THORNS ON THE ROSE 73 



spondent in England, Charles Waterton, who pro- 

 claimed Audubon as a new and greater Miinchhausen. 5 

 Dr. Jones immediately repudiated the article which 

 he had unceremoniously appropriated, and under the 

 title of "The Romance of the Rattlesnake" inserted the 

 following notice in the August number of his maga- 

 zine : 6 



Just as the Editor was leaving Philadelphia for Washing- 

 ton, he was pressed for "more copy" by his printer, and has- 

 tily marked some articles for insertion, among which were 

 "Notes on the Rattlesnake," by John James Audubon, F.R.S. 

 E., M.W.S., &c. Time did not admit of reading the article, 

 but it was seen that the writer professed to offer the "fruits 

 of many years' observation, in countries where snakes abound." 

 This with his titles, and the bold and splendid assurances which 

 we had seen respecting the publication of his works, served as 

 a password to his tissues of falsehoods, which would have been 

 expunged from the proof, but for absence from the press. 



We had determined to publ.isli'a notice like the foregoing, 

 when we received a note from a' scientific friend, whose re- 

 marks are, at once, so pointed and correct, and so fully ex- 

 press our own ideas upon the subject, that we gladly adopt 

 and insert them. 



It is a tissue of the grossest falsehoods ever attempted to 

 be palmed upon the credulity of mankind, and it is a pity that 

 any thing like countenance should be given to it, by reproduc- 

 ing it in a respectable Journal. The romances of Audubon 

 rival those of Miinchausen, Mandeville, or even Mendez de 

 Pinto, in the total want of truth, however short they may fall 

 of them in the amusement they afford. 



This was rather a stiff charge to be made flatly 

 against the reputation of any one without the most 



B See Bibliography, No. 115. 

 6 See Bibliography, No. 93. 



