AUDUBON 



6i 



engraver ^ has in his hands all the drawings wanted to 

 complete this present year, and those necessary to form 

 the first number of next year. I have finished the two 

 first years of publication, the two most difficult years to 

 be encountered." To Victor he writes from Camden, 

 N. J., July lo, 1829: "I shall this year have issued ten 

 numbers, each containing five plates, making in all fifty .'^ 

 I cannot publish more than five numbers annually, be- 

 cause it would make too heavy an expense to my sub- 

 scribers, and indeed require more workmen than I could 

 find in London. The work when finished will contain 

 eighty numbers,^ therefore I have seventy to issue, which 

 will take fourteen years more. It is a long time to look 

 forward to, but it cannot be helped. I think I am 

 doing well ; I have now one hundred and forty-four 

 subscribers." 



All this summer and early fall, until October loth, 

 Audubon spent in the neighborhood of New Jersey and 

 Pennsylvania, working as few can work, four hours con- 

 tinuing to be his allowance for sleep. Six weeks in 

 September and October were spent in the Great Pine 

 Swamp, or Forest,* as he called it, his permanent lodgings 

 being at Camden, N. J. Here he writes, October 11,1829: 

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

 eight pairs of hands, and another body to shoot the speci- 

 mens; still I am delighted at what I have accumulated 



' Referring to ^^r. Robert Havell, of No. 77 Oxford St., London. His 

 name will be recalled in connection with Sterna havcllii, the Tern which 

 Auduhon shot at New Orleans in 1820, and dedicated to his engraver in 

 "Orn. Biogr." v., 1839, p. 122, " B. Amer.," Svo, vii., 1844, p. 103, pi. 434. It 

 i« the winter plumage of the bird Nuttall called S.forsteri in his " Manual," 

 ii., 1834, p. 274. See Coues, " Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy 

 of Science," 1862, p. 543. — E. C. 



^ See previous note on p. 59, where it is said that plates 1-25 appeared 

 In 18:7, and plates 26-50 la 1S2S — in attestation of which the above words to 

 Victor Audubon become important. — E. C. 



^ It actually ran to 87 numbers, as stated in a previous note. 



* See Episodes " Great Egg Harbor " and " Great Pine Swamp." 



