Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 4, April 1852Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 4, April 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
And this—without one word of the height, weight, color, or habitat of
the animal—is the only information which the Editor of the American
Encyclopædia thinks proper to give his readers—except a brief
description of Doctor Richardson, about whom he seems to know a little,
if he knew nothing about Cariboo—concerning an animal, which is killed
almost annually within fifty miles of Albany, sold annually in Montreal,
and in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia almost as common an article as
venison, or Moose-meat during winter in the markets.
Would not any one suppose, on reading the above, that he was dealing
with the description of an animal, which roamed only wastes untrodden by
the foot of the white man, save the adventurous explorers of the Arctic
Circles, and concerning which no information can be gained by the
ordinary naturalists of this country?
Cuvier and Richardson, and Audubon’s stupendous work are not attainable
by general readers, or even ordinary writers of cities; to those of the
country they are utterly inaccessible—but to Encyclopædists, and to men
who sit down to reproduce great works on Natural History, who choose to
consult them, they are perfectly and easily open; and there is no shadow
of excuse for those who profess to teach others, yet refuse to learn
themselves.
Had the writer of the above worthless trash thought fit to compare
Doctor Richardson’s description of the Cariboo, which it seems he had
read—and which, like all that singularly able naturalist’s
descriptions, is doubtless as minute as correct—with Cuvier’s
description of the Reindeer, he might have pronounced as easily, as he
could whether two and two make four or five, whether the American and
Europe-Asiatic deer are identical or different. Godman, in his
“Quadrupeds of North America,” though a little more definite than Dr.
Leiber, is scarce less bald and brief. Dr. Dekay, whose lamented life
has recently been brought to an untimely close, though he suspected it
to be a denizen of New York, was not fully assured of the fact, and
therefore has not, I think, described it in his Fauna of that State.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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