Chapter XXXIV: Expedition to the Upper Missouri

Ambitions at fifty-seven—Plans his last expedition
in the _rôle_ of naturalist—Credentials from public
men—Canvassing tour in Canada described—Baird's plans
to accompany Audubon west frustrated—Western expedition
begun—Ascent of the Missouri and Yellowstone—Discoveries
of new birds—A wilderness that howls—Buffalo
hunting—Passing of the great herds—Return from Fort
Union—Incident on the canal boat—Completion of the
octavo edition of the _Birds_.

In the summer of 1842, when his two new undertakings were well in hand, Audubon was planning a journey which he felt would help them both, his long cherished but ever deferred expedition to the Far West; in the dim perspective his mind's eye could trace the snowy summits of the Rocky Mountains, a promised land he was never destined to see, though, with true poetic justice, one of those grand peaks now bears his name. At this time he was in his fifty-eighth year, and although his family thought him too old for so arduous a journey, he would not be thwarted, for his eye was undimmed and his natural force unabated.

The letters which passed between Audubon and Baird at this time show how eager was his young friend to attach himself to the party. While in Washington, July 27, 1842, Baird wrote:

After making several unsuccessful efforts to get a
second sight of you day before yesterday, I was obliged
to give up the attempt in despair. I went to the
Capitol at half past twelve and wandered over the whole
building, Library, Senate Chamber and House, without
being able to see or hear anything of your excellency.
In the evening as in the morning I was again at Fuller's
without avail, went up the street, listened awhile to
the Circus music, came back, you were in bed.

One thing I wanted to ask you about, was respecting
your proposed trip next spring.... Nothing would
delight me more than to go, if I can afford it. Next
what preparation would I have to make to fit myself
to accompany you. The journey ought to be a sort of
"Humboldt & Bonpland" one, for the purpose of increasing
the general sum of knowledge in every department of
science, physical as well as natural.... If there is
anything I can do for you here, do not hesitate to
command me.

Audubon's interesting reply to this letter will be given in full:

_Audubon to Spencer Fullerton Baird_

NEW YORK, _July 30, 1842_.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND,—

Your letter of the 27th Inst. reached me yesterday. I am
truly vexed that I should have missed you at the Library
or the Congress Chambers, where I went (perhaps too
late) between 3 and 4 o'clock of the afternoon, having
been detained at the different Departments of State
where it was my duty to call, preparatory to the next
coming Great Western Journey.

Now it proves by your letter that you feel favorably
disposed to accompany me on this long thought-of and
contemplated Tour, and wish me to give you some idea
of the expenses, attached to such an undertaking; but
to this question I am quite unable to reply at present,
although I may do so in a few weeks, and which I shall
do, provided you write to me again on the subject.

I have no very particular desire to embark as deep in
the Cause of Science as the great Humboldt has done,
and that, simply because I am too poor in pecuniary
means and too incompetent; but I wish nevertheless _to
attempt_ to open the Eyes of naturalists to _Riches
untold_, and _facts hitherto untold_. The portions of
the country through which it is my intention to pass,
never having been trodden by white Man previously.

I have some very strong doubts whether the results of
the Antarctic Expedition will be published for some time
yet; for, alas, our Government has not the means, at
present, of paying some _half a Million of Dollars_ to
produce publications such as they should publish, and
connected with the vast stores of Information, collected
by so many Scientific Men in no less than Four Years of
Constant Toil and privation, and which ought to come
to the World of Science at least as brightly as the
brightest rays of the Orb of Day during the Mid-summer
Solstice. Oh, my dear young friend, that I did possess
the wealth of the Emperor of Russia, or of the King of
the French; then, indeed, I would address the Congress
of our Country, ask of them to throw open these stores
of Natural Curiosities, and Comply with mine every wish
to publish, and to _Give away_ Copies of the invaluable
Works thus produced to every Scientific Institution
throughout our Country, and throughout the World.

As you however appear desirous to present my thoughts
of your capabilities as one of the assistants in that
Stupendous undertaking, I send you enclosed what I hope
most sincerely may prove beneficial for such purposes.

Now as you have been kind enough to offer me your
services at Washington, I ask you to call upon Mr.
Cushing, M. C., of Mass.tts, and to ask him to have the
goodness to forward me the Letter promised me by the
President of the U. S., for, as I have not yet had it,
I somewhat fear that it has been missent.

Write me at once, and believe me,

Your friend, JOHN J. AUDUBON.

Audubon enclosed with this letter a warm recommendation of his friend for the position of curator of the rich collections made by the United States Exploring Expedition to the Antarctic, under command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, then stored at the Patent Office and National Institute, but nothing came of it and Baird went away disappointed.

During the summer, in accordance with his usual custom, Audubon had taken pains to fortify himself with credentials from the Government, and had obtained excellent letters from President John Tyler, Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, General Winfield Scott, who then held the highest commission in the Army, John C. Spencer, Secretary of War, and Lord Ashburton, a member of a special commission to settle the disputed boundary between Maine and the British provinces. The letters given him by Daniel Webster and President Tyler were as follows:[189]

_Daniel Webster to Whom it May Concern_

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
DEPARTMENT OF STATE.

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME—GREETING.

Know Ye, that the bearer hereof, John James Audubon,
a distinguished naturalist and native citizen of the
United States, has made known to me his intention of
travelling on the continent with the view principally of
aiding the cause of science by extending his researches
and explorations in natural history, and as he is known
to me to be a man of character and honor and worthy of
all friendly offices and of all personal regard, these
are therefore to request all whom it may concern, to
permit him to pass freely, without let or molestation,
and to extend to him all such aid and protection as he
may need, and which becomes the hospitality of civilized
and friendly nations.

In testimony whereof I, Daniel Webster, Secretary of
State of the United States, have hereunto set my hand
and caused the seal of this department to be affixed at
the City of Washington, this the 24th day of July, A. D.
1842.

[Signed] DANIEL WEBSTER

_President John Tyler to Whom it May Concern_

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
WASHINGTON, _28th July 1842_.

The bearer of this, John James Audubon, is a native
citizen of the United States, who has informed me of
his intention of travelling on the continent of America,
chiefly to promote the cause of science by researches in
natural history. He is known to me to be a naturalist of
eminent acquirements and estimation, a man of character
and honor and worthy of all personal respect and regard.
I recommend him to my countrymen abroad and to the
authorities and inhabitants of other countries that he
may receive the friendly offices, aid and countenance
which are due to the interests of science and the rites
of hospitality among civilized nations.

JOHN TYLER,

President of the U. States.

John Bachman, who had agreed to be responsible for the letterpress of the _Quadrupeds_, was already at work, as shown by the following note[190] sent to Audubon at this time:

_John Bachman to Audubon_

CHARLESTON, _August_, 1842.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

I have just returned from a visit to the country, where
I left Mrs. Bachman for the benefit of her health. I
have a season ticket on the railroad, and, on my weekly
visits, I do much of my writing on Natural History. The
moment the clock strikes four I am up, and soon at work.
From this hour until seven, I have no interruptions.
I hope in this way to steal time to write about
_Quadrupeds_. When I get fairly under way, as I am now,
I am not easily diverted from the object before me, and
nothing but ill health or domestic affliction will keep
me back.

J. B.

On September 12 Audubon set out on a canvassing tour of Canada, on which he went as far north as Quebec; as he passed his home, he hailed his sons, who were sailing on the river, and the sight of them at this moment brought tears to his eyes. Whitehall, New York, was reached on September 13, St. Johns, Canada, on the following day, and on the 15th he was in Montreal; three days were spent at Quebec (September 16-18), where, as at other points, he met with the most gratifying success. After reaching home in October, the following glowing account of this tour and of the attractions of his new estate on the Hudson was given in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Phillips of London,[191] dated from "New York, 7th Nov., 1842":

AFTER A PORTRAIT PAINTED BY JOHN WOODHOUSE AUDUBON ABOUT 1841, NOW
IN POSSESSION OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK.
PUBLISHED BY COURTESY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.]

_Audubon to Dr. Benjamin Phillips_

I went on a tramp to the Canadas, leaving our
comfortable abode on the 12th of Sepr. last and was
absent for a whole month. My Journey extended to
something like 1500 miles: during which I visited for
the first time, the North-American Gibralter [Quebec],
the sight of which was as new to me as it was wonderful
in the days of old. The views (for I must speak in the
plural) from the Citadel, are as far as I have seen
the grandest and the most sublime I ever gazed upon.
The St. Laurence River, is noble indeed, and when we
know that that stream carried forth to the Atlantic the
congregating waters of all our sea-lakes, we must not
be astonished at her great breadth, depth, and strength
of current to about 60 miles below Montreal. About the
latter city that noble stream is intercepted by many
rapids, and a vast number of Islands, the latter of
which so intersect the view that in some instances it
would prove quite out of the question to discover with
certainty either of the main shores. I visited the falls
of Montmorency, those of the Rivierre Serria and of
La Chan[u]diere. I besides made many an acquaintance
and a few very valuable friends. At Quebec I sold a
copy of our large Work to the Earl of Caledon who also
subscribed to our quadrupeds. At Montreal I sold several
Copies of our Small Edition of the Birds of America
and procured several good names to the quadrupeds. At
Kingston where I had the pleasure of becoming acquainted
with Sir Charles Bagot and family (all delightful
persons) I sold two copies of the large work to both
Houses of Parliament, and also procured their double
subscriptions to the Animals. Thus I returned home
highly pleased with all that I had done and seen. The
more perhaps because I procured in the meantime most
valuable specimens of rare quadrupeds and a fund of
information that can never be met with unless on the
ground of action....

Our dear "Minnie's Land" is improving as fast as our
poor pecuniary means will allow. We have done a good
deal since our purchase of it, in a wild state as it
was, and next spring we will have a good garden and
probably some fruit from our own young trees, of which
we have planted nearly 200 of the very best description,
including pears, aples, quinces, apricote, plumbs,
vines, nectarines, apricotes, etc., etc.... We have fish
whenever we draw the seine, and this summer we have
caught one sturgeon that measured upwards of 8 feet
... weight more than 200 pounds.... The "Boys" take
a sailing pretty frequently in their sail boat, but I
never join them in that, for attempts I have crossed the
Atlantic pretty frequently I have an inward dislike to
the water, after it is more than 2 or 3 fathoms deep!
We have now been enjoying that delightful season, which
our Americans call the "Indian Summer" and not a drop of
rain have we had for several weeks.... Would that you
all were here at this moment, at my elbow, from which
by a peep at the window, I gaze on the "Pallisades" and
the breath of the Hudson, between the trunks of the many
trees that stand at rest at present awaiting the return
of spring for a renewal of fragrant verdure, and fruits
innumerable....

We would be glad if you would ascertain whether a good
agent can be had to procure subscribers in England
for it [the _Quadrupeds_], or whether a responsible
bookseller would buy the copyright, & a certain number
of plates either coloured or plain.

A few weeks later Audubon wrote also to William Yarrell, hoping to interest him in the foreign sale of his new publication, but as will be seen by his friend's reply, now to be given, with indifferent success:

_William Yarrell to Audubon_

[Superscribed by Audubon]
Recd _28 Jany 1843_

[Addressed] J. J. AUDUBON Esqr.
77 William Street
New York

[Superscribed by Yarrell]
single letter.
P. Paid, W.Y.

RYDER STREET ST. JAMES
_London 17th Decr. 1842_.

MY DEAR MR. AUDUBON,

I have this morning received your letter of the 28th.
Novr. last, and as it is strictly a letter of business,
I reply to its various parts immediately.

About a month ago I received a note from Mr. Phillips
to say that he had received the Plates of the first
number of your work on the Quadrupeds of America—would
I come and look at them, and would I exhibit them at
the meetings of the Societies I belonged to for the
promotion of Natural History. I went to see them, and
have with pleasure exhibited them at the Linnean Society
on the third Tuesday in Novr. and at the Scientific
evening, as well as the monthly general meeting of
the Zoological Society, both of which occurred early
in Decr. and I then returned the 5 Plates to Mr.
Phillips—They were very much admired but I did not
obtain any request for a supply.

In reference to your next request, I must decline any
connection with the sale or publication of this, or
indeed any other foreign work, in this country. The
truth is, that having now been in the business nearly
forty years, I begin to be tired of work; the last part
of my History of British Birds will be published on the
1st of June 1843; with that part I shall give up my pen,
and write for money no more.

You are kind enough to give me some credit for
experience as a publisher, and some knowledge of the
persons who are likely to be purchasers of works on
Natural History here—My conviction is that you would
gain more by paying full commission to an established
Bookseller in London who would by advertising make your
works known, and where they might be obtained—than you
will by the best efforts of any private friend, even
though his kindness should induce him to take all the
trouble for nothing.

You say nothing about your family. I hope they are all
well.

I remain, Dear Sir,
Yours very truly

Wm YARRELL.

J. J. AUDUBON Esqr.

77 William Street.
New York.

In the following letter to Spencer Baird, Audubon was able to outline more fully his final plans for the western journey:

_Audubon to Spencer Fullerton Baird_

NEW YORK, _Nov. 29, 1842_.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND,

It seems to me as if an age had already elapsed since
I have heard from you or your whereabouts. Neither do
I know clearly whether in the way of correspondence,
you are in my debt, or I am in yours. Nevertheless I
now write to you, and request you to read this letter
more than once, and think deeply on the purport of its
contents that you may be the [more] able to form a true
Idea of what I intend to say [to] you, and for yourself
to give me a true answer, on which I can depend, no
matter whether it is to my liking or not.

It is now determined that I shall go towards the Rocky
Mountains at least to the Yellowstone River, and up
the latter Stream four hundred miles, and _perhaps_ go
across the Rocky Mountains. I have it in my power to
proceed to the Yellowstone by Steamer from St. Louis on
the 1st day of April next; or to go to the "_Mountains
of the Wind_" in the very heart and bosom of the
Rocky Mountains in the company of Sir William Drommond
Stewart, Baronet who will leave on the 1st of May next
also from St. Louis.

It has occurred to me that perchance you would like
to spare a few months of your life, to visit the great
Western Wilderness, and perhaps again prefer going in
my Company in preference to that of any other person?
Of this of course I cannot Judge without your answer to
this. I thought that you would have been in New York
long ere this, but not a Word of you has reached any
friend of yours here for several months. I have had an
abundance of applications from different sections of the
country, from Young Gents who proffer much efficiency,
etc., but I do not know them as I know you, and if the
terms which I am about to propose to you will answer
your own views, I wish you to write to me at once
so that I may know how to prepare myself for such a
Journey, and under such circumstances.

Would you like to go with me at any rate? By which I
mean, whether by Land, or by Water, and undertake,
besides acting towards me as a friend, to prepare
whatever skins of Birds or Quadrupeds, I may think
fit for us to bring home. The Birds, you might have
one half as your own, the Quadrupeds, (should you wish
it) you might have a 4th or every 4th specimen of the
same species, reserving to myself all that is new or
exceedingly rare.

I will procure and furnish _all the materials_ for
skinning, preparing, and saving whatever we may find
in Ornithology and in Mammalia, and in all probability
(if you think it absolutely necessary) pay one half
your expenses from the time we leave St. Louis until
our return to that city. You will have to work hard,
of course, but then I trust to that the knowledge
alone which you must acquire would prove a sufficient
compensation, and as you already know me pretty well, I
need not say to you that I am not "hard on the trigger."

It will be necessary for you to provide a good double
barrelled Gun, and an excellent Rifle, Shot bag, powder
flask, &c, a good hatchet, and a sufficiency of clothes
for something like a 12 month's Campaign. But if you
will write me at once upon the subject, I can give you
a more and a better a/c of all my intentions, than is at
present necessary.

If all goes on as I trust it will go on, we may be back
home by Octr. or Novr. next, 1843.

Do not lose a moment in writing to me in answer to this
after you have thought _deeply_ upon the matter.

Remember me kindly to all your friends, and believe me,

Yours Always,

JOHN J. AUDUBON.

77 Williams Street, New York.

Baird was unable to reach a decision in the matter, and Audubon actually wrote five more letters on the subject and kept a place open for his young friend for nearly three months. On January 2, 1843, he said that while it was impossible to determine with any degree of accuracy the amount of money the journey might require, he could "safely say that the sum of $500. would prove all sufficient, as our passages to the Yellow Stone will be granted us free; and the expenses from here or from Carlisle cannot exceed 50$ to St. Louis, and may be less." "I have given up," he added, "all Idea of going South this season, being determined to draw quadrupeds until a few days of my leaving home for this grand and Last Journey, I intend to make as a Naturalist." Again, on January 31, he wrote:

It appears from the whole tenure of your letter, that
that rascally article _cash_ is the cause which prevents
you from going along with me to the Yellowstone River
and back. Now, it happens that although we are far from
being rich, we are all desirous that you should go along
with me, because we all know you, and I particularly
so. Therefore, if you will go with me, and assist me all
you can, in the way of hunting, measuring and dissecting
Specimens when I am otherwise engaged, etc. etc. I will
furnish you with all that may be necessary for your
expenses, excepting your clothing and your gun or guns,
as you may have them.

In still another letter, of February 10, Audubon said:

That your kind mother should feel great reluctance in
the premises, does not astonish me, as my own good Wife
was much against my going on so long a Journey; but her
Strong Sense of what is best for us all, and as well
as in myself, the perfect confidence that our Maker's
Will will be done, she has now no Scruples of any kind,
and as for myself I rely as much as I ever have done
in the Support of the Almighty Being who has supported
and secured me against evils of all sorts in my Various
undertakings, and with this Idea at my heart, I feel
confident that although an Old Man, I could undertake
any Journey whatever, and no matter of their lengths
or difficulties. But I wish you would assure your good
mother that to go to Yellow Stone River, in a good
Steamer, as passengers by the courteous offers of the
President of the American Fur Company who himself will
go along with us, that the difficulties that existed
some 30 years ago in such undertakings are now rendered
as Smooth and easy as it is to go to Carlisle and return
to N. Y. as many times as would make up the Sum in Miles
of about 3000: Our difficulties (if any there are) will
be felt on our return; when we must come back to St.
Louis in one or 2 open boats in Sepr and part of Octr
next. The passage being longer or shorter accordingly
with the state of the Missouri at that Season.[192]

Young Baird would gladly have accompanied Audubon, but the fears of his friends for his health and safety interposed, and the party as eventually made up comprised, beside the naturalist, John G. Bell, as taxidermist, Isaac Sprague, artist, Lewis Squires, general assistant and secretary, and his old friend Edward Harris.

Audubon left his home on March 11, 1843, with Victor, who accompanied him as far as Philadelphia, where a rendezvous was made before starting west. The party went first to Baltimore, and by steam cars to Cumberland, then by coach through the Gap, and across the Alleghanies to Wheeling, where a steamer took them down river to Cincinnati. On March 19 they reached Louisville, where Audubon spent four days with his brother-in-law, William G. Bakewell, and on the 28th they arrived at St. Louis, where the party completed their outfit. On April 25 they began their ascent to the Missouri, in the steamer _Magnet_, a small vessel belonging to the American Fur Company, with a motley crowd of trappers, employed by the Company, representing French creoles, Canadian French, Indians, and other nationalities.

During this journey, which lasted eight months, Audubon kept a voluminous journal, which was written in a fine hand on large sheets of linen paper that could be easily rolled and carried in his pocket; this was afterwards sent to Bachman, was returned, and was lost for fifty years, or until 1896, when it was recovered from an old secretary by Audubon's granddaughters, one of whom published it in 1898.[193] It is a highly interesting and spirited narrative from beginning to end, and abounds in graphic pictures of the Indians and trappers, the military posts and pioneer settlements, the abundant bird life and big game, the biggest of which, the buffalo, was then seen by Audubon in a state of nature for the first time, the grand and turbulent rivers, and the smiling or frowning face of the great wilderness so soon to be changed by the devastating hands of civilized man.

What Audubon thought to be a new finch, discovered near the Snake Hills in Missouri, was named for Edward Harris, and though it proved to have been previously described, the bird is still known as "Harris' Finch"; a few days later a new vireo, _Vireo bellii_, received the name of John G. Bell, his taxidermist, and similar honors were passed to artist Isaac Sprague, to whom was dedicated the little titlark, _Alauda spragueii_, now _Anthus spraguei_.

In those days of river navigation, the frequent tying up for fuel or necessary repairs, not to speak of grounding in a treacherous channel, gave almost daily opportunities for the hunters to go ashore, and these occasions seldom failed to produce something interesting, new, or rare. In the Indian country, at Bellevue, Nebraska, where they touched to land a part of their cargo, Audubon "saw a trick of the trade, which made _him_ laugh. Eight cords of wood were paid for with five tin cups of sugar and three of coffee—value at St. Louis about twenty-five cents."

They began to meet with buffalo about the mouth of the James River, in South Dakota, on May 20; the ground, said Audubon, was literally covered with their tracks, and the bushes with their hair. On the same day they discovered "Meadow Larks whose songs and single notes _were_ quite different from those of the Eastern States," and this proved to be the first notice of the Western Meadow Lark, which later appeared as the _Sturnella neglecta_ in the small edition of his _Birds of America_, then in course of publication.

Audubon's opinion of the Indian was modified considerably after having seen him in the western wilderness, and his confidence in George Catlin's descriptions was completely shattered; "His book," he said, "must, after all, be altogether a humbug. Poor devil! I pity him from the bottom of my soul; had he studied, and kept up to the old French proverb that says, 'Bon Renommé vaut mieux que ceinture doré,' he might have become an honest man—the quintessence of God's works."

After forty-eight days and seven hours out of St. Louis, on the 12th of June, they reached Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, where the _Omega_ left them and returned down river. The country proved so interesting that the naturalist remained two months at the fort, where he occupied the room which had been used by Maximilian, Prince of Neuwied, when traveling through the western parts of America ten years before; here Audubon made many drawings. Buffalo were abundant on all sides, and a favorite occupation was shooting wolves from the ramparts of the fort. On June 18 they killed two antelope and two deer before noon, and "immediately after dinner," he said, "the head of the old male was cut off, and I went to work outlining it; first small, with the camera lucida, and then by squares." On the 30th he wrote: "I began drawing at five this morning, and worked almost without cessation till after three, when becoming fatigued for want of practice, I took a short walk, regretting that I could no longer draw twelve or fourteen hours without a pause, or thought of weariness."

On the 15th of July they started up the shore of the Yellowstone in a cart. The party soon had had enough of buffalo hunting, and on one day the naturalist was nearly speared by a charging bull that had been wounded. "What a terrible destruction of life," he says, "as it were for nothing, or next to it, as the tongues only were brought in, and the flesh of these fine animals was left to beasts and birds of prey, or to rot on the spots where they fell. The prairies are literally _covered_ with the skulls of the victims, and the roads the Buffalo make in crossing the prairies have all the appearance of heavy wagon tracks." Foreseeing the departure of the buffalo, he wrote:

One can hardly conceive how it happens, notwithstanding
these many deaths and the immense numbers that are
murdered almost daily on these boundless wastes called
prairies, besides the hosts that are drowned in the
freshets, and the hundreds of young calves who die in
early spring, so many are yet to be found. Daily we see
so many that we hardly notice them more than the cattle
in our pastures about our homes. But this cannot last;
even now there is a perceptible difference in the size
of the herds, and before many years the Buffalo, like
the Great Auk, will have disappeared.

On the 9th of August he added: "I have scarcely done anything but write this day, and my memorandum books are now crowded with sketches, measurements, and descriptions." Those who maintain that a "howling wilderness" is a place that never howls, should read his note for August 19: "Wolves howling, and bulls roaring, just like the long continued roll of a hundred drums"; or this for the 21st: "Buffaloes all over the bars and prairies, and many swimming; the roaring can be heard for miles."

At Fort Union they built a Mackinaw barge forty feet long, which they christened the "Union," and on the 16th of August they started for St. Louis, which was reached in safety on the 19th of October. There they unloaded, and "sent all things to Nicholas Berthoud's warehouse." "Reached home," said Audubon, "at 3 p. m., November 6th, 1843, and thank God, found all my family quite well."

When Audubon was returning by the canal route from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, he was sought out by a young traveler, who afterwards related the following incident.[194] The naturalist, he was told, was under "a huge pile of green blankets and fur," which he had already noticed on one of the benches, and had taken for the fat pile of some western trader. Having waived his choice of a berth in Audubon's favor, he observed that "the green bale stirred a little,—half turned upon its narrow resting place, and after a while sat erect, and showed us, to our no small surprise, that a man was inside of it. A patriarchal beard fell white and wavy down his breast; a pair of hawk-like eyes glanced sharply out of a fuzzy shroud of cap and collar." When this stranger, drawn by a sense of irrepressible curiosity, had ventured near enough to recognize the "noble Roman countenance" thus obscured, he saw that it was Audubon in his wilderness dress; he was "hale and erect, with sixty winters upon his shoulders, and like one of his old eagles, feathered to the heel." Audubon's conversation, said this writer, was impulsive and fragmentary, but he showed him with pleasure some of his original drawings of animals, as well as a living collection of foxes, badgers and Rocky Mountain deer, which he was bringing home.

To follow this narrator further:

The confinement we were subjected to on board the
canal-boat was very tiresome to his habits of freedom.
We used to get ashore and walk for hours along the
tow-path ahead of the boat; and I observed with
astonishment that, though over sixty, he could walk us
down with ease.... His physical energies seemed to be
entirely unimpaired.... Another striking evidence of
this he gave us. A number of us were standing grouped
around him on the top of the boat, one clear sunshiny
morning; we were at the time passing through a broken
and very picturesque region; his keen eyes, with an
abstracted, intense expression, peculiar to them, were
glancing over the scenery we were gliding through, when
suddenly he pointed with his finger towards the fence
of a field, about two hundred yards off. "See! Yonder
is a Fox Squirrel, running along the top rail. It is
not often I have seen them in Pennsylvania." Now his
power of vision must have been singularly acute, to have
distinguished that it was a Fox Squirrel; for only one
other person ... detected the creature at all.

The second Mrs. Victor G. Audubon[195] said that on the day the naturalist returned, "the whole family, with his old friend, Captain Cummings, were on the piazza waiting for the carriage to come from Harlem.... He had on a green blanket coat with fur collar and cuffs; his hair and beard were very long, and he made a fine striking appearance. In this dress his son John painted his portrait."[196] This interesting portrait, which is still in possession of the family, and which is reproduced by his granddaughter in the work from which we have just quoted, shows a man whose apparent age, as suggested by his flowing white hair and grayish white beard, overshoots the clearer testimony of his smooth face and bright eye; as already noticed, Audubon had not then attained his sixtieth year.

Upon his return at this time Audubon is said to have been mistaken for a Dunker, or member of a sect of Quakers noted for their ample beards. On November 29 Bachman wrote: "I am glad to hear that your great beard is now cut off. I pictured you to myself, as I saw you in my home, when you came from Florida, _via_ Savannah. You jumped down from the top of the stage. Your beard, two months old, was as gray as a Badger's. I think a grizzly-bear, forty-seven years old, would have claimed you as 'par nobile fratrum.'" Bachman was apparently disturbed about Audubon's personal habits at this time, for he added in the letter just quoted: "I am a teatotaler. I drink _no wine_, and do not use _snuff_. I hope that you are able to say the same."[197]

Spencer Baird wrote to Audubon from Washington, November 24, 1843, to congratulate him upon the safe return of his western party, saying: "From time to time short notices of your whereabouts and doings appeared in the newspaper and a thousand times I wished that the fears of my friends had not prevented me from accompanying you to the scenes of action." Audubon thought that he might well regret the difficulties that had stood in his way; in replying he said that he had seen "not one Rattlesnake and heard not a Word of bilious fever, or [experienced] anything more troublesome than Moschitoes and of these by no means many"; they had brought home a Swift Fox, an American Badger, and a live Deer, which they thought might prove to be new, fifteen new birds, as well as a certain number of quadrupeds, besides "many of the Birds procured on the Western side of the Big Rocky Hills by Nuttall and Townsend." He felt that much still remained to be done, his only regret being that he was not what he "was 25 Years ago, Strong and Active, for willing he was as much as ever."

In 1844 Audubon brought to a close his octavo edition of the _Birds_ by adding seventeen species, eleven of which were new and represented his discoveries on the Upper Missouri of the previous year. The 500th plate, and last of the series which marked the end of Audubon's life-long labors in ornithology, was dedicated to "Baird's Bunting," _Emberiza bairdii_. "If a trace of sentiment be permissible in bibliography," said Elliott Coues,[198] "I should say that the completion of that splendid series of plates with the name _bairdii_ was significant; the glorious Audubonian sun had set indeed, but in the dedicating of the species to his young friend Spencer F. Baird the scepter was handed to one who was to wield it with a force that no other ornithologist of America has ever exercised."