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1 SHORT ACCOUNT OP AUDUBON. 



As the little volume in preparation is a friend of the 

 naturalist, it will not be amiss to give a short and 

 fleeting sketch of this great man, who lived and died 

 praising nature's manifold works. From early boyhood 

 he had longing desires to ramble through fields and 

 woodlands, there to find out all he could, and learn by 

 heart what he saw. His greatest wish was to have 

 published an account of all he saw and heard in these 

 wild haunts. He also wanted to have his work illus- 

 trated by engravings and pictures of the many creatures 

 he saw. For this great end he dedicated his whole life 

 and time. During the early part of his life he was at 

 times under great doubt and discouragement as to the 

 success of his project, but being anim^ated by a desire 

 to conquer, and at times being animated with hope, he 

 pushed forward w4th a zeal which the determined only 

 possess. He traveled from one state to another, thor- 

 oughly beating the country as he went. What made 

 it worse for him he had no friends in these wild regions 

 to console or shelter him, in consequence of which he 

 suffered many hardships and exposures, but supported 

 by his fervent wish and intense desire he bore up the 

 best he could and wandered on. Many a time he lived 

 and slept in the woods for weeks at a time, with no 

 companions but his horse and dog — two faithful ani- 

 mals in which he placed great confidence; and many 

 were the tempests and even hurricanes that passed over 

 these three friends in those wild and cheerless regions 

 of swamp and thicket. 



