The Roosevelt family visited Europe again in 1873, and afterwards
went to Algiers and Egypt, where the air, it was hoped, would help
the boy's asthma. This was a pleasanter trip for him, and the
birds which he saw on the Nile interested him greatly.
His studies of natural history had been carried on in the summers
at Oyster Bay on Long Island, on the Hudson and in the
Adirondacks. They soon became more than a boy's fun, and some of
the observations made when he was fifteen, sixteen or seventeen
years old have found their way into learned books. When the State
of New York published, many years afterwards, two big volumes
about the birds of the state, some of these early writings by
Roosevelt were quoted as important. A friend has given me a four-
page folder printed in 1877, about the summer birds of the
Adirondacks "by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and H. D. Minot." Part of
the observations were made in 1874 when he was sixteen. Ninety-
seven different birds are listed.
When he was fifteen and had returned a second time from Europe, he
began to study to enter Harvard. He was ahead of most boys of his
age in science, history and geography and knew something of German
and French. But he was weak in Latin, Greek and mathematics. He
loved the out-of-doors side of natural history, and hoped he might
be a scientist like Audubon.
CHAPTER II
IN COLLEGE
Roosevelt entered the Freshman class of Harvard University in
1876.
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