238 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



had to go not less than seven miles before we came to 

 the next neighbor. Like most of the inhabitants of 

 these frontiers, he was of those whose chief occupation 

 is hunting, who from a preference for doing nothing, 

 and an old indifference to many conveniences, neglect 

 and dread the quieter and more certain pursuits of 

 agriculture. These hunters or ' backwoodmen ' live 

 very like the Indians and acquire similar ways of 

 thinking. They shun everything which appears to de- 

 mand of them law and order, dread anything which 

 breathes constraint. They hate the name of a Justice, 

 and yet they are not transgressors. Their object is 

 merely wild, altogether natural freedom, and hunting is 

 what pleases them. An insignificant cabin of unhewn 

 logs ; corn and a little wheat, a few cows and pigs, this 

 is all their riches but they need no more. They get 

 game from the woods ; skins bring them in whiskey and 

 clothes, which they do not care for of a costly sort. 

 Their habitual costume is a ' rifle-shirt,' or shirt of 

 fringed linen ; instead of stockings they wear Indian 

 leggings ; their shoes they make themselves for the 

 most part. When they go out to hunt they take with 

 them a blanket, some salt, and a few pounds of meal 

 of which they bake rough cakes in the ashes ; for the 

 rest they live on the game they kill. Thus they pass 

 10-20 days in the woods ; wander far around ; shoot 

 whatever appears ; take only the skins, the tongues, 

 and some venison back with them on their horses to 

 their cabins, where the meat is smoked and dried ; the 

 rest is left lying in the woods. They look upon the 

 wilderness as their home and the wild as their pos- 

 session ; and so by this wandering, uncertain way of 

 life, of which they are vastly fond, they become in- 



