PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



on account of his age Audubon was induced to give it up, 

 after having gone as far as the Yellowstone River. The first 

 volume of the Quadrupeds, which was largely the work of his 

 collaborators, was published in 1846, and the last volume in 

 1854, after Audubon's death. During the last four years of 

 his life, Audubon became weak in mind, and not able to do any 

 regular work. " The interval of about three years," says Mrs. 

 Audubon, " which passed between the time of Audubon's return 

 from the West and the period when his mind began to fail, 

 was a short and sweet twilight to his adventurous career. 

 His habits were simple. Rising almost with the sun, he pro- 

 ceeded to the woods to view his feathered favourites till the 

 hour at which the family usually breakfasted, except when he 

 had drawing to do, when he sat closely to his work. After 

 breakfast he drew till noon, and then took a long walk. At 

 nine in the evening he generally retired. . . . He was very 

 fond of his grandchildren, and used often to take them on his 

 knees and sing to them amusing French songs that he had 

 learned in France when he was a boy. . . . After 1848 the 

 naturalist's mind entirely failed him, and during the last years 

 of his life his eye lost its brightness, and he had to be led to 

 his daily walks by the hand of a servant." 



The body of Audubon was placed in a vault in Trinity 

 Cemetery, which adjoins Audubon Park on the south side. In 

 1885 Prof. Thomas Egleston, finding the vault much out of 

 repair, undertook to have it put in better order. He induced 

 the corporation of Trinity Church to remove it to a more 

 prominent site, and interested the New York Academy of Sci- 

 ences in raising a subscription for a monument. The project 

 was successful, and on April 26, 1893, the monument was un- 

 veiled. It consists of a Runic cross of blue stone eighteen 

 feet in height, standing upon a blue-stone die, which rests 

 upon a granite base. The total height is twenty-five feet. 

 There is a fine bas-relief bust of Audubon on one side of the 

 die and an inscription fills the other. The cross is ornamented 

 with carvings of birds and quadrupeds described in his works. 



Various estimates of Audubon's character and work, and 

 accounts of his appearance have been given us, all to his 

 praise. Dr. Griswold says, in his Prose Writers of America, 

 that his highest claim to admiration "is founded upon his 

 drawings in natural history, in which he has exhibited a per- 



