SKETCH OF J. J. AUDUBON. 69 5 



contained one hundred plates, representing ninety-nine species of birds, 

 with every figure of the color and size of life. The whole work was com- 

 pleted in four volumes, in 1839. It contained four hundred and thirty- 

 five plates, representing one thousand and sixty-five distinct speci- 

 mens of birds all, from the eagle to the humming-bird, of the size of 

 life. Again, after three months at home, spent in hunting and draw- 

 ing, he visited England in 1830, where he found that he had been elect- 

 ed a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and on the 6th of May 

 took his seat in the great hall, and paid his entrance-fee of fifty pounds, 

 " though I felt myself that I had not the qualifications to entitle me 

 to such an honor." He was shortly afterward joined by his wife, who 

 accompanied him in his journeys to get new subscribers. In 1831, 

 anticipating another tour of observation and study in the South, he 

 visited Washington, to get letters of introduction to the commanders 

 of frontier posts and officers along his route. All received him in 

 the kindest manner. The winter of 1831-'32 was spent in East 

 Florida, in what Audubon called a rather unprofitable expedition, but 

 which furnished the material for several striking " episodes," as his 

 accounts of the events have been designated. 



In his subsequent journey Audubon visited the coast of Maine, 

 accompanied by his family. According to Dr. Griswold's account,* 

 although no reference to the circumstance is made in Mrs. Audubon's 

 " Life," the cholera then prevailing in the country, he was taken sick 

 in Boston and detained there for some time. Aside from his illness, his 

 experience in Boston must have been of the most grateful character, 

 for he wrote of it, " Although I have been happy in forming many valu- 

 able friendships in various parts of the world, all dearly cherished by 

 me, the outpouring of kindness which I experienced in Boston far ex- 

 ceeded all that I have ever met with." With these kindnesses he 

 associated the names of the men who lent to the Boston of that time 

 its peculiar luster. Continuing his journey, he explored the forests 

 of Maine and New Brunswick and the shores of the Bay of Fundy, 

 and then went by schooner to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Magdalen 

 Islands, and the coast of Labrador ; and in the latter part of the 

 season visited Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. In the ensuing spring, 

 after nearly three years of travel and research, he went for the third 

 time to England, where, and in Edinburgh, he lived a year and a 

 half. As soon as the first volume of the " Birds " was published, 

 Audubon began his " Ornithological Biographies," to accompany 

 it ; a work which, besides descriptions of the birds, contained remi- 

 niscences of personal adventure, with delineations of scenery and 

 character. It was completed in five volumes (1831-'39). It has a lit- 

 erary and historical value apart from that which the accounts of the 

 birds give it, in that it presents in language warm from his having 

 been a part of the scenes, a virgin past of our country, and its forests 



* "Prose Writers of America," p. 189. 



