Call me Ishmael.
Many are the men, small and great, old and new, landsmen and seamen, who have at large or in little, written of Wales. Run over a few:—The Authors of the Bible; Aristotle; Pliny; Aldrovandi; Sir Thomas Browne; Gesner; Ray; Linnæus; Rondeletius; Willoughby; Green; Artedi; Sibbald; Brisson; Marten; Lacépède; Bonneterre; Desmarest; Baron Cuvier; Frederick Cuvier; John Hunter; Owen; Scoresby; Beale; Bennett; J. Ross Browne; the Author of Miriam Coffin; Olmstead; and the Rev. T. Cheever. But to what ultimate generalizing purpose all these have written, the above cited extracts will show.
First: The uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Geography is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a Wales be English.