Audubon and His Journals, Volume 2

Part 1

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AUDUBON

AND

HIS JOURNALS

AUDUBON AND HIS JOURNALS

BY MARIA R. AUDUBON

WITH ZOOeLOGICAL AND OTHER NOTES BY ELLIOTT COUES

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME II.

NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1897

Copyright, 1897, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

CONTENTS

VOLUME II

PAGE

THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS (continued) 1

EPISODES:

LOUISVILLE IN KENTUCKY 199

THE OHIO 203

FISHING IN THE OHIO 208

A WILD HORSE 215

BREAKING UP OF THE ICE 222

THE PRAIRIE 225

THE REGULATORS 231

THE EARTHQUAKE 234

Part 2

THE HURRICANE 237

COLONEL BOONE 241

NATCHEZ IN 1820 246

THE LOST PORTFOLIO 250

THE ORIGINAL PAINTER 254

THE COUGAR 260

THE RUNAWAY 267

A TOUGH WALK FOR A YOUTH 274

HOSPITALITY IN THE WOODS 280

NIAGARA 286

MEADVILLE 289

THE BURNING OF THE FORESTS 294

A LONG CALM AT SEA 301

STILL BECALMED 306

GREAT EGG HARBOR 310

THE GREAT PINE SWAMP 314

THE LOST ONE 321

THE LIVE-OAKERS 327

SPRING GARDEN 333

DEATH OF A PIRATE 339

THE WRECKERS OF FLORIDA 345

ST. JOHN'S RIVER IN FLORIDA 352

THE FLORIDA KEYS. I 358

THE FLORIDA KEYS. II 365

THE TURTLERS 371

THE FORCE OF THE WATERS 380

JOURNEY IN NEW BRUNSWICK AND MAINE 387

A MOOSE HUNT 393

Part 3

LABRADOR 401

THE EGGERS OF LABRADOR 406

THE SQUATTERS OF LABRADOR 411

COD FISHING 418

A BALL IN NEWFOUNDLAND 426

THE BAY OF FUNDY 431

A FLOOD 437

THE SQUATTERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI 443

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI 449

KENTUCKY SPORTS 455

THE TRAVELLER AND THE POLE-CAT 462

DEER HUNTING 466

THE ECCENTRIC NATURALIST 473

SCIPIO AND THE BEAR 481

A KENTUCKY BARBECUE 486

A RACCOON HUNT IN KENTUCKY 490

PITTING OF WOLVES 497

THE OPOSSUM 501

A MAPLE-SUGAR CAMP 506

THE WHITE PERCH AND ITS FAVORITE BAIT 509

THE AMERICAN SUN PERCH 515

MY STYLE OF DRAWING BIRDS 522

INDEX 529

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. II.

PAGE

EMBERIZA TOWNSENDII (NOW SPIZA TOWNSENDII), TOWNSEND'S BUNTING Frontispiece From an unfinished drawing by J. J. Audubon of the only specimen ever known. Shot May 11, 1833, in Chester County, Pa., by J. K. Townsend.

AUDUBON 84 From the pencil sketch by Isaac Sprague, 1842. In the possession of the Sprague family, Wellesley Hills, Mass.

Part 4

CAMP AT THE THREE MAMELLES 118 From a drawing by Audubon, hitherto unpublished.

CAMP ON THE MISSOURI 160 From a drawing by Isaac Sprague.

MRS. AUDUBON. 1854 176 From a daguerreotype.

AUDUBON. 1839 234 Painted in Edinburgh by J. W. Audubon.

VICTOR GIFFORD AUDUBON 274 Painted by Audubon about 1823.

JOHN WOODHOUSE AUDUBON 310 Painted by Audubon about 1823.

TRINGA ALPINA (NOW PELIDNA ALPINA PACIFICA), RED-BACKED SANDPIPER 352 From the unpublished drawing by J. J. Audubon, November 24, 1831.

AUDUBON. 1850 406 From a daguerreotype. Owned by Mrs. Elizabeth Berthoud Grimshaw.

VICTOR GIFFORD AUDUBON. 1853 456

JOHN WOODHOUSE AUDUBON. 1853 486

OLD MILL AND MILLER'S COTTAGE AT MILL GROVE ON THE PERKIOMEN CREEK 524 From a photograph from W. H. Wetherill, Esq.

AUDUBON 526 From a pencil sketch after death by John Woodhouse Audubon, January 28, 1851.

BOWIE KNIFE 527 Presented by Henry Carleton.

FACSIMILES OF DIPLOMAS At end of volume La Societe Linneenne de Paris. 6 Novembre, 1823. Lyceum of Natural History, New York. January 13, 1824. Societe d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris. 5 Decembre, 1828. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts. November 10, 1830. Royal Society of Edinburgh. March 5, 1831. Royal Jennerian Society, London. July 15, 1836. Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. November 19, 1836. Western Academy of Natural Sciences, St. Louis, Mo. April 17, 1843. Natural History Society of Montreal. March 29, 1847.

THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS

1843

(Continued)

June 4, Sunday. We have run pretty well, though the wind has been tolerably high; the country we have passed this day is somewhat better than what we saw yesterday, which, as I said, was the poorest we have seen. No occurrence of interest has taken place. We passed this morning the old Riccaree Village, where General Ashley was so completely beaten as to lose eighteen of his men, with the very weapons and ammunition that he had trafficked with the Indians of that village, against all the remonstrances of his friends and interpreters; yet he said that it proved fortunate for him, as he turned his steps towards some other spot, where he procured one hundred packs of Beaver skins for a mere song. We stopped to cut wood at an old house put up for winter quarters, and the wood being ash, and quite dry, was excellent. We are now fast for the night at an abandoned post, or fort, of the Company, where, luckily for us, a good deal of wood was found cut. We saw only one Wolf, and a few small gangs of Buffaloes. Bell shot a Bunting which resembles Henslow's, but we have no means of comparing it at present. We have collected a few plants during our landing. The steam is blowing off, and therefore our day's run is ended. When I went to bed last night it was raining smartly, and Alexis did not go off, as he did wish. By the way, I forgot to say that along with the three Prairie Marmots, he brought also four Spoon-billed Ducks, which we ate at dinner to-day, and found delicious. Bell saw many Lazuli Finches this morning. Notwithstanding the tremendous shaking of our boat, Sprague managed to draw four figures of the legs and feet of the Wolf shot by Bell yesterday, and my own pencil was not idle.

June 5, Monday. Alexis went off in the night sometime, and came on board about three o'clock this morning; he had seen nothing whatever, except the traces of Beavers and of Otters, on Beaver Creek, which, by the way, he had to cross on a raft. Speaking of rafts, I am told that one of these, made of two bundles of rushes, about the size of a man's body, and fastened together by a few sticks, is quite sufficient to take two men and two packs of Buffalo robes across this muddy river. In the course of the morning we passed Cannon Ball River, and the very remarkable bluffs about it, of which we cannot well speak until we have stopped there and examined their nature. We saw two Swans alighting on the prairie at a considerable distance. We stopped to take wood at Bowie's settlement, at which place his wife was killed by some of the Riccaree Indians, after some Gros Ventres had assured him that such would be the case if he suffered his wife to go out of the house. She went out, however, on the second day, and was shot with three rifle-balls. The Indians took parts of her hair and went off. She was duly buried; but the Gros Ventres returned some time afterwards, took up the body, and carried off the balance of her hair. They, however, reburied her; and it was not until several months had elapsed that the story came to the ears of Mr. Bowie. We have also passed Apple Creek, but the chief part is yet to be added. At one place where the bluffs were high, we saw five Buffaloes landing a few hundred yards above us on the western side; one of them cantered off immediately, and by some means did reach the top of the hills, and went out of our sight; the four others ran, waded, and swam at different places, always above us, trying to make their escape. At one spot they attempted to climb the bluff, having unconsciously passed the place where their leader had made good his way, and in their attempts to scramble up, tumbled down, and at last became so much affrighted that they took to the river for good, with the intention to swim to the shore they had left. Unfortunately for them, we had been gaining upon them; we had all been anxiously watching them, and the moment they began to swim we were all about the boat with guns and rifles, awaiting the instant when they would be close under our bows. The moment came; I was on the lower deck among several of the people with guns, and the firing was soon heavy; but not one of the Buffaloes was stopped, although every one must have been severely hit and wounded. Bell shot a load of buckshot at the head of one, which disappeared entirely under the water for perhaps a minute. I sent a ball through the neck of the last of the four, but all ineffectually, and off they went, swimming to the opposite shore; one lagged behind the rest, but, having found footing on a sand-bar, it rested awhile, and again swam off to rejoin its companions. They all reached the shore, but were quite as badly off on that side as they had been on the other, and their difficulties must have been great indeed; however, in a short time we had passed them. Mr. Charles Primeau, who is a good shot, and who killed the young Buffalo bull the other day, assured me that it was his opinion the whole of these would die before sundown, but that Buffaloes swimming were a hundred times more difficult to kill than those on shore. I have been told also, that a Buffalo shot by an Indian, in the presence of several whites, exhibited some marks on the inside of the skin that looked like old wounds, and that on close examination they found no less than six balls in its paunch. Sometimes they will run a mile after having been struck through the heart; whilst at other times they will fall dead without such desperate shot. Alexis told me that once he shot one through the thigh, and that it fell dead on the spot. We passed this afternoon a very curious conical mound of earth, about which Harris and I had some curiosity, by which I lost two pounds of snuff, as he was right, and I was wrong. We have seen Geese and Goslings, Ravens, Blue Herons, Bluebirds, Thrushes, Red-headed Woodpeckers and Red-shafted ditto, Martins, an immense number of Rough-winged Swallows about their holes, and Barn Swallows. We heard Killdeers last evening. Small Crested Flycatchers, Summer Yellow-birds, Maryland Yellow-throats, House Wrens are seen as we pass along our route; while the Spotted Sandpiper accompanies us all along the river. Sparrow Hawks, Turkey Buzzards, Arctic Towhee Buntings, Cat-birds, Mallards, Coots, Gadwalls, King-birds, Yellow-breasted Chats, Red Thrushes, all are noted as we pass. We have had a good day's run; it is now half-past ten. The wind has been cold, and this evening we have had a dash of rain. We have seen only one Wolf. We have heard some wonderful stories about Indians and white men, none of which I can well depend upon. We have stopped for the night a few miles above where the "Assiniboin" steamer was burnt with all her cargo uninsured, in the year 1835. I heard that after she had run ashore, the men started to build a scow to unload the cargo; but that through some accident the vessel was set on fire, and that a man and a woman who alone had been left on board, walked off to the island, where they remained some days unable to reach shore.

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