Winter Experiences 43 



"What a different life from the one I am leading nowj 

 and that night I wrote in my journal exactly as I do now; 

 and I recollect well that I gathered more information that 

 evening respecting the roasting of prairie-hens than I had 

 ever done before or since. Daylight returned fair and 

 frosty, the trees covered with snow and icicles, shining 

 like jewels as the sun rose on them; and the wild turkeys 

 seemed so dazzled by their brilliancy, that they allowed 

 us to pass under them without flying. 



" After a time we saw a canoe picking its way through 

 the running ice. Through the messenger who came in 

 the boat, we obtained after waiting nearly all day, a barrel 

 of flour, several bags of Indian meal, and a few loaves of 

 bread. Having rolled the flour to a safe place, slung the 

 meal in a tree, and thrust our gun barrels through the 

 loaves of bread, we started for our camp, and reached it 

 not long after midnight. Four men were sent the next 

 morning with axes to make a sledge, and drag the provi- 

 sions over the snow to the camp. 



" The river, which had been constantly slowly rising, 

 now began to fall, and prepared new troubles for us ; for 

 as the water fell the ice clung to the shore, and we were 

 forced to keep the boat afloat to unload the cargo. This, 

 with the help of all the Indian men and women, took two 

 days. We then cut large trees, and fastened them to the 

 shore above the boat, so as to secure it from the ice which 

 was accumulating, and to save the boat from being cut by it. 

 We were now indeed in winter quarters, and we made the 

 best of it The Indians made baskets of cane, Mr. Pope 

 played on the violin, I accompanied with the flute, the 

 men danced to the tunes, and the squaws looked on and 

 laughed, and the hunters smoked their pipes with such 

 serenity as only Indians can, and I never regretted one 

 day spent there. 



" While our tune went pleasantly enough, a sudder 



