AUDUBON'S GREATEST TRIUMPH 175 



ing a most extravagant price. I have no extra plates whatever 

 on hand, and in consequence of this must be obliged to decline 

 furnishing you with them. 



If at the conclusion of my publication I find any cf the 

 plates you want they will be sent to you forthwith, but I wish 

 you not to calculate upon this until you hear again from me, 

 or from my sons on this subject. 



My work will [be] entirely finished by the end of next 

 month, when our engraving and Printing establishment will be 

 broken up, and few will indeed there be copies to be had by any 

 one, who has not subscribed to the "Birds of America." 



Should you see any of my American subscribers who have 

 not as yet seen any portion of the work, please to assure them 

 that as soon as the fourth volume is quite finished, and bound 

 according to their desires, their copies will be forwarded at 

 once to their respective homes, or to whomsoever they have 

 directed me to send their copies. 



On May 26 Audubon wrote Thomas M. Brewer that 

 "Edward Harris, one of the best men of this world," 

 had reached his house "yesterday at noon, after a pleas- 

 ant passage of fourteen days and a few hours." "My 

 illustrations," he said, "will be finished on the 20th of 

 next month, and the fourth volume of text shortly after- 

 ward"; at the end he added: "When I return to our 

 beloved land, I intend to spend a full season about the 

 lakes in Northern Vermont, for, from what I hear, much 

 knowledge is to be acquired there and thereabouts." 

 After returning to New York in September of the 

 following year, he again alluded to the ramble he would 

 like to take "along the borders of the famous lakes 

 of New Hampshire and Vermont," but was unable to 

 bring it to pass at that time. 



To depart but slightly from the chronological se- 

 quence, the last to be preserved of Audubon's letters to 



