36 Audubon's Western Journal 



loosened but by death; and so, when in January, 

 1 85 1, he who had been the light of the home passed 

 away, the break was most keenly and deeply felt. 



In 1853 two new houses near the original one, 

 now grown too small for the many children, were 

 completed and these Victor and John Audubon 

 occupied with their families, the mother living 

 with one son or the other as the spirit moved her. 

 The continued publication of ''The Quadrupeds" 

 and the octavo edition of "The Birds" occupied 

 both my uncle and father. The latter reduced all 

 the large plates of the birds to the desired size by 

 means of the camera lucida, his delicate and exact 

 work fitting him for the exquisitely minute details 

 required. Much of each winter was spent in the 

 southern states, securing subscribers. 



In 1853 a great sorrow came in the death of a 

 little daughter, and soon after even a heavier. 

 Victor Audubon began to fail in health, the result 

 of a fall which at the time was thought to be of 

 no moment, but which had injured the spine. 

 Through long years it was agony to my father to 

 witness the constant decline of the brother with 

 whom his entire life was so intimately associated 

 and to whom he was so deeply attached. Nothing 

 could stay the progress of the malady and on the 

 seventeenth of August, i860, came the parting 

 which had so long been dreaded. 



During this long period of my uncle's illness all 



