Under a Wild Sky (54 page)

  
43
   
Jefferson prevailed on the governor
Kastner,
A Species of Eternity
, page 125.

  
43
   
He denounced Buffon's
Waldstreicher (ed.),
Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson
, page 121.

  
43
   
This argument, especially
Ibid., pages 175–81.

  
44
   
Listing more than 120 species
Ibid., page 127.

  
44
   
Twenty years after
Wilson to Thomas Jefferson, March 18, 1805. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 232–33.

4. LESSONS

  
45
   
Only months before
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, page 120.

  
45
   
Wilson acknowledged that
Wilson to Thomas Jefferson, March 18, 1805. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 232–33. (The drawing at issue is reproduced in Kastner,
A Species of Eternity
, page 167.)

  
45
   
The president was impressed
Thomas Jefferson to Wilson, April 7, 1805. Ibid.

  
46
   
As for the bird that so beguiled
Wilson to William Bartram, July 2, 1805. Ibid.

  
46
   
With the dawn
Wilson,
American Ornithology
, vol. II, page 107.

  
47
   
In the summer of 1803
Wilson to Thomas Crichton, June 1, 1803. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, page 203.

  
47
   
In the summer of 1794
Weigley et al.,
Philadelphia
, pages 190–91.

  
47
   
The fever was a terrifying
Ibid., page 180.

  
47
   
Many who left did so
Ibid., page 182.

  
48
   
Rush thought that a great load of ruined coffee
Ibid., pages 180–81.

  
48
   
In reeking hospitals the dying and the dead
Simon, “Houses and Early Life in Philadelphia.” Simon quotes at length from the diary account of Elizabeth Drinker, a Philadelphia resident who lived through the epidemic. Drinker, like everyone else in the city, was horrified by conditions at an estate called Bush Hill, which had been turned into a temporary hospital and which soon became a “great slaughter house.” Anyone even mildly ill who was taken to Bush Hill regarded this as “the seal of death.” Ironically, Bush Hill was eventually cleaned up and turned into a model of proper sanitation and more effective treatments for the fever.

  
48
   
The sky itself turned black
Ibid.

  
48
   
Rush adhered to an old-fashioned
Weigley et al.,
Philadelphia
, pages 184–85.

  
48
   
A few doctors who were more familiar with tropical diseases
Ibid., pages 185–87.

  
48
   
But the disease ran rampant
Ibid., pages 187–88.

  
49
   
When he couldn't find work as a weaver
Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, page 64.

  
49
   
Philadelphia was then
Weigley et al.,
Philadelphia
, page 208.

  
49
   
Built on an orderly grid
Ibid., pages 208–21.

  
49
   
It was twice as wide
de Montule,
Travels in America
, page 25.

  
49
   
Every inn and hotel in the city
Ibid., page 24.

  
49
   
By day the streets were clean
Weigley et al.,
Philadelphia
, page 220.

  
49
   
Wilson said that coming to America
Wilson to an anonymous Paisley friend, 1796. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, page 152.

  
49
   
No matter what a man's occupation
Wilson to an anonymous Paisley friend, probably in 1795. Ibid.

  
49
   
“
When I look round me here”
Wilson to an anonymous Paisley friend, 1796. Ibid.

  
50
   
After a few months
Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, page 64.

  
50
   
Having little education
Ibid., pages 65–66.

  
50
   
He found his neighbors pleasant and honest
Wilson to his father, August 22, 1798. Ibid., pages 153–58. A sharp observer of odd habits and sour moods in others, Wilson's own depressive personality was rarely far below the surface. He closed this letter home as follows: “May providence continue to bless you with Health, Peace, and Content, and when the Tragic-Comic scene of Life is over, may all meet in regions of Bliss and Immortality. I am, till Death, Dear Father, Your truly affectionate son.”

  
50
   
Mallards, redheads, teal
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, pages 94–95.

  
51
   
It began with blue-winged teal
Wilson,
American Ornithology
, vol. III, page 205.

  
51
   
Although the birds were wary
Ibid.

  
51
   
Canada geese—which were shot
Ibid., pages 175–81.

  
51
   
Hunters had to conceal themselves
Ibid.

  
51
   
The duck waters around Philadelphia
Ibid., pages 219–25.

  
51
   
As early as 1727
Miller,
Early American Waterfowling
, page 79.

  
52
   
On moonlit nights
Wilson,
American Ornithology
, vol. III, pages 219–25.

  
52
   
The hunter—also dressed in white
Miller,
Early American Waterfowling
, page 101.

  
52
   
The method that most intrigued Wilson
Wilson,
American Ornithology
, vol. III, pages 219–25.

  
52
   
The great thing about letter-writing
Wilson to Charles Orr, July 21, 1800. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 170–72.

  
52
   
William Duncan moved to upstate New York
Wilson to his father, November 1798. Ibid., pages 158–60. This letter was evidently composed over a period of time that month.

  
53
   
In 1798, Philadelphia was again gripped
Ibid.

  
53
   
Wilson could scarcely believe
Ibid.

  
53
   
It was possible
Ibid.

  
53
   
At one point he even resigned
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, page 102.

  
53
   
In one letter, Wilson suggested
Wilson to Charles Orr, July 21, 1800. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 170–72.

  
53
   
I, for my part, have many things
Ibid.

  
53
   
A few days later
Wilson to Charles Orr, July 23, 1800. Ibid.

  
55
   
Although he still felt he was
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, pages 103–4.

  
55
   
In May, only months after
Wilson to Charles Orr, May 1, 1801. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson.
As with most of the Orr correspondence, the original of this letter is in the National Library of Scotland.

  
55
   
Orr found Wilson in a miserable state
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, page 105.

  
56
   
At one point he asked Orr
Wilson to Charles Orr, September 14, 1801. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 188–89.

  
56
   
In a tortured letter
Wilson to Charles Orr, February 7, 1802. Ibid., pages 189–90.

  
56
   
A week later he wrote
Wilson to Charles Orr, February 14, 1802. Ibid., pages 190–92.

  
56
   
The schoolhouse, a squat, one-room building
Illustrated as Figure 11, Ibid.

  
56
   
The road passed out of the city's busy streets
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, page 113.

  
57
   
He was the son of John Bartram
Harper (ed.),
The Travels of William Bartram
, page xvii.

  
57
   
The elder Bartram had been revered
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, page 119.

  
57
   
William, who from an early age
Harper (ed.),
The Travels of William Bartram
, pages xvii–xviii.

  
57
   
The extensive Alachua savanna is a level, green plain
Ibid., pages 119–20.

  
58
   
In one of his most talked-about escapades
Ibid., pages 169–70. No animal native to North America even comes close to the rattlesnake as a source of fear and fascination to early settlers and explorers, and no self-respecting naturalist failed to include the snake among the living wonders of the New World. Bartram recorded this anecdote in his
Travels
—though it actually occurred on his earlier visit to northeast Florida with his father—as part of a general discussion of the snake and his various encounters with it in different locales. Bartram, showing rather insufficient skepticism for an otherwise careful student of nature, apparently believed in the power of “fascination” that rattlesnakes supposedly used to hypnotize their prey. In debunking this myth several decades later, Audubon would create a controversy
that plagued him for years. In between, Alexander Wilson, after studying with Bartram, told his own rattlesnake story in his epic poem,
The Foresters.

  
58
   
He reported that Florida swamps
Ibid., page 75.

  
58
   
And he assembled a new list
Ibid., pages 377–78.

  
59
   
Three years after the book
Ibid., page xxvi.

  
59
   
Long devoted to rambling
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, page 120.

  
59
   
But by the spring of 1803
Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 73–74.

  
59
   
In March, he sent
Wilson to William Bartram, March 4, 1803. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, page 202.

  
59
   
Wilson worked on images of birds
Wilson to William Bartram, October 30, 1803. Ibid., pages 203–4.

  
59
   
The two-volume book consists almost entirely
Meyers and Pritchard,
Empire's Nature
, pages 2–17.