40 Life of Auduhon. 



shaving oars, and at daylight we left the Creek, glad tc 

 be afloat once more in broader water. Going down the 

 stream to the mouth of the Ohio was fine sport ; indeed 

 my partner considered the worst of the journey over , 

 out, alas ! when we turned the point, and met the mighty 

 rush of the Mississippi, running three miles an hour, and 

 bringing shoals of ice to further impede our progress, he 

 looked on despairingly. The patron ordered the lines 

 ashore, and it became the duty of every man ' to haul the 

 cordella,' which was a rope fastened to the bow of the 

 boat ; and one man being left on board to steer, the oth- 

 ers, laying the rope over their shoulders, slowly warped 

 the heavy boat and cargo against the current. We made 

 seven miles that day up the famous river. But while I 

 was tugging with my back at the cordella, I kept my eyes 

 fixed on the forests or the ground, looking for birds and 

 curious shells. At night we camped on the shores. Here 

 we made fires, cooked supper, and setting one sentinel, 

 the rest went to bed and slept like men who had done 

 one good day's work. I slept myself as unconcerned as 

 if I had been in my own father's house. 



"The next day I was up early, and roused my part- 

 ner two hours before sunrise, and we began to move the 

 boat at about one mile an hour against the current. We 

 had a sail on board, but the wind was ahead, and we 

 made ten miles that day. We made our fires, and I lay 

 down to sleep again in my buffalo robes. Two more days 

 of similar toil followed, when the weather became severe, 

 and our patron ordered us to go into winter quarters, in 

 the great bend of the Tawapatee Bottom. 



" The sorrows of my partner at this dismal event were 

 too great to be described. Wrapped in his blanket, like 

 a squirrel in "winter quarters with his tail about his nose, 

 he slept and dreamed away his time, being seldom seec 

 except at meals. 



