8 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



ralist, no less than the gladsome scenes of his 

 native soil. To roam, furnished only with his 

 wallet and fowling piece, from day dawn till 

 compelled by darkness to seek the shelter of 

 some copse or shade in the unknown waste ; 

 there, beside the fire kindled by his own hands, 

 to partake of his frugal meal; friendless and 

 alone, to be surprised perhaps by the resistless 

 fury of the elements — lightning, storm, and 

 thunder — causing the wreck of nature round 

 his unsheltered resting-place — menaced by the 

 ferocity of wild animals or the inhospitality of 

 his own species ; — such were his customs, and 

 the conditions essential to his vocation. 



Successive intervals present us with various 

 phases of this great man's career ; yet always 

 we see the rare truthfulness of his nature, and 

 his high-souled faith transparent in that daunt- 

 less nobihty which made him display equal free- 

 dom of action, as well as equal aifability and 

 ease, in the camp of the Indian or the settler's 

 hut as in the assemblies of refined society. He 

 visited successively all the most distinguished 

 capitals of Europe, and we gladly find him wel- 

 comed, encouraged, courted, and honoured by the 

 great and good of the earth. But with yet more 

 gladness we follow him, unchanged, through the 

 vicissitudes of his destiny, retaining the simpli- 

 city of taste, the freshness of sentiment, the cor- 



