If Audubon was remiss in supplying the necessary materials, it is possible that Bachman, in turn, may have failed to appreciate the load which his friend's shoulders had carried for the five years then past. To Bachman specimens and books were, of course, absolutely essential, but Audubon needed them also, as well as subscribers and the large sums of money necessary to keep his great enterprises in orderly movement. At all events, Bachman's ultimatum brought immediate results, and it might not be wide of the mark to affirm that to the tactful Harris we virtually owe the completion of that admirable work, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. It should be noticed that at the time the complaining letter was sent, John W. Audubon was in Texas, engaged in making collections, though, as it proved, with little success; Victor searched the country for the needed books, and his father's Missouri River journal was despatched to Charleston, without delay.
On New Year's Day, 1846, Bachman wrote to his friend:
As I do not like to disappoint you in anything, I send you one of the articles. It is about a fair sample of the whole.... I try to incorporate as much as I can of your own, but, in most cases, your notes have come too late.
You see how plain Haskell writes: I should think that by this time, he has copied three hundred pages as correctly as the inclosed.
In his letter of March 6 he said:
For the last four nights, I have been reading your journal. I am much interested, though I find less about the quadrupeds than I expected. The narratives are particularly spirited, and often instructive, as well as amusing. All that you write on the spot, I can depend on, but I never trust to the memory of others, any more than to my own....
To return to your Journal. I am afraid that the shadows of the Elk, Buffalo, and Bighorn hid the little Marmots, Squirrels and Jumping Mice. I wish you had engaged some of the hunters to set traps. I should like to get the Rabbit that led you so weary a chase. Write to C.[207] and find out some way of getting—not his princess brain-eating, horse-straddling squaw, but what is better than such a specimen from the Blackfoot country—1st. The Skunk; 2nd, Hares, in Winter colors; and 3rd, the Rabbit that you chased. In your Journal your descriptions of Buffalo hunts are first rate. I don't like my article on the "Beaver"; I shall have to write it over again. If I could only borrow Temminck's large work. Every library here is open to me, and you would be astonished to see the number of books in my own library; but the scientific works of close comparison are not among them. I had written letter after letter, but might have saved ten dollars postage.
Audubon wrote to Baird on February 2, 1846, to remind him of the Catamount, which was thought not to be "the Cougar," and of the Black Fox: "for the latter," he said, "I do give you my word that I would willingly pay you Twenty Dollars by a draft upon us at Sight." In another letter from "Minnie's Land, N. Y.," of March 14, he said:[208]
Could you procure a black and a Silver Fox for us, we will be willing to give a good price for either in the flesh, and preserved in common New England Rum, and forwarded by express to 78 John St, N.Y.
We expect to see John at home in about Six or Seven weeks. He has made a very poor Journey of this one, and will have to go to Europe this summer, I have no doubt.