274 WILD SPORTS IX THE FAU WEST. 



I stepped out briskly in a hunting-shirt, leggings, and 

 moccasins, an untanned raecoon-skin-eap, and with no 

 pack to carry. S. as he sat on his horse looked 

 as if he must weigh at least twenty stone, his wife had 

 heaped so many clothes on him, while my accoutre- 

 ments were all of summer stuff ; but the exercise pre- 

 vented me from feeling cold, as we jogged along a small 

 cart-track through the thick forest. 



The first part of our journey led through marshes, 

 but we soon reached the hills that divide the " petit 

 Jean " from the " Fourche le Fave," and with them, dry 

 land. The people of Yell county had selected a spot 

 near the ''petit Jean" for a new county seat for the 

 sessions. The infant town consisted of exactly the 

 same number of buildings as Perry ville, viz. two 

 houses and a stable. When a town i.s founded in 

 America, the streets are first marked off, by cutting 

 away a piece of bark from the trees, and boards are 

 nailed up at the corners with the names, such as, Main- 

 street, Second-street, Walnut-street, Elm-street, &<., 

 and sometimes, when in the forest, a man may find that 

 lie. is in the high street of a town. 



If the position of the new-born, newly-christened 

 town be a good one, it grows incredibly fast ; in the 

 contrary case, it looks desolate enough merchants and 

 travellers desert it, houses are left unfinished and fall 

 to pieces, and the court-house, as J once saw ne:ir White 

 River, may be turned into a corn-crib. 



In Danville, as the town was called, a speculative 

 genius had established a small .-tore, having removed 

 from the Arkansas, about twenty miles oil', with a cask 

 of whiskey, and for whiskey or money he bought all the 



