xl AUDUBON THE NATURALIST 
1847 
Audubon’s powers begin to weaken and rapidly fail. 
1848 
February 8.—John W. Audubon joins a California company 
organized by Colonel James Watson Webb, and starts 
for the gold fields, but his party meets disaster in the 
valley of the Rio Grande; he leads a remnant to their 
destination and returns in the following year. 
1861 
January 27.—Jean Jacques Fougére Audubon dies at ‘‘Min- 
nie’s Land,” before completing his sixty-sixth year. 
