JOHN JAMES AUDUBON*. 779 



childlike tenderness. The sweet unity between his wife and himself, as they 

 turned over the original drawings of his birds, and recalled the circumstances 

 of the drawings, some of which had been made when she was with him ; her 

 quickness of perception, and their mutual enthusiasm regarding these works 

 of his heart and hand, and the tenderness with which they unconsciously 

 treated each other, remain impressed upon my memory. Ever since, I have 

 been convinced that Audubon owed more to his wife than the world knew, 

 or ever would know. That she was always a reliance, often a help, and ever 

 a sympathizing sister-soul to her noble husband, was fully apparent to me." 



"His enthusiasm was sometimes intense; he would rise before daylight 

 and walk about eagerly, waiting for the dawn that he might begin work, and 

 once at work would steadily and earnestly continue to paint all day. Sun- 

 set found him at his picture full of vigor and energy, but with no interest in 

 anything else. He would pursue this course till the fever left him, when he 

 would lay his brushes aside and roam through woods and fields." At no 

 time did he lose sight of his work ; it was ever on his mind, as might be seen 

 from the questions addressed to those he was with, and the quick glances of 

 his eagle eye. His quick, nervous temperament caused strange contradic- 

 tions in his character. "One can hardly believe," writes his granddaughter, 

 " that the man who, for three weeks, spent every day and all day long, lying 

 on his back under a tree watching two little birds build their nest could be so 

 impatient when the effect he desired could not be produced, that he would 

 throw canvas, easel, paints and brushes from him, and rush from the house 

 to find consolation in his beloved woods." 



He was a tall, thin man, with a high, arched and serene forehead, and a 

 bright, penetrating gray eye ; his white locks fell in clusters upon his shoul- 

 ders, but were the only signs of age, for his form was erect, and his step as 

 light as that of a deer. The expression of his face was sharp, but noble and 

 commanding, and there was something in it, partly derived from the aquiline 

 nose, and partly from the shutting of the mouth, which made you think of 

 the imperial eagle. A traveller who met him on his return from one of his 

 hunting trips describes him : " I was at a fashionable hotel at Niagara when 

 an elderly man arrived whose appearance excited much comment. He 

 seemed to have sprung from the woods ; his dress, which was of leather and 

 heavy cloth, was dreadfully dilapidated ; a worn-out blanket was strapped to 

 his shoulders, a large knife hung at one side, a rusty tin box on the other, 

 and his hair and beard were so long and thick that they alone would have 

 rendered him remarkable." 



Prof. Wilson, the " Christopher North "of Blackwood's Magazine, gives 



