268 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



gret that I see by the papers that your copper plates 

 were injured or perhaps ruined by the fire which oc- 

 curred a few weeks ago. Various reports are circulated 

 respecting your loss, and among so many contradictory 

 ones it is difficult to get at the truth of the case. Might 

 I ask you to let me know the truth of the matter." In 

 a postscript to this letter he added: "I forgot to say 

 that I have been elected professor of Natural History in 

 Dickinson College. The situation is entirely nominal, 

 nothing to do & no salary whatever." Audubon replied 

 promptly on the 7th of August : ^ "You have been too 

 well-informed about the plates of our large work. They 

 have indeed passed through the great fire of the 19 uF ; 

 but we are now engaged in trying to restore them to 

 their wonted former existence; although a few of them 

 will have to be reingraved for use, if ever that work is 

 republished in its original size at all." 



Bachman, who paid a long visit to the Audubons 

 in the late summer or early autumn of 1845, said that 

 while he was at "Minnie's Land," Audubon painted 

 "Le Conte's Pine Mouse" with his usual facility and 

 skill, but he detected a change in his mental powers. 

 For a long time Bachman had complained of the want 

 of books, which the younger Audubons failed to supply, 

 and of lack of specimens, which no doubt their father 

 wished to retain for use in his own studies, until at 

 length his patience was gone and he tried another form 

 of appeal. The following letter ^ to their mutual friend, 

 Edward Harris, shows that he was then determined to 

 throw up the responsibility which had been assumed in 

 the Quadrupeds unless what he regarded as "reasonable 

 requests" were complied with forthwith: 



'William H. Dall, op. cit., p. 124. 



• Jeanes MSS. See Note, Vol. I, p. 180. 



