FINAL WORK DAYS 263 



I have such confidence in you, that I believe that you will 

 do all that I wish. In doing this, however, you will have your 

 hands full. Mine are so God knows ! Will not my old friend, 

 Audubon, wake up, and work as he used to do, when we banged 

 at the Herons and the fresh water Marsh-hens ? 



Bachman explained that he was the "schoolmaster," and 

 when the boys were a little lazy, he would have to apply 

 the whip. 



In March, 1844, Spencer Baird sent Audubon a live 

 Pennant's Marten or Fisher, a rather rare animal even 

 at that time, and now all but extinct. Said Baird: 8 



It was found in company with an older one, in Peter's 

 mountain, six miles above Harrisburg about five weeks ago. 

 After a most desperate resistance the old one was killed, hav- 

 ing beaten off a large pack of dogs, to whose assistance the 

 hunters were obliged to run. This individual ran up a tree, 

 and being stoned by the men, jumped off to a distance of forty 

 feet! when being a little stunned by the leap they ran up 

 quickly and threw their coats over it, and then secured it. The 

 old one measured three feet and a half from nose to end of 

 tail, and was about one third larger than this. ... It seems 

 to be in very good health, and is without exception the most 

 unmitigatedly savage beast I ever saw. The Royal Bengal 

 Tiger, or the Laughing Hyena are neither of them circum- 

 stances to it. 



Audubon used this marten as the model for his illustra- 

 tion of the species (shown in natural size, Plate xli of 

 the Quadrupeds] ; in noticing its habits later, he said: 4 



3 See Ruthven Deane (Bibl. No. 51), The Auk, vol. xxiv (1907). To Mr. 

 Deane I am indebted for Audubon's copy of a letter to John Bachman, soon 

 to follow; this was written on several blank sheets at the end of his "Copy 

 of my Journal from Fort Union homeward. Commencing (Sunday) Aug. 

 16th (1843) at 12 o'clock, the moment of our departure." 



* The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (Bibl. No. 6), vol. i, 

 p. 312 (London, 1847). 



