FINAL WORK DAYS 273 



He will take one of our Servant men along to help him in the 

 procuring of Quadrupeds and Birds, of which he hopes to pro- 

 cure some, if not a good number of new Species. 



As Baird gave no reply, Audubon sat down on Christ- 

 mas Day, 1845, and wrote again to his young friend: 12 



I hope and trust that you were not offended at my letter, 

 when I wrote you on the Subject of accompanying our son 

 John to Texas where he is now I hope safe and sound, and I 

 believe at Corpus Christi. . . . 



... I have at last received a fine Red Fox from our Friend 

 Ed. Harris, who although he did not kill it, obtained the 

 Cunning Animal very shortly after its death. I have drawn it 

 to the size of life, and I think made a good figure of it. 



I have been drawing pretty constantly these last past 

 weeks and have finished 6 plates for the Engravers. . . . We 

 are all hard at Work preparing the letterpress for the 1 st 

 Vol. of the Quadrupeds, a copy of which I hope to send to you 

 about the beginning of April. 



Audubon's prediction in regard to his son was cor- 

 rect, and after John's return from Texas, in April, 

 1846, he started for England on June 10, with his wife 

 and family; he remained in Europe until May, 1847, 

 engaged, as his father said, "in making figures of those 

 arctic animals, of which accessible specimens exist only 

 in the museums of that quarter of the globe." 



The Audubons, as we have seen, now tried to keep 

 John Bachman better supplied, and in the spring of 

 1846 sent him several boxes of skins, with the urgent 

 request that all which pertained to animals that had not 

 been figured be returned as soon as possible. On March 

 13 Victor wrote that Temminck's monograph could not 

 be found in all America, not in Boston, or Philadelphia, 



12 



Ibid., p. 129. 



