166 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



was unusually cold, even for the season, and this gave us, per- 

 haps, the very best opportunities ever afforded to any student 

 of nature to observe the inward migrations of myriads of the 

 birds that visit us from the south and west when the imperative 

 laws of nature force them from their winter retreats towards 

 other countries to multiply. To tell you all regarding this 

 would be more by a thousand times than can be given in a letter 

 written in haste, and I will therefore at once touch the spring 

 with whose sound you are most in harmony. We procured 

 many eggs for you — ay, a great number — and as soon as we 

 reach New York I will make up a large box, and take it to you 

 myself. . , . One thing that will interest you most, as it did 

 me, is that we found west of the Mississippi many species of 

 ducks breeding as contented as if in latitude 68° north. There 

 is, after all, nothing like seeing things or countries to enable one 

 to judge of their peculiarities, and I now feel satisfied that 

 through the want of these means many erroneous notions re- 

 main in scientific works that can not otherwise be eradicated. 

 We found not one new species, but the mass of observations 

 that we have gathered connected with the ornithology of our 

 country, has, I think, never been surpassed. I feel myself now 

 tolerably competent to give an essay on the geographical dis- 

 tribution of the feathered tribes of our dear country, and I 

 promise that I will do so, with naught but facts and notes made 

 on the very spot, and at the fitting time. 



Maria Rebecca Bachman, eldest of the nine Bach- 

 man children, was married at this time to John Wood- 

 house Audubon, and the entire party started north 

 before the end of June. They went by steamer to Nor- 

 folk, and thence to Washington, where Audubon pre- 

 sented his letters to President Van Buren and tendered 

 his thanks in person to the various officers of the Gov- 

 ernment and friends who had aided his expedition ; they 

 passed rapidly through Baltimore and Philadelphia, to 

 New York, where Audubon remained a fortnight, while 



