Early Naturalists 27 



erty in business with Rosier and where he shortly after 

 brought his wife. 



Space does not permit us to follow all the wanderings of 

 this brilliant, but eccentric man. His various business ad- 

 ventures were foreordained to failure, and from comfort, if 

 not opulence, he and his ever brave and loyal wife were soon 

 reduced to penury, Audubon earning a meagre penny by 

 giving lessons in drawing, music, fencing and dancing, while 

 his wife acted as governess in a private family. 



His roving life in a new and sparsely settled country was 

 full of wild and interesting experiences which are vividly 

 depicted in his journal. His account of an Indian swan hunt 

 in Tennessee gives us a lively picture of the abundance of 

 wild life in America in the early days, and some idea of the 

 cause of its rapid disappearance. 



"The second morning after our arrival at Cash Creek, 

 while I was straining my eyes to discover whether it was 

 fairly day dawn or no, I heard a movement in the Indian 

 camp, and discovered that a canoe, with half a dozen squaws 

 and as many hunters, was about leaving for Tennessee. I 

 had heard that there was a large lake opposite to us, where 

 immense flocks of swans resorted every morning, and asking 

 permission to join them, I seated myself on my haunches in 

 the canoe, well provided with ammunition and a bottle of 

 whisky, and in a few minutes the paddles were at work, 

 swiftly propelling us to the opposite shore. I was not much 

 surprised to see the hunters stretch themselves out and go to 

 sleep. On landing, the squaws took charge of the canoe, 

 secured it, and went in search of nuts, while we gentlemen 

 hunters made the best of our way through thick and thin to 

 the lake. Its muddy shores were overgrown with a close 

 growth of cotton trees, too large to be pushed aside, and too 

 thick to pass through except by squeezing yourself at every 

 few steps; and to add to the difficulty, every few rods we 

 came to small nasty lagoons, which one must jump, leap, or 

 swim, and this not without peril of broken limbs or drowning. 

 ' ' But when the lake burst on our view there were the swans 

 by hundreds, and white as rich cream, either dipping their 

 black bills in the water, or stretching out one leg on its sur- 

 face, or gently floating alone. According to the Indian mode 

 of hunting, we had divided and approached the lagoon from 

 different sides. The moment our vidette was seen, it seemed 

 as if thousands of large, fat, and heavy swans were startled, 

 and as they made away from him they drew towards the 

 ambush of death ; for the trees had hunters behind them, whose 

 touch of the trigger would carry destruction among them. 

 As the first party fired, the game rose and flew within easy 



