AUDUBON AND RAFINESQUE 287 



continued jumping and running round and round, until 

 he was fairly exhausted, when he begged me to procure 

 one of the animals for him, as he felt convinced they 

 belonged to 'a new species.' Although I was convinced 

 to the contrary, I took up the bow of my demolished 

 Cremona, and administering a sharp tap to each of the 

 bats as it came up, soon had specimens enough." Other 

 incidents of this visit, which Audubon said lasted three 

 weeks, are fully recorded. The eccentric naturalist 

 collected an abundance of plants, shells, bats and fishes. 

 One evening he failed to appear, and after a prolonged 

 search was nowhere to be found; nor were the Audu- 

 bons wholly assured of his safety until some weeks later 

 they received a letter with due acknowledgments of their 

 hospitality. 



The "M. de T." of this episode was Constantine 

 Samuel Rafinesque, in many respects the most singu- 

 lar figure that has ever appeared in the annals of Ameri- 

 can science. Although young in years, for Rafinesque 

 was then but thirty-five, he was already old in experi- 

 ence and that of the bitterest sort ; and although already 

 known to many in both hemispheres, he had few friends. 

 It is certain that neither Audubon nor anyone else in 

 that part of Kentucky had ever heard of him before. 



Born in Constantinople, of a father who was a 

 French merchant from Marseilles and of a mother with 

 a German name who by nativity was Greek, Rafinesque 

 had known life in many lands, and was destined, as he 

 said, to be a traveler from the cradle to the tomb. 2 His 



2 For the characterization of Rafinesque given in the present chapter I 

 am chiefly indebted, aside from his own writings, to his two most sym- 

 pathetic biographers, Richard Ellsworth Call and T. J. Fitzpatrick, as well 

 as to David Starr Jordan; see Bibliography, Nos. 198, 228, and 183. Fitz- 

 patrick gives photographic reproductions from Rafinesque's exceedingly 

 diversiform and scattered works; his bibliographic titles extend to 939, 

 and "Rafinesquiana" to 134. 



