of exploring part of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. This expedition they were assisted in making by Col. John Abert,[1] who procured them the Revenue cutter "Campbell." Fire having afterward (in 1845) destroyed the journals of this period, only a few letters remain to tell us of the coasting voyage to Galveston Bay, Texas, though the ornithological results of this journey are all in the "Birds of America." It was during this visit to Charleston that the plans were begun which led to the "Quadrupeds of North America," under the joint authorship of Audubon and Bachman.[2]
In the late summer of 1837, Audubon, with John and his wife,—for he had married Maria, Dr. Bachman's eldest daughter,—returned to England, his last voyage there, and remained abroad until the autumn of 1839, when the family, with the addition of the first grandchild,[3] once more landed in America, and settled, if such wanderers can ever be said to settle, in New York, in the then uptown region of 86 White St.
The great ornithological work had been finished, abso-
- ↑ John James Abert, who was in 1837 brevet lieutenant-colonel of Topographical Engineers, U. S. Army, and afterward chief of his corps. Abert's Squirrel, Sciurus aberti, forms the subject of plate 153, fig. 1, of Audubon and Bachman's "Quadrupeds."
- ↑ This important and standard work on American Mammalogy was not, however, finished till many years afterward, nor did Audubon live to see its completion. Publication of the colored plates in oblong folio, without text, began at least as early as 1840, and with few exceptions they first appeared in this form. They were subsequently reduced to large octavo size, and issued in parts with the text, then first published. The whole, text and plates, were then gathered in 3 volumes: vol. i., 1846; vol. ii., 1851; vol. iii., to page 254 and pi. 150, 1853; vol. iii., p. 255 to end, 1854. There are in all 155 plates; 50 in vol. i., 50 in vol. ii., 55 in vol. iii.; about half of them are from Andubon's brush, the rest by John Woodhouse. The exact character of the joint authorship does not appear; but no doubt the technical descriptions are by Dr. Bachman. Publication was made in New York by Victor Audubon; and there was a reissue of some parts of the work at least, as vol. i. is found with copyright of 1849, and date 1851 on the title.—E. C.
- ↑ Lucy, now Mrs. Delancey B. Williams.
