As to geology, my dear Friend, you know as well as myself, that I am not in the country for that. The instructions you gave me are very valuable, and I shall be vigilant. The aspect of the country will soon begin to change, and as I proceed, I will write to you about all we see and do.... Do not be afraid of my safety; I take a reasonable care of my health and life. I know how to guard against real difficulties, and I have no time to attend to that worst of all kinds of difficulties,—imaginary ones. Circumstances never within my control, threw me upon my own resources, at a very early period of my life. I have grown up in the school of adversity, and am not an unprofitable scholar there, having learnt to be satisfied with providing for my family and myself by my own exertions. The life I lead is my vocation, full of smooth and rough paths, like every vocation which men variously try. My physical constitution has always been good, and the fine flow of spirits I have, has often greatly assisted me in some of the most trying passages of my life. I know I am engaged in an arduous undertaking; but if I live to complete it, I will offer to my country a beautiful monument of the varied splendour of American nature, and of my devotion to American ornithology. JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. Ther., this day, at 2 p. m., 78° Fahr. On the following day, December 8, 1831, Audubon sent the following request to Dr. Harlan of Philadelphia: "I wish you also to send me—to Key West—, 20 more pounds of powdered arsenic from Friend Wetherell's shop,[10] and also a double barelled gun of usual length, as good as you can procure for 30 dollars; probably a second hand one may be procured; it must be _percussion_ and, if possible, _back action_." Dr. Richard Harlan, who often transmitted to Mrs. Audubon any news which came direct from her husband, wrote to her on December 10, 1831, as follows:[11] I have just recd a letter from Mr Aud—dated St. Augustine Nov. 24th they enjoy health amidst their fatiguing avocations—has obtained another subscriber, living on St. Simons island named Tho. Butler King—to whom I am to send the work as soon as the Copies exported arrive from London—he has good expectations of adding some new birds to his list—have you seen the Sonnet addressed to Mr Aud. in the "Wreath" a London annual for 1832?—under the signature of J. E. R?—our newspapers announce the arrival, departure & progress of Mr Audubon, as if he was an _Embassador_—and so he is, one of Natures——