126 LIFE OF AUDUBON. 



are remarkable for their beauty, their usefulness, or their rarity, 

 the botanist cannot fail to look upon them with delight. 



" The particulars of the plan of the work may be reduced to 

 the following heads : 



"I. The size of the work is double elephant folio,, the paper 

 being of the finest quality. 



" II. The engravings are, in every instance, of the exact 

 dimedsions of the drawings, which, without any exception, 

 represent the birds and other objects of their natural sIzbl 



" in. The plates are coloured in the most careful manner from 

 the original drawings. 



" IV. The work appears in numbers, of which five are published 

 annually, each number consisting of five plates. 



" V. The price of each number is two guineas, payable on 

 delivery." 



Probably no other undertaking of Audubon's life illustrates 

 the indomitable character of the man more fully than this pro- 

 spectus. He was in a strange country, with no friends but those 

 he had made within a few months, and not ready money enough 

 in hand to bring out the first number proposed ; and yet he 

 entered confidently on this undertaking, which was to cost over 

 a hundred thousand dollars, and with no pledge of help, but on 

 the other hand discouragements on all sides, and from his best 

 friends, of the hopelessness of such an undertaking. 



Mwreh 19. Under this date we have an amusing entry. 

 Audubon had been frequently importuned by his friends to cut 

 his hair, which he had for years worn in ringlets falling to his 

 shoulders. Hence the obituary : — 



BDINBUEGH. 

 March 19, 1827. 



This day my Hair was sacrificed, and the will of God usurped by 

 the wishes of Man. 



As the Barber clipped my locks rapidly, it reminded me of the hor- 

 rible times of the French Bevolution, when the same operation was 

 performed upon all the victims murdered by the Gxiillotine. 



My heart sank low. 



JOHN J. AUDUBON. 



