FINAL WORK DAYS 285 



made and those were short — there was no formality. . . . 

 Humboldt was then, as he was afterwards, in every society, 

 "the observed of all observers" ... I saw him every day dur- 

 ing the few days he remained in Philadelphia. He inserted my 

 name in his note-book, and for the last sixty years we cor- 

 responded at long intervals. ... It would be very gratify- 

 ing to me, and interesting to your societies, if I could have 

 exhibited to you his autograph in some of his letters; but, 

 alas ! my whole library and all my collections in Natural His- 

 tory, the accumulation of the labors of a long life, were burnt 

 by Sherman's vandal army, and, with the exception of a single 

 letter, which, by accident, fell into the hands of another member 

 of my family, I possess no memorials of one who condescended 

 to speak of me as a friend. 



As we have noticed, Audubon's large illustrations of 

 the Quadrupeds were completed in 1846; this marked 

 the ebb tide of his powers, and his son, John, who had 

 painted nearly one-half of the originals of the large 

 plates, like Victor, continued to aid Bachman in the 

 prosecution of that work. The first number of this 

 lithographic series was introduced by the common Amer- 

 ican wildcat, or Lynw rufus, in three-quarters natural 

 size, followed by the proverbial ground hog, "Mary- 

 land marmot," or woodchuck, shown in both young and 

 adult state, in the size of life. Plate No. 4 reproduced 

 an exquisite drawing of four Florida rats climbing over 

 a pine branch. Some of the elder Audubon's plates of 

 squirrels are particularly fine and recall the best of 

 his more famous bird pictures; the gray fox (No. 3, 

 Plate xxi) is sniffing at a feather blown from a farmer's 

 yard; in another drawing a rascally old black rat and 

 its three young ones are robbing a hen's nest and break- 

 ing up the eggs ; Hudson Bay squirrels reach after hazel 

 nuts which hang in clusters from green boughs above; 



