328 Deaxe. Letters of J. J. Audubon and S. F. Baird. [jjjg 



all this I send you a paper, containing an article bearing on the 

 subject written by a young cousin of mine, W. M. Penrose, one 

 whose greatest ambition is to write as well as Mr. Audubon. I 

 have delayed answering your letter, in order to make inquiries 

 about the Peach trees. I am sorry to find that our Nursery men 

 have none now good for anything, having sent almost their whole 

 stock to Philadelphia last season to supply the demand in the 

 Jerseys. They console me however by saying that they will have 

 plenty next year. 



Before I proceed further let me tell you of two ideas I have in my 

 head, being expeditions in search of Quadrupeds and Birds. One 

 is to the eastern shore of Maryland. I have some relations there 

 who want me to come to see them very much. As my mother is 

 about to visit Washington shortly, passing of course through Balti- 

 more I have some notion of letting her take my baggage to the latter 

 place and set out for it on foot. It is seventy-five or eighty miles 

 from here, and I can walk there in two or three days, and by taking 

 the steamboat, I shall be landed within a few miles of my destina- 

 tion, which is Read's Creek a branch of Chester river. Squirrels 

 are very abundant, particularly the stump eared cat, and if I go I 

 shall be able to procure plenty. My going however is uncertain, 

 depending on several contingencies. The second "Idea" is of a 

 trip to Maine in July with a friend of mine in college who lives 

 there and who insists on my accompanying him home. He lives 

 in Xew Gloucester and is forty or fifty miles only from the White 

 Mountains of Xew Hampshire, where he has a sister living within 

 a few miles of the celebrated "Notch." He gives the most glowing 

 description of the abundance of birds and beasts around him, and 

 promises me that I shall have the assistance of every person within 

 thirty miles circuit. Another inducement in his eyes at least, is 

 that I shall be Bridesmaid or something of that sort to a sister of 

 his, who is to be married then, and that in virtue of my office, I 

 shall kiss all the girls in the room, all insured to be pretty too. But 

 I know that you will give me credit for saying that I would rather 

 get a new rare Quadruped or Bird than kiss all the pretty girls in 



creation. Miss not excepted. I should like to go very much, 



but I do not know if I shall be able. The recent pecuniary diffi- 

 culties in Pennsylvania have affected our family as well as thou- 

 sands of others whose wealth consists in stocks of different kinds. 



