Under a Wild Sky (66 page)

281
   
Rich and eccentric, Waterton struggled
Simson, “Charles Waterton: Naturalist,” a forty-page biographical pamphlet prepared in 1880 and published in Edinburgh by James Miller.

281
   
These included his ridiculous account
George Ord to Charles Waterton, April 23, 1832
   
(American Philosophical Society). This detailed letter runs fully ten pages in Ord's tiny, impeccable script.

281
   
Actually, Audubon, though he exaggerated
Klauber,
Rattlesnakes
, vol. I, page 462. Klauber states that Audubon's enhancement of the curvature is pretty significant, and that the mockingbird plate does little to “enhance Audubon's reputation for accuracy of detail.” But he grants the all-important point that rattlesnakes can, and sometimes do climb trees, and that the image of a rattler invading a mockingbird nest is not implausible.

281
   
The birds were harrying the rattler
Audubon's prospectus for
The Birds of America
at one point included William Swainson's 1828 review, in which a number of the engravings are discussed in some detail. Swainson—who was in effect collaborating with Audubon on the review and presumably discussed the images with their author—referred to the infamous Plate XXI as “Mocking Birds defending their Nest from a Rattlesnake.” In Swainson's interpretation, the mother bird's alarm has attracted a small flock of defenders.

281
   
“I have been repeatedly solicited to review”
George Ord to Charles Waterton, April 23, 1832 (American Philosophical Society).

282
   
In 1836, he wrote to a friend
Audubon to Richard Harlan, April 28, 1836 (Beinecke).

282
   
“To have enemies is no uncommon thing”
Ibid.

282
   
In the fall of 1839, Audubon donated
Audubon's inscription is in the first volume in the Wolf Reading Room of the academy's Ewell Sale Stewart Library.

282
   
Ord made off with it
Personal observation. That is to say, I did not see Ord do this with my own eyes, but I did examine the marginalia that resulted.

282
   
It is a fortunate circumstance
Ord marginalia in
Ornithological Biography
, vol. V, page 181 (Wolf Reading Room, Ewell Sale Stewart Library, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia).

282
   
Havell, racing against himself
Audubon to John Bachman, August 14, 1837 (Houghton).

282
   
Number 87, the last set of five
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. II, page 177.

282
   
Audubon spent another year finishing
Audubon to Robert Havell Jr., June 30, 1839 (Houghton).

283
   
The conclusion has been attained
From “Chronicle,”
Niles National Register
, August 17, 1839.

283
   
Audubon and Bachman had begun contemplating
Audubon to John Bachman, January 2, 1840 (Houghton). In this letter, Audubon formally proposes their collaboration, which has been under discussion, even though both men are getting old. In fact, Audubon was thinking about and drawing mammals long before he met Bachman. In 1831, he'd mentioned such a project to Charles-Lucien Bonaparte. He incorporated many mammals in the plates for
The Birds of America
, and there was, of course, the example of his beloved and oft-painted “Otter in a Trap.”

283
   
Audubon estimated that his “great work” had cost him
Fries,
The Double Elephant Folio
, page 114.

283
   
While there never was a perfect accounting
Low,
A Guide to Audubon's
Birds of America, page 3. Victor, who spent years trying to reconcile the various subscriber lists, estimated the total at 175.

284
   
The “little work,” as Audubon called it
Fries,
The Double Elephant Folio
, page 353.

284
   
In the meantime, Audubon applied for a permit
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 380. Permission was granted by the mayor, who stipulated that Audubon conduct his shooting expeditions “early in the morning” in order to minimize the danger to local residents.

284
   
In 1841, the Audubons, who had been living
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. II, pages 234–35.

284
   
Audubon named it “Minnie's Land”
Ibid., page 235.

284
   
Forever in love with rivers
Based on a lithograph and a later photograph of Minnie's Land in Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. II.

284
   
Later on, Victor and John Woodhouse
Maria Audubon to Unknown Recipient, possibly Francis Herrick, June 19, 1925. Maria, quite old at the time, said, “I remember my grandfather perfectly, with his beautiful, long white hair and he taught us all to dance.” (Audubon Museum, John James Audubon State Park, Henderson, Kentucky.)

284
   
Audubon, dressed in a
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 389.

284
   
The expedition, on which he planned
Ibid., pages 388–89.

285
   
The party went by train to Baltimore
Ibid., page 392.

285
   
They next boarded a filthy, dilapidated steamer
Ibid., page 393.

285
   
Audubon spent four weeks
Ibid., page 394.

285
   
They described him as
Ibid.

285
   
On the morning of April 25
Audubon, Maria (ed.),
Audubon and His Journals
, vol I, pages 455–56.

16. AFTER

286
   
John James Audubon died
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 422.

286
   
Near the end he was in pain
Ibid.

286
   
“You go down that side of Long Pond”
Ibid.

286
   
Audubon—by a fair estimate
Low,
A Guide to Audubon's
Birds of America, page 16.

287
   
Audubon paid tribute to her
Audubon,
The Birds of America
, Plate CLXXV.

287
   
On the expedition to the West
Boehme (ed.),
John James Audubon in the West
, page 60.

287
   
The buffalo slaughter disgusted him
Ford,
John James Audubon
, pages 400–401.

287
   
Both Victor and John Woodhouse
Boehme (ed.),
John James Audubon in the West
, page 148.

287
   
Both sons worked on background landscapes
Ford,
John James Audubon
, pages 409–10.

287
   
But Audubon used much the same technique
Boehme,
John James Audubon in the West
, pages 29–30.

288
   
In the end, about half the animals
Ibid., page 26.

288
   
His eyesight dimmed and he started to drink
Victor Audubon to John Bachman, March 27, 1846 (Beinecke). Victor in this letter mentions his father's failing eyesight. The excessive drinking—apparently sporadic—was duly noted by Bachman during Audubon's visit to Charleston in the spring of 1840—John Bachman to Victor Audubon, June 25, 1840.

288
   
By 1846 he had stopped
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 414.

288
   
A year later he wrote his last
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. II, page 288.

288
   
Writing home to Maria Martin
Quoted in Ibid., page 289.

288
   
Audubon may have suffered one or more small strokes
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 429.

288
   
In 1833, while staying in Boston
Audubon to Richard Harlan, March 20, 1833. Audubon told Harlan that his right hand and his mouth had been paralyzed for about one hour, rendering him unable to speak and scaring the wits out of Lucy. I wish to thank Dr. John Chalmers, of Edinburgh, who is both a medical expert and an Audubon scholar, for suggesting that these symptoms are consistent with a transient ischemic attack. However, the supposition that this is, in fact, what happened is my own and Dr. Chalmers is blameless if I am in error.

288
   
His hair turned white
Based on his appearance in a daguerreotype made circa 1850 in Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. II.

288
   
Audubon became less communicative
Streshinsky,
Audubon: Life and Art in the American Wilderness
, page 361.

288
   
Chronic exposure to such toxins
Lloyd and Bendersky, “Arsenic, An Old Case.” Audubon's final illness cannot be diagnosed, though as the estimable Dr. Lloyd says, history can be almost as instructive as a postmortem. In the case of Raphaelle Peale—one of Charles Willson Peale's painting sons, he also prepared specimens for his father's Philadelphia museum—Lloyd and her colleague Gordon Bendersky make a persuasive argument that long, chronic exposure to arsenic and mercury solutions used in taxidermy produced goutlike suffering, loss of teeth and bones in the jaw, and a stumbling aphasia that caused people to think Peale was often drunk. Audubon's exposure to the same toxins—presumably less severe than Peale's—could not have done him any good, and perhaps played a part in his physical and mental deterioration.

289
   
But he assumed that these effects were short-lived
Audubon, “The Golden Eagle,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. II, pages 464–70.

289
   
He called on one of his subscribers
George Ord to Charles Waterton, June 22, 1845 (American Philosophical Society). Victor had been corresponding with the society for a period of time in an attempt to collect the outstanding balance.

289
   
The Philosophical Society, formed in 1743
Lingelbach, “Philosophical Hall.”

289
   
It was housed in a handsome old
Ibid. Philosophical Hall is still there and still lovely. Much of the society's business is now conducted across the street, in its library building.

289
   
It was George Ord
George Ord to Charles Waterton, June 22, 1845 (American Philosophical Society).

289
   
Ord thought him hopeless, a fool
Ibid.

289
   
But, as Ord later said
Ibid.

289
   
After their meeting, Ord wrote to Waterton
Ibid.

289
   
“
The old gentleman has a very venerable look”
Ibid.

290
   
In 1839, two years after
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 428.

290
   
By 1841, both sisters were dead
Ibid., pages 370, 429. Ford states that Eliza developed a terrible cough almost immediately following Maria's death.

290
   
In 1846 John Bachman's wife
Shuler,
Had I the Wings
, page 203.

290
   
His own health declining
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 419.

290
   
Victor Audubon injured his spine
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. II, page 295. A different version has it that Victor—who at the age of two had ridden from Henderson, Kentucky, to Philadelphia sitting on a saddle in front of his father—hurt his back falling into a basement window well.

290
   
He died on August 18, 1860
Ibid.

290
   
John Woodhouse, always the more sensitive of the brothers
Ford,
John James Audubon
, pages 419–21.

290
   
In 1858, he invested in a project
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. II, page 296.