Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 2 (of 2)Herrick, Francis Hobart
History
Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 2 (of 2)
Herrick, Francis Hobart
Audubon, John James, 1785-1851
On New Year's Day, 1846, Bachman wrote to his friend:
As I do not like to disappoint you in anything, I send
you one of the articles. It is about a fair sample of
the whole.... I try to incorporate as much as I can of
your own, but, in most cases, your notes have come too
late.
You see how plain Haskell writes: I should think that
by this time, he has copied three hundred pages as
correctly as the inclosed.
In his letter of March 6 he said:
For the last four nights, I have been reading your
journal. I am much interested, though I find less about
the quadrupeds than I expected. The narratives are
particularly spirited, and often instructive, as well
as amusing. All that you write on the spot, I can depend
on, but I never trust to the memory of others, any more
than to my own....
To return to your Journal. I am afraid that the shadows
of the Elk, Buffalo, and Bighorn hid the little Marmots,
Squirrels and Jumping Mice. I wish you had engaged some
of the hunters to set traps. I should like to get the
Rabbit that led you so weary a chase. Write to C.[207]
and find out some way of getting—not his princess
brain-eating, horse-straddling squaw, but what is better
than such a specimen from the Blackfoot country—1st. The
Skunk; 2nd, Hares, in Winter colors; and 3rd, the Rabbit
that you chased. In your Journal your descriptions of
Buffalo hunts are first rate. I don't like my article
on the "Beaver"; I shall have to write it over again.
If I could only borrow _Temminck's_ large work. Every
library here is open to me, and you would be astonished
to see the number of books in my own library; but the
scientific works of close comparison are not among them.
I had written letter after letter, but might have saved
ten dollars postage.
Audubon wrote to Baird on February 2, 1846, to remind him of the
Catamount, which was thought not to be "the Cougar," and of the Black
Fox: "for the latter," he said, "I do give you my word that I would
willingly pay you Twenty Dollars by a draft upon us at Sight." In
another letter from "Minnie's Land, N. Y.," of March 14, he said:[208]
Could you procure a black and a Silver Fox for us, we
will be willing to give a good price for either in the
flesh, and preserved in common New England Rum, and
forwarded by express to 78 John St, N.Y.
We expect to see John at home in about Six or Seven
weeks. He has made a very poor Journey of this one, and
will have to go to Europe this summer, I have no doubt.
Concerning his son's journey to Texas, Audubon had written Spencer
Baird, September 30, 1845:[209]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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