Kentucky Sports, Si 



serious danger, had been driven. When a voyage by- 

 water was meditated as the easiest means of transporting 

 the family and the baggage, a group of emigrants would 

 build an ark on some creek of the upper waters of the 

 Ohio, and in a craft forty or fifty feet long drift down the 

 stream, carrying upon the roof the bodies of carts and 

 wagons, upon the sides the wheels of the same. 



Within these floating mansions the wayfarers lived, 

 not without fear of impending dangers. To show a light 

 through the loopholes within range of a redskin's rifle 

 was certain death to the inmate ; and night and day, 

 while these arks drifted under umbrageous forests, their 

 occupants were busy considering how their lives might 

 be most dearly sold. Audubon notices curious practices 

 connected with testing the skill of marksmen, not uncom- 

 mon in his own time in Virginia. "At stated times, 

 those desiring a trial of skill would be assembled," writes 

 the naturalist, " and betting a trifling sum, put up a target, 

 in the centre of which a common-sized nail is hammered 

 for about two-thirds of its length. The marksmen make 

 choice of what they consider a proper distance, which 

 may be forty paces. Each man cleans the interior of his 

 barrel, which is called wiping it, places a ball in the palm 

 of his hand, pouring as much powder from his horn upon 

 it as will cover it. This quantity is supposed to be sufli- 

 cient for any distance within a hundred yards. A shot 

 which comes very close to the nail is considered that of 

 an indiflerent marksman ; the bending of the nail is, of 

 course, somewhat better ; but nothing less than hitting it 

 right on the head is satisfactory. One out of three shots 

 generally hits the nail, and should the shooters amount 

 to half-a-dozen, two nails are frequently needed before 

 each can have a shot. Those who drive the nail have a 

 further trial amongst themselves, and the two best shots 

 out of these generally settle the affair; when all the 



