Cximcnd, whOse house and library wef, atw4ys open to him. But sickness again
 assailed him. He was forced to give u,
 his nightly rambles; and. worse than ali