The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-12-02


he bargaIncd to draw the portrait Of
the captain of the steamer and his
wife as remuneration When he needed (
boots he obtained them by slleiching .
the features of a friendly shoemaker, |
and more than once he paid his hotel |
bills and saved something besides by
sketching the faces of the host and his !
family.
On the other hand, his adventures in
search of material for his work were
romantic enough to satisfy the most
ambitious traveller. From Florida to
Labrador and from the Atlantic to the
then unknown regions of the Yellow
stone he pursued his way, often alone,
and not seldom in the midst of dam
gers which threatened life itself. He
hunted buffalo with the Indians of the
Great Plains. and lived for months in
the tents of the fierce Sioux. He spent
a season in the winter camp of the
Sha wnees, sleeping wrapped in "a buff
falo robe. before the great camp fire
and living upon wild turkey, bears
grease and opossums. Here ne made
studies of deer, bears, cougars, as well
as of wild turkeys, prairie hens and
other birds. For days he drifted down
the Ohio in a flat-bottomed boat.
searching the uninhabited shores for
specimens and. living the life of the
fronhersman, whose daily food must
be supplied by his own exertions.
Sometimes his studies would take him
far into the dense forests of the west,
where the white man had never before
trod and the only thing that suggested
humanity, would be the smoke rising
miles away from the evening camp
fire Of some Indian hunter as lonely as
himself.
Once as he lay STRETCHED on the deck
of a small vessel ascending the Missis-
sippi, he caught sight of a great eagle
circling about his head. Convinced
that 1T was a new species. he. waited
again had a glimpse of it flying, in
lazy freedom, above some butting
crags, where its young were nested.
Climbing to the place, and watching
nike an Indian in ambush until it
dropped to its nest, Audubon found it
to be a sea eagle. He named it the
washington sea eagle in honor of
George Washington. Waiting two
years longer, he was able to obtain
specimen from which he made the pic
ture given in his work. This is but
one example of the tireless patience
with which he prosecuted his studies,
years of waiting counting as nothing,
IT he could but gain his end.
Some of his discoveries in this king
dom of the birds he Re a'es with ro-
mantle enthusiasm. Throughout the
entire work there runs the note of
warmest sympathy with the lives of
these creatures of the air and sun
shine He tells rs III the hopes and
homes and interests, from the lime OF
the nest-making till the young had
flown away. The freedom of bird life.
its happiness, its experiences and trag-
edieS appeal to him as do those of HUI
manity. The discovery of a new spe-
cies is reported as rapturously as the
news of a new star. Once in Labrador
when he was making studies of the
eggs his son brought to him a great
hawk captured on the precipices far
above his head. To Audubon's delight,
1t was that rare specimen, the gerfal-
con, whose white plumage had hereto
fore eluded the efforts of naturalists
to obtain. While the rain dripped down
from the rigging above, Audubon sat
for hours making a sketch of this bird
and feeling as rich as if he had dis
covered some rare gem. After twenty
years the work was published. Every
specimen, from the tiny humming-bird
to the largest eagles and vultures, was
Sketched life size and colored in the
tints of nature. There were four hun
dred and seventy-five of these plates,
furnishing complete history of the
feather tribes of North America, for
they showed not only the appearance
u -lHe Virus, puL represented also the
manners and home life of this world
of song. The humming-bird poised be-
fore the crimson throat of the trum-
pet flower, the whippoorwill resting
among the leaves of the oak, the bobo-
link singing among the crimson flow
ers of the swamp naples, the snowbird
chirping cheerily among the snow
touched berries of the holly were not
sketches merely, but bits of story out
of bird history. So also are those pic
lures of the swan among the reeds of
the Great Lakes, of the great white
heron Selling its prey from the waters
of the gulf, and of the golden eagle
winging it's way toward the distant
heights that it inhabits.
The work was published by subscrip-
ton in London in 1929 under the title,