AUDUBON'S FAMILY IN AMERICA 293 



scription, receive some remuneration for the labors and heavy 

 expenses incurred in getting up this work. Of the character 

 of the work it does not become me to say much. I will only 

 add that in my department is summed up the result of inves- 

 tigations pursued through a long life, and, I think, the figures 

 have never been equalled in any publication either in Europe 

 or America. 



May I bespeak from you a little aid to my esteemed son-in- 

 law, Mr. Audubon, in assisting him to procure subscribers. 

 He is a stranger in your city ; his time is limited, and his stay 

 among you will necessarily be short. 



By the aid of two friends here, he obtained two hundred 

 and fifty subscribers in a few days. 



On the 9th of April Bachman wrote to his son-in- 

 law: "Will you not return to New York by the way of 

 Charleston and sail from here, take a manuscript volume 

 in your pocket, and four hundred good and true names 

 on your list?" 



The reception accorded to the illustrations and text 

 of this work had encouraged the brothers to do for the 

 Quadrupeds what their father, with their aid, had so 

 successfully accomplished for the Birds, by presenting 

 text and plates, as Bachman said, in "Miniature." In 

 this they succeeded as admirably as before, John reduc- 

 ing all the large plates, by the aid of the camera lucida, 

 for the octavo edition which was published in 1854. 



The following historical evidence of the apprecia- 

 tion which Audubon's works have received at the hands 

 of the National Government I owe to Mr. Ruthven 

 Deane, to whom the reader of these pages is already in- 

 debted for many illuminating facts. Dr. Theodore S. 

 Palmer was recently inspecting governmental records 

 at Washington, when he accidentally came upon the fol- 

 lowing entry : 



