AUDUBON THE HUNTER-NATURALIST. 91 



that singular city, that looks as if it had been built over 

 the very gates of Acheron. Soon as I made my appearance 

 in the raw, foggy air, upon the wharf, early as it was, I was 

 surrounded by scores of " strikers" and agents of the different 

 hotels and transportation lines. 



Amidst the yells and deafening clamors of contending 

 claims on every side, I permitted myself to be bodily ravished 

 into a coach, and hurried off, bag and baggage, for the word 

 of the Darky " Striker" being accepted " the most splen- 

 diferous hotel in the city !" As it happened to be the one I 

 knew, and had selected beforehand, I was content to take his 

 definition of its superlative excellence. 



Before I reached my destination, the coach was hailed from 

 a street corner, and a fellow, muffled in a pilot cloth, sprang 

 in and took a seat beside me. To my no little astonishment, 

 he seemed to take the most sudden and peculiar interest in 

 me, and, greatly to the exaltation of my inward consciousness 

 of great deserts, plied me with a series of the sharpest ques- 

 tionings as to my whereabouts "when I was at home" my 

 destination, and above all, my route with the roundest and 

 most voluble protestations as to the affectionate interest he felt 

 in seeing that all travelers, especially such looking ones as I 

 was, were properly warned of the complicated impositions and 

 knaveries practised habitually upon them, by the many trans- 

 portation lines in this wicked city ; and to wind up this touch- 

 ing exordium, he frankly assured me that the " Stage Route" 

 across the mountains was the cheapest the most safe the 

 " most genteelest" and altogether the route he would recom- 

 mend to such a gentleman as me ! 



The milk of human kindness was somewhat stirred in my 

 veins, responsive to this gratuitous exhibition of a broad phi- 

 lanthropy but as it happened that I had determined upon 

 the " Canal Route," I waived, with the most thankful acknowl- 

 edgments, any present committal, and gratefully accepted the 



