THIRD AMERICAN TOUR 149 



'These are awful times in money matters, but of this 

 you will hear enough when we meet. Everyone nearly 

 has failed, but the Parsons and Ornithologists." 



On September 13 Audubon started for Philadelphia, 

 anxious to see with his own eyes those western collec- 

 tions which had so stirred his curiosity. It seems that 

 in 1834, Dr. Thomas Nuttall and Dr. John Kirk Town- 

 send set out on a journey to the mouth of the Columbia 

 River; Nuttall was first of all a botanist, and is said to 

 have carried no gun, but Townsend was an experienced 

 ornithologist and made extensive collections of birds, a 

 part of which he sent in care of Nuttall to Philadelphia 

 in 1835, although he himself did not return east until 

 the close of 1837. One of Audubon's great ambitions 

 had been to explore the regions which they had re- 

 cently visited, and in the circumstances we can sympa- 

 thize with his desire to acquire so valuable an acquisition 

 for the work upon which he had been long engaged. The 

 object of his immediate quest apparently had been en- 

 trusted to the Academy of Natural Sciences, an institu- 

 tion which had not always shown itself friendly to his 

 claims, and which in this instance is said to have assisted 

 the travelers with funds to prosecute their journey. 

 The collection, said Audubon, contained "about forty 

 new species of birds, and its value cannot be described." 

 Balked in his initial efforts to obtain the coveted prize, 

 after two days of fruitless efforts on the part of his 

 Philadelphia friends, he returned to New York; Ed- 

 ward Harris then came forward with the offer of $500 

 for the purchase of the collection outright, but nego- 

 tiations were not immediately successful. 



With his hunger still unappeased, Audubon now 

 visited Boston on a canvassing tour, while his son re- 

 mained with Nicholas Berthoud at New York. Setting- 



