JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 95 
It was no easy thing to secure enough 
men to pledge themselves to $1,000 fora 
work, the publication of which must of 
necessity extend over eight or ten years. 
Few enterprises, involving such labour 
and expense, have ever been carried 
through against such odds. 
The entire cost of the ‘‘Birds’’ ex- 
ceeded one hundred thousand dollars, 
yet the author never faltered in this 
.gigantic undertaking. 
On August 2, Audubon and his 
wife sailed for America, and landed 
in New York on September 4. They 
at once went to Louisville where the 
wife remained with her sons, while 
the husband went to Florida where the 
winter of 1831-2 was spent, prosecuting 
his studies of our birds. His adventures 
and experiences in Florida, he has 
embodied in his Floridian Episodes, 
“The Live Oakers,’? ‘Spring Gar- 
den,’’ ‘‘Deer Hunting,’”’ ‘‘Sandy Isl- 
and,’’? ‘‘The Wreckers,’? ‘The Tur- 
