194 INSESSORES CURSORES. 



where there was little underwood. I rode through 

 it upwards of forty miles, and, crossing it in different 

 parts, found its average breadth to be rather more 

 than three miles. My first view of it was about a 

 fortnight subsequent to the period when they had 

 made choice of it, and I arrived there nearly two 

 hours before sunset. Few Pigeons were then to be 

 seen, but a great number of persons, with horses and 

 wagons, guns and ammunition, had already established 

 encampments on the borders. Two farmers from the 

 vicinity of Russelville, distant more than a hundred 

 miles, had driven upwards of three hundred hogs to 

 be fattened on the pigeons which were to be slaugh- 

 tered. Here and there, the people employed in pluck- 

 ing and salting what had already been procured, were 

 seen sitting in the midst of large piles of these birds. 

 Many trees two feet in diameter, I observed, were 

 broken off at no great distance from the ground; and 

 the branches of many of the largest and tallest had 

 given way, as if the forest had been swept by a tor- 

 nado. Everything proved to me that the number 

 of birds resorting to this part of the forest must 

 be immense beyond conception. As the period of 

 their arrival approached, their foes anxiously pre- 

 pared to receive them. Some were furnished with 

 iron pots containing sulphur, others with torches of 

 pine-knots, many with poles, and the rest with guns. 

 The sun was lost to our view, yet not a Pigeon had 

 arrived. Everything was ready, and all eyes were 

 gazing on the clear sky, which appeared in glimpses 

 among the tall trees. Suddenly there burst forth a 



