172 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



Audubon remained in New York as late as August 

 22, 1807, for on that day he made a drawing of the 

 "Sprig-tail Duck," but without doubt he had come to 

 feel the incongruity of his position in a business to 

 which his heart was a stranger. As an instance of his 

 preoccupation at this time, he confesses to have once 

 forwarded but forgot to seal a letter containing $8,000. 

 If Benjamin Bakewell failed to make a business man 

 out of Audubon, it was not from lack of kindness, and 

 probably no one else would have been more successful. 

 As it happened, Audubon did not leave his employer 

 any too soon, for at the close of 1807 Benjamin Bake- 

 well's exporting business was ruined by the Embargo 

 Act, through which President Jefferson had hoped to 

 bring Great Britain and France to terms by cutting off 

 their American trade, and for a year or more his estate 

 was in the hands of creditors for settlement. 



The naturalist has left a characteristic sketch of 

 himself at this time: "I measured," said he, "five feet, 

 ten and one half inches, was of fair mien, and quite a 

 handsome figure; large, dark, and rather sunken eyes, 

 light-colored eyebrows, aquiline nose and a fine set of 

 teeth ; hair, fine texture and luxuriant, divided and pass- 

 ing down behind each ear in luxuriant ringlets as far 

 as the shoulders." The habit of wearing his hair long, 

 thus early acquired and later favored by his wandering 

 mode of life, appears to have lasted more than twenty 

 years. 



