TO EUROPE AND SUCCESS 367 



of sport, of wild and untameable nature, as well as of 

 man in his Homeric relation to it. Shortly after their 

 first interview the great Scotsman wrote this handsome 

 tribute in his journal: 



January 22 [1827]. A visit from Basil Hall with Mr. 

 Audubon, the ornithologist, who has followed that pursuit by 

 many a long wandering in the American forests. He is an 

 American by naturalization, a Frenchman by birth ; but less of 

 a Frenchman than I have ever seen no dash, or glimmer, or 

 shine about him, but great simplicity of manners and behaviour ; 

 slight in person, and plainly dressed; wears long hair, which 

 time has not yet tinged; his countenance acute, handsome and 

 interesting, but still simplicity is the predominant character- 

 istic. 



Of the later visit of which we just spoke we find this 

 account : 



January 24. Visit from Mr. Audubon, who brings some 

 of his birds. The drawings are of the first order the atti- 

 tudes of the birds of the most animated character, and the 

 situations appropriate ; one of a snake attacking a bird's nest, 

 while the birds (the parents) peck at the reptile's eyes they 

 usually, in the long-run, destroy him, says the naturalist. The 

 feathers of these gay little sylphs, most of them from the 

 Southern States, are most brilliant, and are represented with 

 what, were it [not] connected with so much spirit in the atti- 

 tude, I would call a laborious degree of execution. This ex- 

 treme correctness is of the utmost consequence to the natural- 

 ist, [but] as I think (having no knowledge of vertu), rather 

 gives a stiffness to the drawings. This sojourner in the desert 

 has been in the woods for months together. He preferred as- 

 sociating with the Indians to the company of the Back Settlers ; 

 very justly, I daresay, for a civilized man of the lower order 

 that is, the dregs of civilization when thrust back on the sav- 

 age state becomes worse than a savage. . . . 



