who, in that stage, if he can refrain from growing garrulous, may per-
haps make himself presently interesting.
"In the year 1826 there appeared in England an unknown man. This
man was already turned of fifty. We may say that he had more years
than the popular date of his hirth would assign him to here. He was a
man of striking personal appearance; he was a man of most engaging
manners; he was a man who, in the short space of five years, leaped
from obscurity into imperishable renown.
"How could that be? It happened in this wise: That unknown
man who appeared in Great Britain and on the continent in 1826
carried abroad the efforts of a lifetime of ornithological study with him
that were placed before the public with the result that the nameless
John James Audubon, a person, became an illustrious personage.
"These efforts which I have just mentioned as a lifework were hardly
to be carried in any very small compass. But the fruits of his work,
which were outside of his own head, he had with him on paper.
"How did he present the originals of those drawings which have
never ceased from that day to this to excite our wonder and our admira-
tion? He presented them in a certain portfolio. When he went upon
a reconnoissance he was in the habit of taking the portfolio under
his arm — I trust that he did not long feel poor; when he became a little
richer he probably hired a cab ; but b>- whatever means the portfolio was
carried in those days, some younger and weaker members of the ornitho-
logical fraternity have transported by their efforts the same into the room
this morning, and if the secretary will be kind enough to help me for a
moment I will show you the portfolio. This (exhibiting a large brown
portfoho, worn and faded) is the original portfolio which John James
Audubon carried with him through the continent and Great Britain.
[Applause.]
"There are a number of other portfolios and a greater variety of Au-
duboniana in the possession of the family in Salem, New York; but upon
the kind offers of Miss Maria Audubon, descendant of the great orni-
thologist, I suggested this portfolio. You wiW observe that it has been
much worn and some of the brass corners and metal bindings are lost ;
but portfolios are not carried empty — not even to a meeting of the Orni-
thologists' Union; let us open it.
"Audubon's engaging manners and fine personal appearance won
him friends everywhere among persons in high places in England and
elsewhere on the continent, and while his plates of the birds of North
America were being engraved by Mr. Robert Havell, of London, and
others, the question of text to these great plates came up. We are all
familiar with the print of the first volume; but who ever saw the manu-
- script in the handwriting of John James Audubon? Audubon, besides
