VOl i90? IV ] Dea ne, Letters of J. J. Audubon and S. F. Baird. 53 



UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF JOHN JAMES AUDU- 

 BON AND SPENCER F. BAIRD. 



BY RUTHVEN DEANE. 

 III. 1 



Audubon to Baird. 



New York, Nov. 29, 1842. 

 My dear Young Friend, 



It seems to me as if an age had already elapsed since I have heard 

 of you or your whereabouts. Neither do I know clearly whether 

 in the way of correspondence, you are in my debt, or I am in yours. 

 Nevertheless I now write to you, and request you to read this 

 letter more than once, and think deeply on the purport of its con- 

 tents that you may be the [more] able to form a true Idea of what 

 I intend to say [to] you, and for yourself to give me a true answer, 

 and on which I can depend, no matter whether it is to my liking 

 or not. 



It is now determined that I shall go towards the Rocky Moun- 

 tains at least to the Yellowstone River, and up the latter Stream 

 four hundred of miles, and perhaps go across the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. I have it in my power to proceed to the Yellowstone by 

 Steamer from St. Louis on the 1st day of April next; or to go to 

 the "Mountains of the Wind" in" the very heart and bosom of the 

 Rocky Mountains in the company of Sir William Drummond 

 Stewart, 2 Baronet who will leave on the 1st of May next also from 

 St. Louis. 



It has occured to me that perchance you would like to spare a 

 few months of your life, to visit the great Western Wilderness, and 

 perhaps again prefer going in my Company in preference to that 

 of any other person ? Of this of course I cannot Judge without 

 your answer to this. I thought that you would have been in New 

 York long ere this, but not a Word of you has reached any friend 

 of yours here for several months. I have had an abundance of 

 applications from different sections of the country, from Young 



1 For Parts I and II see Auk, Vol. XXIII, 1906, pp. 194-209 and 318-334. 



2 William Drummond Stewart (7th Bart.); born 1795, died 1871. 



