JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 83 
tions followed. He was introduced to 
a judge who wore a wig that ‘‘ might 
make a capital bed for an Osage Indian 
during the whole of a cold winter on the 
Arkansas River.’’ 
On his way to Oxford he saw them 
turn a stag from a cart ‘‘ before probably 
a hundred hounds and as many hunts- 
men. <A curious land, and a curious 
custom, to catch an animal and then set 
it free merely to catch it again.’”?’ At 
Oxford he received much attention, but 
complains that not one of the twenty-two 
colleges subscribed for his work, though 
two other institutions did. 
Early in April we find him back in 
London lamenting over his sad fate 
in being compelled to stay in so miser- 
able aplace. He could neither write nor 
draw to his satisfaction amid the ‘‘ bustle, 
filth, and smoke.’’ His mind and heart 
turned eagerly toward America, and to 
his wife and boys, and he began seriously 
to plan for a year’s absence from Eng- 
