TO EUROPE AND SUCCESS 367 
of sport, of wild and untameable nature, as well as of 
man in his Homeric relation to it. Shortly after their 
first interview the great Scotsman wrote this handsome 
tribute in his journal: 
January 22 [1827].—A visit from Basil Hall with Mr. 
Audubon, the ornithologist, who has followed that pursuit by 
many a long wandering in the American forests. He is an 
American by naturalization, a Frenchman by birth; but less of 
a Frenchman than I have ever seen—no dash, or glimmer, or 
shine about him, but great simplicity of manners and behaviour ; 
slight in person, and plainly dressed; wears long hair, which 
time has not yet tinged; his countenance acute, handsome and 
interesting, but still simplicity is the predominant character- 
istic. 
Of the later visit of which we just spoke we find this 
account: 
January 24.—Visit from Mr. Audubon, who brings some 
of his birds. The drawings are of the first order—the atti- 
tudes of the birds of the most animated character, and the 
situations appropriate; one of a snake attacking a bird’s nest, 
while the birds (the parents) peck at the reptile’s eyes—they 
usually, in the long-run, destroy him, says the naturalist. The 
feathers of these gay little sylphs, most of them from the 
Southern States, are most brilliant, and are represented with 
what, were it [not] connected with so much spirit in the atti- 
tude, I would call a laborious degree of execution. This ex- 
treme correctness is of the utmost consequence to the natural- 
ist, [but] as I think (having no knowledge of vertu), rather 
gives a stiffness to the drawings. This sojourner in the desert 
has been in the woods for months together. He preferred as- 
sociating with the Indians to the company of the Back Settlers ; 
very justly, I daresay, for a civilized man of the lower order— 
that is, the dregs of civilization—when thrust back on the sav- 
age state becomes worse than a savage. .. . 
