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. Hverything was ready, and all eyes were 
gazing on the clear sky, which appeared in glimpses 
among the tall trees. Suddenly there burst forth a 
ea 
