

I* 



404 



AUDUBON 



Our " Fourth of July " was kept sacred, and every Satur- 

 day night the toast of "wives and sweethearts" was the 

 first given, " parents and friends " the last. Never was 

 there a more merry set. Some with the violin and flute 

 accompanied the voices of the rest, and few moments 

 were spent in idleness. Before a month had elapsed, the 

 spoils of many a fine bird hung around the hold; shrubs 

 and flowers were in the press, and I had several drawings 

 finished, some of which you have seen, and of which I 

 hope you will ere long see the remainder. Large jars 

 were filling apace with the bodies of rare birds, fishes, 

 quadrupeds and reptiles, as well as molluscous animals. 

 We had several pets too. Gulls, Cormorants, Guillemots, 

 Puffins, Hawks, and a Raven. In some of the harbors, 

 curious fishes were hooked in our sight, so clear was the 

 water. 



We found that camping out at night was extremely un- 

 comfortable, on account of the annoyance caused by flies 

 and mosquitoes, which attacked the hunters in swarms at 

 all times, but more especially when they lay down, unless 

 they enveloped themselves in thick smoke, which is not 

 much more pleasant. Once when camping the weather 

 became very bad, and the party was twenty miles distant 

 from Whapatigan as night threw her mantle over the 

 earth. The rain fell in torrents, the northeast wind blew 

 furiously, and the air was extremely cold. The oars of 

 the boats were fixed so as to support some blankets, and 

 a small fire was with difficulty kindled, on the embers of 

 which a scanty meal was cooked. How different from a 

 camp on the shores of the Mississippi, where wood is 

 abundant, and the air generally not lacking heat, where 

 mosquitoes, although plentiful enough, are not accom- 

 panied by Caribou flies, and where the barkings of a joyful 

 Squirrel, or the notes of the Barred Owl, that grave buf- 

 foon of our western woods, never fail to gladden the 

 camper as he cuts to the right and left such branches and 



w 



