BAEON CUVIER'S RKPORT. 151 



appears to have succeeded equally well with regard to the 

 drawing, the engraving, and the colouring. And although 

 it is difficult in colouring to give perspectives with as much 

 effect as in painting, properly so called, that is no defect in a 

 work on natural history. Naturalists prefer the real colour of 

 objects to those accidental tints which are the result of the 

 varied reflections of light necessary to complete picturesque re- 

 presentations, but foreign and even injurious to scientific truth. 



" ' Mr. Audubon has already prepared four hundred drawings, 

 which contain nearly two thousand figures, and he proposes to 

 publish them successively if he receives sufficient encouragement 

 from lovers of science. A work conceived and executed on so 

 vast a plan has but one fault, and doubtless in that respect my 

 auditors have already anticipated me ; it is that its expense 

 renders it almost inaccessible to the greater part of those to 

 whom it would be most necessary. It certainly cannot be said 

 that the price is exorbitant. One number of five plates costs 

 two guineas ; each plate comes to only ten or twelve francs. 

 As there will be published but five numbers a year, the annual 

 expense would not be enormous. It is desirable, at least for 

 art as well as science, that the great public libraries — and the 

 wealthy, who love to' enrich their collections with works of 

 luxury — should be willing to secure it. 



" ' Formerly the European naturalists were obliged to make 

 known to America the riches she possessed ; but now Mitchell, 

 Harler, and Bonaparte give back with interest to Europe what 

 America had received. Wilson's history of the " Birds of the 

 United States " equals in elegance our most beautiful works on 

 ornithology. If that of Mr. Audubon should be completed, 

 we shall be obliged to acknowledge that America, in magnifi- 

 cence of execution, has surpassed the old world.' 



"September 30. Mr. Ooutant, the great engraver of Paris, 

 came to see my work to-day. When I opened the book he 

 stared ; and as I turned over the engravings, he exclaimed often, 

 ' Oh, mon Dieu ! quel ouvrage !' Old Eedonte also visited me, 

 and brought an answer to my letter from the Due d'Orleans. 

 At one o'clock I went with my portfolio to the Palais Eoyal ; 

 and as I do not see dukes every day, dearest, I will give you 

 an account of my visit. 



