192 PROCEEDINGS OF THE INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



crossing the Alps. Mr. Wilson spoke not of birds or drawings. Feeling, as 

 I was forced to do, that my company was not agreeable, I parted from him; 

 and after that I never saw him again. But judge of my astonishment some 

 time after, when on reading the thirty-ninth page of the ninth volume of 

 'American Ornithology,' I found in it the following paragraph: 



" 'March 23, 1810. — I bade adieu to Louisville, to which place I had four 

 letters of recommendation, and was taught to expect much of everything 

 there; but neither received one act of civility from those to whom I was 

 recommended, one subscriber, nor one new bird; though I delivered my let- 

 ters, ransacked the woods repeatedly, and visited all the characters likely to 

 subscribe. Science or literature has not one friend in this place.' " 



Evidently the lonesome trip down the Ohio must have been a hard one 

 for our Scotch ornithologist or else he must have been a dyspeptic, as witness 

 the following in his Journal under the same date, March 23; "Every one is 

 so intent on making money that they can talk of nothing else; and they ab- 

 solutely devour their meals that they may return the sooner to their business. 

 Their manners correspond with their features. Good country this for lazy 

 fellows; they plant corn, turn their pigs into the woods, and in the autumn 

 feed upon corn and pork, — they lounge about the rest of the year." And 

 again on March 24: "Weather cool. Walked to Shelby\nlle to breakfast. 

 Passed some miserable log houses in the midst of rich fields. Called at a 

 Squire C's, who was rolling logs. Sat down beside him, but was not invited 

 in, though it was about noon." 



And on March 29: "Wherever you go you hear people talking of buying 

 and selling land; no readers, all traders. The Yankees, wherever you find 

 them are all traders. ***** Restless, speculating set of mortals 

 here, full of lawsuits, no great readers, even of politics or newspapers." And 

 he concludes: "These few observations are written in Salter White's garret, 

 with little or no fire, wood being a scarce article here, the forest l)eing a full 

 half mile distant." 



After remaining at Louisville three years Audubon moved his store to 

 Hendersonville, Kentucky, where he conducted a store and grist mill for 

 several years. While there he was visited by that enthusiastic, albeit, some- 

 what eccentric naturalist, C"onstantine Samuel Rafinesque. It was during 

 this visit to Audubon, pr()ba])ly about 1818, that occurred the amusing 

 incident of the violin and tlu> new species of bat. According to Audubon: 



"That night, after we were all abed, 1 heard of a sudden a great uproar 

 in the naturalist's room. I got up and opened the door, when to my astonish- 

 ment I saw my guest running naked, holding the handle of my favorite 

 Cremona, the body of which he had battered to pieces in attempting to kill 

 the bats which had entered the open window! 1 stood amazed, but he con- 

 tinued jumping and running around and aroimd till he was fairly exhausted, 

 wlicn he begged me to procure one of the animals for him, as he felt 

 convinced that they l>elonged to a new species. Although 1 was convinced 



