JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 185 



woods, to the grotto where I first heard from my 

 wife the acknowledgment that she was not indif- 

 ferent to me. It had been torn down, and some 

 stones carted away ; but, raising my eyes toward 

 heaven, I repeated the promise we had mutually 

 made. We dined at Mill Grove, and as I entered 

 the parlor I stood motionless, for a moment, on the 

 spot where my_ wife and myself were forever 

 joined." 



He then went to New York, and a friend took 

 him to the Lyceum. " My portfolio was examined 

 by the members of the Institute," he says, " among 

 whom I felt awkward and uncomfortable. After 

 living among such people, I feel clouded and 

 depressed; remember that I have done nothing, 

 and fear I may die unknown. I feel I am strange 

 to all but the birds of America. In a few days 

 I shall be in the woods, and quite forgotten." The 

 next day, he writes in his journal : " My spirits 

 low, and I long for the woods again; but the 

 prospect of becoming known prompts me to remain 

 another day." 



From this city he journeyed West. " All trem- 

 bling I reached the Palls of Niagara, and oh, what 

 a scene ! My blood shudders still, although I am 

 not a coward, at the grandeur of the Creator's 

 power ; and I gazed motionless on this new display 

 of the irresistible force of one of his elements." 



At Buffalo, he took a deck-passage 011 board a 

 schooner bound for Erie, using his buffalo-robe and 

 blanket to sleep on. At Pittsburg, he spent a 



