FINAL WORK DAYS 271 



for the needed books, and his father's Missouri River 

 journal was despatched to Charleston, without delay. 

 On New Year's Day, 1846, Bachman wrote to his 

 friend : 



As I do not like to disappoint you in anything, I send you 

 one of the articles. It is about a fair sample of the whole. . . . 

 I try to incorporate as much as I can of your own, but, in most 

 cases, your notes have come too late. 



You see how plain Haskell writes : I should think that by 

 this time, he has copied three hundred pages as correctly as the 

 inclosed. 



In his letter of March 6 he said : 



For the last four nights, I have been reading your journal. 

 I am much interested, though I find less about the quadrupeds 

 than I expected. The narratives are particularly spirited, 

 and often instructive, as well as amusing. All that you write 

 on the spot, I can depend on, but I never trust to the memory 

 of others, any more than to my own. . . . 



To return to your Journal. I am afraid that the shadows 

 of the Elk, Buffalo, and Bighorn hid the little Marmots, Squir- 

 rels and Jumping Mice. I wish you had engaged some of the 

 hunters to set traps. I should like to get the Rabbit that led 

 you so weary a chase. Write to S. 9 and find out some way of 

 getting not his princess brain-eating, horse-straddling squaw, 



8 For "C," meaning Alexander Culbertson, a young Englishman, famous 

 rider and shot, then in charge of Fort Union at the mouth of the Yellow- 

 stone. Audubon, with the assistance of Sprague, painted his portrait and 

 that of his wife, a Blackfoot Indian princess, who also was noted for her 

 skill in horsemanship. "I lost the head of my first [buffalo] bull head," 

 said Audubon, "because I forgot to tell Mrs. Culbertson that I wished 

 to save it, and the princess had its skull broken open to enjoy its brains. 

 Handsome, and really courteous and refined in many ways, I cannot recon- 

 cile myself to the fact that she partakes of raw animal food, with such 

 evident relish." (Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals, vol. ii, 

 p. 111). 



For previous and following extracts, see C. L. Bachman, op. cit., 

 p. 208. 



