18 LIFE OP AUDUBON. 



He adds, in reference to his absent habits and unsuitability for 

 business, that he at one time posted without sealing it a letter 

 containing 8000 dollars. His natural history pursuits in New 

 York occasioned a disagreeable flavour from his rooms, occasioned 

 by drying birds' skins ; and was productive of so much annoyance 

 to his neighbours, that they forwarded a message to him through 

 a constable, insisting on his abating the nuisance. An excellent 

 pen and ink sketch of his own appearance at this time has been 

 left by Audubon. He says : " I measured five feet ten and a 

 half inches, was of a fair mien, and quite a handsome figure ; 

 large, dark, and rather sunken eyes, light-coloured eyebrows, 

 aquiline nose, and a fine set of teeth; hair, fine texture and 

 luxuriant, divided and passing down behind each ear in luxuriant 

 ringlets as far as the shoulders." There appears excellent 

 reason to believe that Audubon quite appreciated his youthful 

 graces, and, with the naivete of a simple nature, was not ashamed 

 to record them. 



After returning to Mill Grove, Audubon and his friend Rosier 

 planned an expedition towards the west, at that time a wild 

 region thinly populated by a very strange people. 



