In April 1843, the famous naturalist John James Audubon embarked, from St. Louis, on what would prove to be his final expedition. His ambition was to collect as many specimens as possible to immortalize them in the book he had been writing on the “viviparous quadrupeds” – mammals – of North America. Born Jean-Jacques Audubon in Saint-Domingue (the future Haiti) and raised in France, he felt at home aboard the Omega. French was the main language spoken on the boat, which flew the U.S. flag as it steamed up the Missouri River. His guide was Étienne Provost, a celebrated French-Canadian coureur de bois. This part of the continent – from New Spain to the Great Lakes – was inhabited by Indigenous peoples and trappers. It teemed with astounding amounts of wildlife. The trekkers didn’t hold back as they pillaged the fauna, shooting anything that moved in the name of science, or perhaps simply from the giddiness men feel when holding a gun.