IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



about the date of Audubon's birth, which was 

 generally recorded as occurring on May 5, 

 1780, with the extreme limits 1772 and 1783- 

 Herrick, however, has shown by indisputable 

 documentary evidence that the great naturalist 

 was born at Les Cayes, Santo Domingo, on 

 April 26, 1785. He was, therefore, only forty- 

 eight years of age at the time of the Labrador 

 expedition. The cause of his exhaustion, how- 

 ever, was plainly his excessively long hours of 

 sedentary work under difficult and depressing 

 circumstances of cold, wet, and sea-sickness. 



The mosquitoes also added to his difficul- 

 ties, for ho means were used to keep them out 

 of the cabin. He says: "The mosquitoes trou- 

 ble me so much that in driving them away 

 I bespatter my paper with ink, as thou seest, 

 God bless thee. Good-night." Again: "The 

 mosquitoes so annoyed me last night that I 

 did not even close my eyes." And in another 

 place he says: "The Caribou flies have driven 

 the hunters on board; Tom Lincoln, who is 

 especially attacked by them, was actually 

 covered with blood, and looked as if he had 

 had a gouging fight with some rough Ken^ 

 tuckians." 



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