OF AUDUBON. 



19 



which I so much needed, I soon found myself 

 compelled to seek elsewhere. I left Phila- 

 delphia, and visited New York, where I was 

 received with a kindness well suited to elevate 

 my depressed spirits ; and afterwards, ascending 

 that noble stream the Hudson, glidinor over our 

 broad lakes, to seek the wildest solitudes of the 

 pathless and gloomy forests. 



" It was in these forests that, for the first time, 

 I communed with myself as to the possible event 

 of my visiting Europe again ; and I began to 

 fancy my work under the multiplying efforts of 

 the graver. Happy days, and nights of pleasing 

 dreams ! I read over the catalogue of my 

 collection, and thought how it might be possible 

 for an unconnected and unaided individual like 

 myself to accomplish the grand scheme. Chance, 

 and chance alone, had divided my drawings into 

 three diflferent classes, depending upon the 

 magnitude of the objects which they repre- 

 sented ; and although I did not at that time 

 possess all the specimens necessary, I arranged 

 them as well as I could into parcels of five 

 plates, each of which now forms a Number of 

 my Illustrations. I improved the whole as much 

 as was in my power, and as I daily retired farther 

 from the haunts of man, determined to leave 

 nothing undone, which my labour, my time, or 

 my purse, could accomplish. 



