JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 777 



sixty was soon formed. He gives an amusing description of the scene ; and 

 adds that the result of the speculation was two thousand dollars, and that 

 with this sum and what his wife could furnish, he now saw more clearly the 

 prospect of completing the task on which he had been working for five-and- 

 twenty years. 



On May 19, 1826, Audubon left New Orleans on the ship Dclos, and July 

 20th, landed at Liverpool. He exhibited his drawings there, and after a brief 

 visit in Manchester, went to Edinburgh. Here he met a warm welcome. 

 Sir William Jardine, in the midst of his ornithological publications, spent 

 hours beside him as he worked, and men like Scott, Jeffrey, and Patrick Neill 

 did their best to encourage him. Lizars, the engraver, on seeing his drawings 

 exclaimed, " My God, I have never seen anything like these before ! " and 

 offered to bring out a first number of his " BIRDS OF AMERICA." The 

 book was to be published in numbers, containing four birds in each, the size 

 of life, at two guineas ($10) a number. " One hundred subscribers for my 

 book," he writes, " will pay all expenses." In the following year he issued, 

 on March 17th, the " Prospectus " of his great work. He had now assumed a 

 more civilized garb, dressed twice a day, and wore silk stockings, but still for a 

 time let his hair grow as long as usual. " It does as well for me as my paint- 

 ings," he exclaimed ; but at last the importunities of his friends prevailed, and 

 he sacrificed his cherished locks to the Caledonian taste of Edinburgh. 



After a provincial canvass for subscribers he reached London, and removed 

 the publication of his work from Lizars to Robert Havell. In the autumn 

 he visited Paris, where Cuvier made a report on his work, describing it " as 

 the most magnificent monument which has as yet been erected to > ornithol- 

 ogy." Subscriptions in Paris came in slowly, four only in seven weeks, and 

 after a visit of two months he returned to L©ndon and thence to America, 

 where he landed on May 5th. He returned to England with his wife in 1830, 

 and at the close of this year the first volume of his great work was completed. 

 He was back in America in 1831, and made several excursions. He procured 

 letters from the Department at Washington to the military outposts, explored 

 the Carolinas and Florida, and following the birds in their migrations, pro- 

 ceeded northward to Maine and Labrador, everywhere enriching his portfolio 

 with the results of his explorations. 



Audubon thus passed nearly three years of " travel and research " in 

 America before he returned to England, where he was greeted by his com- 

 pleted second volume, one-half of his projected work. A third appeared in 

 due time, and the fourth and last was finished in 1838. 



After this the author was at liberty to make his permanent home in 



