The Audubon Magazine. 



Vol. I. 



MAY, 1887. 



No. 4. 



JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



IV. 



THE State of Kentucky, at the time 

 when Audubon moved thither, still 

 preserved much of its frontier character. It 

 had been settled about thirty-four years, 

 and had been one of the States of the 

 Union for sixteen, but the actors who had 

 taken part in the stirring events of its con- 

 quest were still alive, and the memory of 

 the pleasures and hardships of their march 

 from Virginia through the forests and over 

 the mountains to the banks of the Ohio, 

 were still fresh in their memory. Men not 

 yet past middle life had taken part in the 

 Indian wars of the early days, and had been 

 members of Colonel Clark's little band of 

 two hundred men, who wrested from the 

 British, Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and se- 

 cured to the State of Virginia the fertile 

 territory of Illinois. 



These stalwart sons of the Old Dominion, 

 gigantic in strength and stature, self-reliant, 

 and ignorant of fear, were devoted to out- 

 door life, and had been trained in the 

 severe school which made them experts in 

 the use of weapons of the chase or of war. 

 In those early days, the rifle had been as 

 much a part of a man's equipment as the 

 ax. It was not less necessary for defense 

 than to supply food to the family, and in- 

 struction in its use was a necessary part 

 of the education of every boy. Travel- 

 ing through a trackless wilderness, where 

 turkeys, deer, bears and buffalo were every- 



where abundant, and where the fierce 

 savage had his home, the handling of the 

 rifle was part of a man's work, not his 

 recreation. 



At the time of which Audubon writes, 

 this state of things had measurably passed 

 away. The necessity for this expertness 

 no longer existed, but the training which 

 had induced it still remained. Now, men 

 used the arm in hunting for sport as much 

 as for a supply of food, and this practice, 

 together with the frequent .trials of skill in 

 the use of this weapon, still kept the Ken- 

 tuckians the best rifle shots on the frontier. 

 Living among such a people, and interested 

 as he was in all that pertained to outdoor 

 life, we may imagine that exhibitions of this 

 skill would have had a fascination for 

 Audubon. He tells us of the methods in 

 which it was exhibited in the following 

 language: ''We have individuals in Ken- 

 tucky, that even there are considered won- 

 derful adepts in the management of the 

 rifle. To drive a nail is a common feat, not 

 more thought of by the Kentuckians than 

 to cut off a wild turkey's head, at a distance 

 of a hundred yards. Others will bark off 

 squirrels, one after another, until satisfied 

 with the number procured. Some, less 

 intent on destroying game, may be seen 

 under night smiffing a candle at the distance 

 of fifty yards, off-hand, without extinguish- 

 ing it. I have been told that some have 



