426 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



About ten weeks 5 were spent in the woods, from late 

 July until the 10th of October, when the naturalist re- 

 turned to Philadelphia and settled again for a time in 

 Camden. At this period he was enjoying the best of 

 health and spirits, and he worked during the entire sea- 

 son under the highest pressure of which he was capable. 

 At Camden, October 11. 1829, he wrote: 



I am at work, and have done much, but I wish I had eight 

 pairs of hands, and another body to shoot the specimens, still 

 I am delighted at what I have accumulated in drawings this 

 season. Forty-two drawings in four months, eleven large, 

 eleven middle size, and twenty-two small, comprising ninety- 

 five birds, from Eagles downwards, with plants, nests, flowers, 

 and sixty kinds of eggs. 6 I live alone, see scarcely any one, 

 besides those belonging to the house where I lodge. I rise long 

 before day, and work till night-fall, when I take a walk, and 

 to bed. 



At about the middle of October Audubon set out 

 to join his family in the South. Crossing the mountains 

 by mail-coach to Pittsburgh, where he met his former 

 partner in business, Thomas Pears (see p. 254), he de- 

 scended once more his favorite river, the Ohio. It was 

 no longer necessary to rough it on a flatboat or to sleep 

 on a steamer's deck; it was to be "poor Audubon" no 

 longer. To be sure, he was not rich, but he had made 

 his way and his mark, and the attention which he now 



Hemlock Warbler, Great Pine Swamp, August 12. 



Autumnal Warbler, Great Pine Swamp, August 20. 



Connecticut Warbler, New Jersey, September 22. 



Mottled Owl, New Jersey, October. 



B Though Audubon said that he spent only six weeks in the forest, 

 the indications upon his drawings imply a longer period. 



6 At this time Audubon intended to figure, in full size and natural 

 colors, the eggs of the "Birds of America," for which the concluding 

 numbers of his plates had been reserved, but when the time came, these 

 numbers had to be given over to new acquisitions, so the eggs were 

 eventually crowded out. 



