[1] The book referred to was the "Études de la Nature."—Translator.

[2] Dittany was formerly much used as a cordial and sedative.—Translator.

[3] Jean Baptiste de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, was born August 1, 1744; died December 20, 1829. His chief work is his "History of Invertebrate Animals."—Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire was born in 1772, and died in 1844. He expounds his theory of natural history in the "Philosophie Anatomique," 2 vols., 1818-20.—Translator.

[4] Alphonse Toussenel, an illustrious French littÉrateur, born in 1803. The first edition of his "Le Monde des Oiseaux, Ornithologie Passionelle," was published in 1852.—Translator.

[5] The frigate bird, or man-of-war bird (Trachypetes aquila).—Translator.

[6] Alluding to a popular superstition, which BÉranger has made the subject of a fine lyric:—

[7] It was with this exordium Toussaint commenced his appeal to Napoleon Bonaparte.

[8] Napoleon's treatment of Toussaint L'Ouverture is one of the darkest spots on his fame. He flung this son of the Tropics into a dungeon among the icy fastnesses of the Alps, where he died, slain by cold and undeserved ill-treatment, on the 27th of April 1803.—Translator.

[9] There are two lights, of which the more elevated is 396 feet above the sea-level.—Translator.

[10] La HÈve is the ancient Caletorum Promontorium, and situated about three miles north-west of Havre.—Translator.

[11] That the reader may feel the full force of this passage, I subjoin the original: "Nous n'en vivions pas moins d'un grand souffle d'Âme, de la rajeunissante haleine de cette mÈre aimÉe, la Nature."

[12] Compare the interesting descriptions of the huge dams erected by beavers across the American rivers, in Milton and Cheadle's valuable narrative of travel, "The North-West Passage by Land."—Translator.

[13] The reader will hardly require to be reminded of the poet Cowper and his hares.—Translator.

[14] Family TrochilidÆ.

[15] Felix de Azara was an eminent Spanish traveller, who died at Arragon in 1811. He acted as one of the commissioners appointed to trace the boundary-line between the Spanish and Portuguese possessions in the New World. His researches in Paraguay made many valuable contributions to natural history.—Translator.

[16] Lesson was a French traveller of repute; but his works are little known beyond the limits of his own country.—Translator.

[17] FranÇois Levaillant was born at Paramaribo in Dutch Guiana, in 1753. Passionately fond of natural history, and scarcely less fond of travel, he gratified both passions in 1780 by undertaking a series of explorations in Southern Africa. His last journey extended a little beyond the tropic of Capricorn. He returned to Europe in 1784, published several valuable works of travel and zoology, and died in 1824.—Translator.

[18] The unfortunate navigator, Jean FranÇois de Calaup, Comte de La Perouse, was born in 1741. At an early age he entered the French navy, rose to a high grade, and distinguished himself by his services against the English in North America. In 1783 he was appointed to command an expedition of discovery, and on the 1st of August 1785, sailed from Brest with two frigates, the Boussole and the Astrolabe. He reached Botany Bay in January 1788, and thenceforward was no more heard of for years. Several vessels were despatched to ascertain his fate, but could obtain no clue to it. In 1826, however, Captain Dillon, while sailing amongst the Queen Charlotte Islands, discovered at Wanicoro the remains of the shipwrecked vessels. A mausoleum and obelisk to the memory of their unfortunate commander was erected on the island in 1828.—Translator.

[19] Mungo Park, the illustrious African traveller (born near Selkirk in 1771), perished on his second expedition to the Niger towards the close of the year 1805. No exact information of his fate has been obtained, but from the evidence collected by Clapperton and Lander, it seems probable that he was drowned in attempting to navigate a narrow channel of the river in the territory of Houssa. Another account, however, represents him to have been murdered by the natives.—Translator.

[20] See Virgil, "Georgics."

[21] Alexander Wilson, the eminent ornithologist, was born at Paisley in 1766. He was bred a weaver, but emigrating to the United States in 1794, found means to pursue the studies for which he had a natural bias, and in which he earned an enduring reputation. The first volume of his "American Ornithology" was published in 1808. He died of dysentery, in August 1813.—Translator.

[22] We subjoin Dryden's version of the above passage ("Georgics," Book I.):—

[23] The favourite haunt of Jean Jacques Rousseau, on the bank of Lake Leman.

[24] This was written before the annexation of Lombardy to the new Italian kingdom.

[25] It is unnecessary to remind the reader that this is true only of French poets.—Translator.

[26] The reader must not identify the translator with these opinions, which, however, he did not feel at liberty to modify or omit.

[27] Everybody knows the beautiful story of the "Musician's Duel"—the rivalry between a nightingale and a flute-player—as told by Ford and Crashaw.—Translator.

[28] Our author refers to the discovery of the anÆsthetic properties of ether by an American. It was a surgeon of old Europe, however, that gave the world the far more powerful anÆsthetic of chloroform.—Translator.

[29] Compare Byron, in "Don Juan."