life in New Orleans with forty-two dollars, health, and much anxicty to pursue my plan of collecting all the birds of America.” Neither vicissitudes of fortune, nor the book The reader must refer to his biographer if he would follow Audubon as he wandered from place to place, now pleased, now disgusted with the people; at one time teaching drawing to pupils, at another painting portraits, the interior of a steamboat, or views of American scenery, in order to procure the necessaries of life. Audubon has given a graphic account of the devastation caused by the overflows of the great Mississippi; it overflows its banks and sweeps inland swollen, and have in different places visited the 66 On occasions like Whilst Audubon was in Philadelphia, in the spring of 1824, he was introduced to Charles Lucien Buonaparte, Prince of Canino, who, as we have already said, was engaged on the "Ornithology of America." Buonaparte examined Audubon's drawings, and was complimentary in his praises." Audubon found him "very gentlemanly,' The Prince took him to Peel, the artist, who was drawing birds for his work. dubon did not appear to think much of them; from want of knowledge of the habits of birds in a wild state, he represented them as if seated for a portrait, instead of wi.h their own lively animated ways when seeking their natural food or pleas ure." 66 Au Audubon then went with the Prince to Mr. Lawson, who engraved Wilson's plates. This gentleman whose figure nearly reached the roof," whose face was sympathetically "Until the country is a turbid ocean, checklong," and • whose ered by masses and strips of the forest through tongue was so long" that there was no opwhich the flood rolls lazily down cypress-shad-portunity to speak in his company. owed glaudes under the gloomy pines, and into thought Audubon's drawings too soft, too unexplored recesses where the trailing vine and much like oil-paintings, and objected to enumbrageous foliage dim the light of the noon- grave them. Audubon here characterisday suu. In islets left ainid the waste, deer in tically observes that another engraver, Mr. thousands are driven; and the squatter with his Fairman the name is significant gun and canoe, finds on those refuges the game better able to appreciate his drawings. He which he slaughters remorselessly for the skins advised him to go to England and have and feathers that will sell. Floating on a raft them engraved in a superior manner." made fast by a vine rope to some stout trees, the farmer and his family preserve their lives, This advice seems to have taken a firm hold while the stream bears away their habitation, of Audubon. The Prince of Canino entheir cut wood, their stores of grain, their stock, gaged him to superintend his drawings inand all their household goods. . . . I have tended for publication; but Audubon adds, floated on the Mississippi and Ohio when thus" my terms being much dearer than Alex was ander Wilson asked, I was asked to discontinue this work. I had now determined to go to Europe with my treasures,' since I was assured nothing so fine in the way of ornithological representations existed. I worked incessantly to complete my series of drawings." In his Diary, August 1st, 1824, Audubon records that he was "in good health, free from debt, and free from anxiety about the future." He was then in New York. Here he again met the Prince of Canino; he visited the museum, and found the specimens of stuffed birds set up in unnatural and constrained attitudes. "This appears to me," he says, "the universal practice; and the world owes to me the adoption of the plan of drawing from animated nature. Wilson is the only one who has in any tolerable degree adopted my plan." It is absurd to suppose that Alexander Wilson copied Audubon, who could not depict birds in the act of flying; several of his birds assume a grotesque and impossible attitude, so that how far he drew from nature is questionable. Liverpool in July, 1826, and was the guest of Mr. Rathbone. In Liverpool he met with a well-merited reception; his Diary day by day is full. He got letters of introduction to various literati - Baron Humboldt. Scott, Sir Humphrey Davy, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Hannah More, &c. "I am cherished," he writes, "by the most notable people in and around Liverpool." Lord Stanley at first he found "rather shy," but a frank and agreeable man, and, what was of more importance to Audubon, one who could thoroughly appreciate his drawings. These were exhibited at the Roval Institution, for which he painted a wild turkey, full size; and if we remember rightly, the painting is there to this day. From Roscoe he got a letter of introduc tion to Miss Edgeworth, in which Audubon's pursuits and acquirements were referred to in "flattering language." He realized 100l. by the exhibition of his pic tures at the Royal Institution. From Liv erpool Audubon went to Manchester. Here he first became acquainted with the English Audubon was fortunate in the possession fashion of shooting; such tame sport did of a most noble and self-denying wife, and not please him. He exhibited his pictures in her presence he forgot his troubles and in a gallery at Manchester, at one shilling was spurred on to renewed exertions. Not for entrance; this did not pay. From only did Mrs. Audubon cheer the naturalist Manchester Audubon returned to Liverby her kindness and self-denial, but at one pool, then back again to Manchester. At time her industry and talents brought her Mr. Rathbone's he met with the well-known nearly three thousand dollars a year, which publisher Mr. Bohn, who advised him to she generously offered to forward the pub- go to Paris and consult about the cost of lication of her husband's long-cherished the publication of his work. He drew a work. Audubon here adds that he re- figure of the American wild turkey, the solved by new efforts to increase his fi- size of his thumb-nail, which Mrs. Rath nances; accordingly he turned dancing-bone had engraved as a seal and presented master; and, with his fiddle under his arm, to him. He visited Matlock, and paid five entered the ball-room. "How I toiled," pounds for spas to take home to his wife; he says, "before I could get one graceful he gathered wild flowers from the hills she step or motion ! I broke my bow and near- had often played over when a child; and ly my violin in my excitement and impa- passed through the village of Bakewell, tience." A dancing-master and a back- called after some one of her family. woodsman can both be impersonated by Audubon next went to Edinburgh, OctoAudubon. However, the dancing specula-ber 25, 1826, with letters of introduction to tion brought two thousand dollars, and, Professors Jameson and Duncan, and Dr. with this capital and my wife's savings," he Knox the anatomist. In the fishwives of remarks, "I was now able to foresee a suc- the old place he detected a resemblance to cessful issue of my great ornithological the squaws of the West. Their rolling work." In England he "expected to find gait, inturned toes, and manner of carrying the fame given to all heroes so tardily in burdens on their backs, reminded him of their own country." the Shawnee women. He considered the men "extremely uncouth in manners and in speech." Prospects in Edinburgh, however, were "dull and unpromising," for people were shy of putting their names down as subscribers to a work of a most costly character, the author of which, hav ing lived most of his life in the backwoods of America, was almost unknown to them; yet he met with most enthusiastic admirers 66 Audubon sailed for Liverpool in April, 1826. He had obtained many letters of introduction to friends in England, and amongst them one to Mr. Richard Rathbone, a name long remembered and justly honored by the people of Liverpool. Audubon's object was to find a purchaser and a publisher for his drawings, upwards of four hundred in number. He landed in wife." of his drawings. Mr. Lizars, the well- and said, Mr. Audubon, that picture is too known engraver of Selby's great work, good to be given away; his Majesty would "The Birds of Great Britain," thus forci- accept it, but you never would be bencited by bly expressed himself when Audubon's the gift more than receiving a letter from his portfolio was opened before him: My private secretary, saying, that it had been God! I never saw anything like these be- pliced in his collection. This picture is worth three hundred guineas, sell it, and do not give fore!" Audubon made the acquaintance it away. I thanke 1 him, exhibited the picture, of several eminent men while in Edinburgh: refused three hundred guineas for it soon after, for instance, Sir Walter Scott, Sir W. Jar-kept it several years, and at last soll it for one dine, Professor Wilson, and other celebri- hundred guineas to my generous frien 1, John ties of the day, but he records nothing con- Heppinstall, of Sheffield, Englan, and invested cerning them beyond the gratification their the amount in spoons and forks for my good appreciation of himself or his drawings gave him. Combe, the phrenologist, examined Audubon's "skull with the accuracy and professional manner in which," he says, I measured the heads, bills, and claws of my birds. Among other talents he said I possessed largely the faculties which would enable me to excel in painting." At this time he records in his Diary, "I have taken to dressing again, and now dress twice a day, and wear silk stockings and pumps. I wear my hair as long as usual; I believe it does as much for me as my paintings." On one occasion he dined with Captain Basil Hall, and was fortunate in meeting Jeffrey and M'Culloch, plain, simple, and amiable man; Jeffrey is a little man with serious face and dignified air. He looks both shrewd and cunning, and talks with so much volubility he is rather displeasing. In the course of the evening, Jeffrey seemed to discover that if he was Jeffrey, I was Audubon." Audubon was now in London, where he "continued his canvass with great success He now deteramong the aristocracy." mined to remove the publication of his "The Birds of America " from work on a We have seen how Audubon prided himself upon his long flowing hair. Some of his friends had been urgent upon him that he should cut it and wear it according to the prevailing fashion. He thus records the sad curtailment of his ringlets: "Edinburgh: March 19, 1827. - This day my hair sacrificed, and the will of God usurped by the wishes of man. As the barber clipped my locks rapidly, it reminded me of the horrible times of the French Revolution, when the same operation was performed upon all the victims murdered by the guillotine. My heart sank low. "JOHN J. AUDUBON." The margin of the sheet on which this obituary occurs is painted black, about three fourths of an inch deep all round, as if in deep mourning for the rape of the lock." Audubon painted a picture with the intention of presenting it to George IV. Sir Thomas Lawrence called on Audubon and wished to see it :— "He came and pushed off my roller easel, bade me hold up the picture, walked from one side of the room to the other examining it, and then coming to me tapped me on the shoulder Edinburgh to London, from Mr. Lizars to Mr. Robert Havell, because he thought the work would proceed more rapidly, and be done better and cheaper in the metropolis. Mr. Children was at this time curator of the British Museum, and to him Aud bcn sold a proof copy of the first number of the Birds" for two guineas, the subscribers' price. At his request Audubon sent a copy to the King: "His Majesty was pleased to call it fine, and permitted me to publish it under his particular patronage, approbation, and protection, and became a subscriber on usual terms, not as kings generally do, but as a gentleman. And I look on such a deed as worthy of all kings in general. The Duchess of Clarence also put down her name; and all my friends speak as if a mountain of sovereigns had dropped in an and for me." ample purse at once Audubon now determines to visit Paris. He left London on September 1, 1828. His biographer says that his " Diary freshens a little after the salt breeze of the Channel." His first visit on the arrival at the French capital was to the Jardin des Plantes to see the great Cuvier. Aubudon was astonished to hear that his great ornithological work bad not even been heard of in Paris. Swainson was Audubon's companion on the occasion of the visit to France. On their arrival at Baron Cuvier's house, they knocked, but were told the great comparative anatomist was too busy to be seen. However, they were determined to look at the great man, so they knocked again, and sent up their names : "Monsieur le Baron, like an excellent good man, came to us. He had heard much of my friend Swainson, and greeted him as he deserves, and was polite and kind to me, although he had never heard of me before," On the following Saturday Audubon had he then revisited America, and proceeded, the honour of dining with the Baron. At a after three weeks' stay in Philadelphia, to meeting of the Royal Académie des Scien- the shores of New Jersey and the Great ces, Audubon exhibited his portfolio. Cu- Egg Harbour. Here Audubon was once vier arose and spoke of the work. It was more free to roam where he listed. His admired as usual, and the Baron was re-chief object for visiting Egg Harbour was quested to review it for the memoirs of the Academy. Audubon was pleased with the reception he met with from so many celebrated men. From the respect with which he was everywhere received, he imagined he should get several subscribers. In the midst of this charming vision, he writes to Mrs. Audubon in the following words: "I have now run the gauntlet of Europe, Lucy, and may be proud of two things-that am considered the first ornithological painter, and the first practical naturalist of America." The date of the letter is September 9. Poor Audubon ! On the 15th of the same month, he writes most despondingly to his wife: "France is poor indeed! This day I have attended the Royal Academy of Sciences, and had my plates examined by about one hundred persons. Fine, very fine!' issued from many mouths; but they said also, What a work! what a price! who can pay it?'" When Audubon mentioned that he had thirty subscribers in Manchester, they stared and seemed surprised. to procure birds known to the people there by the name of "lawyers." We presume they must have been birds with long bills. A fish, which he considered a curiosity, was transmitted to Cuvier. Audubon passed several weeks along those delightful and healthy shores; one day going into the woods to search the swamps in which the herons bred, passing another amid the joy Ious cries of the thrush hens, and on a third carrying slaughter among the white-breasted gulls; by way of amusement, sometimes Lauling the fish called the "sheep's head" from an eddy along the shore; watching the gay terns as they danced in the air, or plunged into the water to seize the tiny fry. Many a drawing he made at Egg Harbour, and many a pleasant day he spent along its shores. Then follows an interesting account of the Great Pine Swamp or Forest. Our naturalist spent six weeks here, and found the wild turkey, pheasant, and grouse tolerably abundant; but how would an trout streams in the river Sehigh! "Ah! angler's heart beat with joy to think of the reader," exclaims Audubon, “if you are an angler, do go there and try for yourself. For my part, I can only say that I have been made weary with pulling up from the rivulets the sparkling fish, allured by the struggles of the common grasshopper." Audubon now started off to his wife and children, whom he had not seen for some "Poor France," he continues, "thy fine climate, rich vineyards, and the wishes of the learned avail thee nothing; thou art a destitute beggar and not the powerful friend thou wert represented to me. Now it is that I plainly see how happy or lucky it was in me not to have come to France first; for if I had, my work now would not have had even a beginning. It would years. The former was now at Bayou Sara, have perished like a flower in October; and I in Mississippi, resident in a house belong should have returned to my woods, without the ing to a Mr. Johnson. There he remained hope of leaving behind that eternal fame which three weeks, busy bunting the wood and my ambition, industry, and perseverance long drawing birds and other animals. But to enjoy. Not a subscriber, Lucy, not one!" Audubon would again be a wanderer; he left his sons in America, and went with Mrs. But Audubon was not doomed to such a Audubon to Washington and Philadelphia, heavy misfortune as this. He afterwards thence to New York, thence once more to received a note from Baron de la Bouillerie, England. Everything, he writes, had gone announcing the King's subscription for six on well in England; and, although the subcopies, and obtained altogether in France scribers' list had not increased, it had not thirteen subscribers. Most eulogistic is much diminished. He found he had been Cuvier's report on Audubon's work, which elected a Fellow of the Royal Society dur is characterized as the most magnificent ing his absence, for which he believes he monument yet erected to Ornithology. If was indebted to Mr. Children and Lord Mr. Audubon's work should ever be com- Stanley. Subscribers, however, did not pleted, we shall be obliged to acknowledge" pay up" as regularly as he expected; that America, in magnificence of execution, has surpassed the Old World." After an absence from England of two months, Audubon returned to London, where he remained till the spring of 1828; and, money being wanted, he set to work again with pencil and brush. Audubon visited Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, York, Hul, and other places, and once more came to Edinburgh on October 13, "I have balanced my accounts with the birds of America, and the whole business is really wonderful; forty thousand dollars have passed through my hands for the completion of the first volume. Who would believe that a lonely individual, who landed in England without a friend in the whole country, and with only sufficient pecuniary means to travel through it as a visitor, could have accomplished such a task as this publication? Who could believe that once in London Audubon had only a sovereign left in his pocket, and did not know of a single individual to whom he could apply to borrow another, when he was on the verge of failure in the very beginning of his undertaking? and above all who could believe that he extricated himself from all his difficulties, not by borrowing money, but by rising at four o'clock in the morning, working hard all day, and disposing of his works at a price which a common labourer would have thought little more than sufficient remuneration for his work?" cipally for ship-building. It is not an uncommon thing for a "live-oaker" to be lost in the woods; and Audubon tells a painful story of one who had missed his way. One "hummock" is so like another, and the grass, unless it has been burned, is so tall that a man cannot see over it. So difficult it is to preserve the little-beaten trail, and so heavy are the fogs, that wanderers in these extensive wilds have to exercise extreme caution and observation. Audubon describes a hurricane he experienced off the coast of Florida in glowing language:— "We were not more than a cable's length from the shore, when with imperative voice the pilot calmly said to us, 'Sit quite still, gentlemen, for I should not like to lose you overboard just now; the boat can't upset, my word for that, if you will but sit still. Here we have it!' Reader, persons who have never witnessed a hurricane, such as not unfrequently desolates the sultry climates of the South, can scarcely form an idea of their terrific grandeur. One would think that not content with laying waste all on land, it must needs sweep the waters of the shallows quite dry to quench its thirst. No respite for a moment does it afford to the objects within the reach of its furious current. On it goes with a wildness and fury that are indescribable; and when at last its frightful blasts have ceased, nature, weeping and disconOn September 3rd, 1831, Audubon and solate, is left bereaved of her beautiful offspring. his wife are once more in New York. He instances even a full century is required knew of unexplored regions which he felt certain would furnish large additions of new birds to his collection; and so, after remaining a few days with his friends at Boston, he proceeded to East Florida, where he intended to pass the winter. The forests of East Florida for the most part consist of what are called "pine barrens" in that country. The only trees that are seen are tall pines of indifferent quality, beneath which rank grass and low bushes grow. The soil is sandy, either covered with water in the rainy season, or parched, with the exception of occasional pools of water, in the dry season. Various kinds of game abound in these wilds. Here and there the traveller is pleased to find a dark "hummock" of live oaks and other trees, "seeming as if they had been planted in the wilderness." The traveller approaching these hummocks" of oaks, feels the air cooler and more salubrious, he hears the songs of numerous birds, he enjoys the grateful odour of luxuriant flowers. In the midst of these extensive forests a race of men ply their vocations; these are the live-oakers," or wood-cutters of Florida. They dwell in log huts or cabins, with their wives and families. The wood is used prin before, with all her energies, she can repair her me on it." There is an interesting chapter on the Wreckers of Florida, of whose cruel and cowardly methods to allure vessels to the dreaded reefs so much had been said. Audubon, however, seems to have found them good sort of fellows, who gave him a hearty welcome. He paid a visit to sev |