APPENZELL BOTTOM. 167 



the duties of the profession which he embraced without 

 having chosen it, because it was exactly adapted to his 

 tastes and the bent of his mind. Game abounded over 

 all the territory owned by the Sirnond family, and the 

 farmer's eldest son soon became famous far and wide 

 for his unsurpassed skill as a marksman. His favourite 

 chase was that of the chamois, which, forty years ago, 

 were numerous enough in the Alpine district around St. 

 Grothard. 



It is no part of my province to relate the causes which, 

 in 1841, brought M. Simond to the United States : to 

 understand the following narrative, the reader needs only 

 to be informed that my friend, after losing all the mem- 

 bers of his family, emigrated to America, taking with 

 him several Swiss shepherds, to found a little colony on 

 the confines of the Western Prairies. 



At New York, much to our regret, we separated, the 

 one going straight to his goal, towards the unknown ; the 

 other remaining in the midst of unknown men and 

 women, in a half-civilized world. We promised to keep 

 up a correspondence ; and I engaged, on my word of 

 honour, to pay a visit at some future time to the Euro- 

 pean trapper, wherever he might have established his log- 

 cabin ; and each of us kept his promise. 



It was the year of grace 1845 : M. Simond, settled on 

 the western slope of the Masserne Mountains, in the 

 northern corner of the State of Arkansas, had for three 

 years solicited " the pleasure " of my visit to his out- 

 lying plantation, which he had baptized with a name dear 

 to his recollections Appenzell Bottom. The holidays 

 having arrived, I decided, one fine morning, to trust my- 



