The small station for Couëron lies in the commune of Sautron, and at this isolated point the traveler will sometimes find a country conveyance to take him to the village. While we were raising the dust from this old Couëron pike on the eighteenth day of August, swallows hawking with characteristic energy for their insect prey were the only birds we saw to remind us of the ornithologist, who as a youth had doubtless passed this way many times, over a hundred years before. The most direct approach to the old Audubon place from Sautron, as we afterwards learned, is by a path which diverges on the right and leads through stubble fields and cabbage patches, along hedgerows and stone walls. We, however, fared on to the town and soon began to pass shops and small modern houses. On the side of the village the traveler's eye is certain to be arrested by a great crucifix in stone,[117] which rises high above the street from a lofty pedestal, and is approached by tiers of stone steps. Nearly opposite stands the _secrétariat_, or official bureau of the commune, where a solitary clerk, who seemed to welcome my intrusion in a place where business was utterly stagnant, closed his office and with characteristic courtesy cheerfully showed me the way. This led directly westward to one side of the center of the town, and after passing down a street of old houses of the humblest description, we were again in the region of brown fields and old farmsteads. Couëron village, which is marked by a modern church with an aggressive spire, extends along the river bank, but since its streets run parallel with it, the river itself is seen only at certain openings, occurring at irregular intervals. In going to "La Gerbetière" by the course I have described, the Loire was not visible at any point, and was not seen until we emerged from one of the village streets at the steamer's pier. My guide had said that from the rise at the next crossroads we should see the roof of the house which we had come to visit, and his prediction was verified when I recognized immediately its cupola raised above the gray stone walls which there bound every highway and field. The old villa is rather less than a mile from the village, but owing to the rolling nature of the country, it is completely hidden until at close approach it stands suddenly revealed. It lies in a fork of the road, securely inclosed by high, massive walls of stone, now hoary with age, while on the front it is further screened by a natural growth of bushes and trees. Immediately behind and to the west rises a prominent butte which cuts off the view to Port Launay on the river; this forms the one distinctive landmark of the district, as its two windmill towers are visible from all surrounding points. In Audubon's day the house commanded a wide view of the Loire, but the river is now so completely masked by foliage as to be visible only from the upper windows;