The Audubon Magazine. 



Vol. I. 



DECEMBER, 1S87. 



No. II. 



INCIDENTS OF AUDUBON'S LIFE. 



THERE are very few among us capable 

 of realizing the full sense of what is 

 meant by wandering alone in the primeval 

 forest. It is very pleasant to join a holiday 

 party for a day's ramble in the woods, or 

 for the ascent of some mountain peak. It 

 is very pleasant to steal away alone along 

 some little frequented path into the hidden 

 depths of the forest, or along the river's 

 bank, tracing it upward to its source in 

 some wild rocky glen; to slake one's thirst 

 in its cool crystal stream; to recline in the 

 shade of some broad-spreading maple, to 

 listen to the rushing of the brook, the song 

 of the birds, the gentle murmur of the wind 

 through the swaying branches high o'er- 

 head, the hum of insects on the wing, and 

 catching a glimpse of the blue sky through 

 the many-hued foliage, to realize that one 

 is alone with nature. Alone, yes, but not 

 cut off from companionship. It is the sense 

 of being severed from all companionship, 

 of being left to one's own resources to find 

 the way through pathless wilds to some dis- 

 tant objective point; of having to contend 

 alone with all the difficulties and dangers 

 of the way, that appals the imagination 

 with a sense of desolation and fills the in- 

 experienced woodsman with a nameless 

 terror. 



To spend years of one's life in such wan- 

 derings, a man wants unbounded self-reli- 

 ance, well-grounded confidence in his own 



resources, and a sense of locality which to 

 the ordinary man must appear little short 

 of instinctive. 



For such a life in the Western States some 

 fifty years ago a man had to be prepared to 

 confront real dangers at any moment, to 

 engage in encounter with bear or panther 

 or vindictive redskin, or some still more 

 merciless white man whom crime had iso- 

 lated from- his fellows and driven to the 

 outskirts of civilization. 



Audubon grew to be familiar with such 

 dangers. A dreamy, enthusiastic student 

 of nature, he had no less the temper of the 

 bold pioneer whom no difficulty or danger 

 swerved from his object; and as a conse- 

 quence the life of the artist and man of sci- 

 ence teems with incidents of awful peril and 

 wild adventure which in themselves present 

 a graphic picture of the Western border life 

 of fifty years ago. 



It was on his return journey from the 

 upper Mississippi to Hendersonville that 

 Audubon passed through the most thrilling 

 experience of his lifetime. Night had over- 

 taken him on the prairie, but he plodded 

 onward along the Indian trail until he came 

 to some woodland, and caught sight of a 

 firelight toward which he pressed on in the 

 confidence that it proceeded from the camp 

 of some wandering Indians. As he drew 

 nearer he found that it came from the hearth 

 of a small log cabin, before which a tall fig- 



