Now this you can do for me. I am willing to write every description and every line of the book. I do it without fee or reward. But—1. Books of reference or copies of them he must obtain. 2. He must publish no species without my approbation. He has made some sad mistakes already. 3. He must procure such information as I shall write for. 4. _He must send some person—say when John returns—to make a tour for collecting specimens through the states of the west especially._ I find the smaller Rodentia differing every 600 miles. Richardson's species differ from those of New York—ours are once more different from those of N. Y. Leib [?] found a number of new species in Illinois. The New Orleans squirrels differ from ours—California once more new. Now on this last particular—the necessity of giving me specimens to describe from I wish you to speak to Audubon. I cannot consent to impose on the public. I cannot settle the species without specimens. [Tell] him what I have written and [of what I have] complained. Show him this letter if you should [think] it will accomplish the end. I shall soon have the volume finished as well as I am able from the scanty materials with which I am furnished. Then they will be clamorous for the second volume. Now I do not like to make any threats, but if my reasonable requests are not complied with I have made up my mind not to write another line at the end of the first volume. I have not made up my mind hastily. It is the result of four years remonstrance, mortification, and disappointment. Once and for nearly a year I gave up the matter in hopeless despair. I again resumed it on the solemn promise of Victor to do all I wished. Three months have since gone round and not one book sent—only ten lines copied—and a constant clamor for the letter press. But I am called off. If Audubon was remiss in supplying the necessary materials, it is possible that Bachman, in turn, may have failed to appreciate the load which his friend's shoulders had carried for the five years then past. To Bachman specimens and books were, of course, absolutely essential, but Audubon needed them also, as well as subscribers and the large sums of money necessary to keep his great enterprises in orderly movement. At all events, Bachman's ultimatum brought immediate results, and it might not be wide of the mark to affirm that to the tactful Harris we virtually owe the completion of that admirable work, _The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America_. It should be noticed that at the time the complaining letter was sent, John W. Audubon was in Texas, engaged in making collections, though, as it proved, with little success; Victor searched the country for the needed books, and his father's Missouri River journal was despatched to Charleston, without delay.