4 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



Cuvier, which later proved of the greatest value. The 

 savants who gathered about him at the meeting of the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences, over which Cuvier. pre- 

 sided, exclaimed, "Beautiful! Very beautiful! What 

 a work!", but "What a price!", and acknowledged that 

 only in England could he find the necessary support. 

 Audubon concluded that he was fortunate in having 

 taken his drawings to London to be engraved, for the 

 smaller cost of copper on that side of the Channel was 

 an item which could not be overlooked. Little did he 

 dream that commercial greed for the baser metal would 

 send most of his great plates to the melting pot half 

 a century later. No doubt he was right also in con- 

 cluding that had he followed certain advisers in first tak- 

 ing his publication to France, it would have perished 

 "like a flower in October." It should be added that 

 King Charles' subscription expired with his fall two 

 years later, while that of Cuvier ended with his death 

 in 1832. 



Audubon was one of those rare spirits whose post- 

 humous fame has grown with the years. He did one 

 thing in particular, that of making known to the world 

 the birds of his adopted land, and did it so well that 

 his name will be held in everlasting remembrance. His 

 great folios are now the property of the rich or of those 

 fortunate institutions which have either received them 

 by gift or were enrolled among his original subscribers, 

 and wherever found they are treasured as the greatest 

 of show books. The sale of a perfect copy of the Birds 

 at the present day is something of an event, for it com- 

 mands from $3,000 to $5,000, or from three to five times 

 its original cost. All of Audubon's publications have 

 not only become rare but have increased greatly in price ; 

 they are what dealers call a good investment, an experi- 



