had great skill in stuffing and preserving animals of all sorts. He had
also a trick of training dogs with great perfection, of which art his
famous dog Zephyr was a wonderful example. He was an admirable marksman, an
expert swimmer, a clever rider, possessed great activity, prodigious
strength, and was notable for the elegance of his figure, and the beauty of
his features, and he aided Nature by a careful attendance to his dress.
Besides other accomplishments, he was musical, a good fencer, danced well,
had some acquaintance with legerdemain tricks, worked in hair, and could
plait willow baskets." He adds that Audubon once swam across the Schuylkill
with him on his back.




II.


Audubon was now eager to marry, but Mr. Bakewell advised him first to study
the mercantile business. This he accordingly set out to do by entering as a
clerk the commercial house of Benjamin Bakewell in New York, while his
friend Rozier entered a French house in Philadelphia.

But Audubon was not cut out for business; his first venture was in indigo,
and cost him several hundred pounds. Rozier succeeded no better; his first
speculation was a cargo of hams shipped to the West Indies which did not
return one fifth of the cost. Audubon's want of business habits is shown by
the statement that at this time he one day posted a letter containing eight
thousand dollars without sealing it. His heart was in the fields and woods
with the birds. His room was filled with drying bird skins, the odour from
which, it is said, became so strong that his neighbours sent a constable to