128 JOHK JAMES AUDUBON 



resenting the birds themselves: " After 

 all, there 7 s nothing perfect but primi- 

 tiveness." 



Finding that he could not live in the 

 city, in 1842 Audubon removed with his 

 family to ' i Minnie' s Land, ' ' on the banks 

 of the Hudson, now known as Audubon 

 Park, and included in the city limits ; 

 this became his final home. 



In the spring of 1843 he started on his 

 last long journey, his trip to the Yellow- 

 stone Eiver, of which we have a minute 

 account in his " Missouri Eiver Jour- 

 nals" documents that lay hidden in 

 the back of an old secretary from 1843 

 to the time when they were found by 

 his grand- daughters in 1896, and pub- 

 lished by them in 1897. 



This trip was undertaken mainly in 

 the interests of the Quadrupeds and 

 Biography of American Quadrupeds, and 

 much of what he saw and did is woven 

 into those three volumes. The trip 

 lasted eight months, and the hardships 



