174 AUDUBON 



and partake of it with me ; I then took to my brushes and 

 finished my Otter entirely. I had been just thirteen hours 

 at it, and had I labored for thirteen weeks, I do not think 

 I should have bettered it. Nine o'clock — ten o'clock — 

 and no Mr. Witham. I was to accompany him to Dr. 

 Knox, whose lecture on Anatomy he was to hear. At last 

 he came with many apologies, having already breakfasted, 

 and giving me but ten minutes for my morning meal. We 

 then hurried off, the weather beautiful, but extremely cold. 

 We ascended the stairs and opened the door of the lecture 

 room, where were seated probably one hundred and fifty 

 students ; a beating of feet and clapping of hands took 

 place that quite shocked me. We seated ourselves and 

 each person who entered the room was saluted as we had 

 been, and during the intervals a low beating was kept up 

 resembling in its regularity the footsteps of a regiment on 

 a flat pavement. Dr. Knox entered, and all was as hushed 

 as if silence had been the principal study of all present. 

 I am not an anatomist. Unfortunately, no ! I know 

 almost less than nothing, but I was much interested in the 

 lecture, which lasted three quarters of an hour, when the 

 Dr. took us through the anatomical Museum, and his dis- 

 secting-room. The sights were extremely disagreeable, 

 many of them shocking beyond all I ever thought could 

 be. I was glad to leave this charnel house and breathe 

 again the salubrious atmosphere of the streets of "Fair, 

 Edina." I was engaged most certainly to dine out, but 

 could not recollect where, and was seated trying to remem- 

 ber, when the Rev. W. J. Bakewell, my wife's first cousin, 

 and the son of Robert Bakewell the famous grazier and 

 zoologist of Derbyshire, came in to see me. He asked 

 many questions about the family in America, gave me his 

 card and invited me to dine with him next Monday week, 

 which is my first unengaged day. I had a letter from Mr. 

 Monroe at Liverpool telling me I had been elected a mem- 

 ber of the Literary and Philosophical Societies of that 



