94 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 

 Mrs. Audubon says : ' i Nothing is heard 

 but the steady movement of the pen ; 

 your father is up and at work before 

 dawn, and writes without ceasing all 

 day." 



When the first volume was finished, 

 Audubon offered it to two publishers, 

 both of whom refused it, so he pub- 

 lished it himself in March, 1831. 



In April on his way to London he 

 travelled "on that Extraordinary road 

 called the railway, at the rate of twenty- 

 four miles an hour." 



The first volume of his bird pictures 

 was completed this summer, and, in 

 bringing it out, forty thousand dollars 

 had passed through his hands. It had 

 taken four years to bring that volume 

 before the world, during which time no 

 less than fifty of his subscribers, repre- 

 senting the sum of fifty-six thousand 

 dollars, had abandoned him, so that at 

 the end of that time, he had only one 

 hundred and thirty names standing on 

 his list. 



