FINAL WORK DAYS 271 



for the needed books, and his father's Missouri River 

 journal was despatched to Charleston, without delay. 

 On New Year's Day, 1846, Bachman wrote to his 

 friend : 



As I do not like to disappoint you in anything, I send you 

 one of the articles. It is about a fair sample of the whole. . . . 

 I try to incorporate as much as I can of your own, but, in most 

 cases, your notes have come too late. 



You see how plain Haskell writes : I should think that by 

 this time, he has copied three hundred pages as correctly as the 

 inclosed. 



In his letter of March 6 he said : 



For the last four nights, I have been reading your journal. 

 I am much interested, though I find less about the quadrupeds 

 than I expected. The narratives are particularly spirited, 

 and often instructive, as well as amusing. All that you write 

 on the spot, I can depend on, but I never trust to the memory 

 of others, any more than to my own. . . . 



To return to your Journal. I am afraid that the shadows 

 of the Elk, Buffalo, and Bighorn hid the little Marmots, Squir- 

 rels and Jumping Mice. I wish you had engaged some of the 

 hunters to set traps. I should like to get the Rabbit that led 

 you so weary a chase. Write to S. 9 and find out some way of 

 getting — not his princess brain-eating, horse-straddling squaw, 



9 For "C," meaning Alexander Culbertson, a young Englishman, famous 

 rider and shot, then in charge of Fort Union at the mouth of the Yellow- 

 stone. Audubon, with the assistance of Sprague, painted his portrait and 

 that of his wife, a Blackfoot Indian princess, who also was noted for her 

 skill in horsemanship. "I lost the head of my first [buffalo] bull head," 

 said Audubon, "because I forgot to tell Mrs. Culbertson that I wished 

 to save it, and the princess had its skull broken open to enjoy its brains. 

 Handsome, and really courteous and refined in many ways, I cannot recon- 

 cile myself to the fact that she partakes of raw animal food, with such 

 evident relish." (Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals, vol. ii, 



P- HI). 



For previous and following extracts, see C. L. Bachman, of. at., 



p. 208. 



