THE DIVIDING LINE 53 



The few good husbands, amongst us took some thought of their backs as 

 well as their bellies, and made use of this o|)poitunity to put their habiliments 

 in repair, which had suffered wofully by the bushes. The horses got some 

 rest, by reason of the bad weather, but very little food, the chief of their 

 forage being a little wild rosemary, which resembles the garden rosemary 

 pretty much in figure, but not at all in taste or smell. This plant grows in 

 small tufts here and there on the barren land in these upper parts, and the 

 horses liked it well, but the misfortune was, they could not get enough of it 

 to fill their bellies. 



15th. After the clouds broke away in the moi'ning, the people dried their 

 blankets with all diligence. Nevertheless, it was noon before we were in con- 

 dition to move forward, and then weie so puzzled with passing the river 

 twice in a small distance, that we could advance the line in all no further than 

 one single mile and three hundred poles. The first time we passed the Dan 

 this day was two hundred and forty poles from the place where we lay, and 

 the second time was one mile and seven poles beyond that. This was now 

 the fourth time we forded that fine river, which still tended westerly, with 

 many short and returning reaches. 



The surveyors had much difficulty in getting over the river, finding it 

 deeper than formerly. The breadth of it here did not exceed fifty yards. 

 The banks were about twenty feet high from the water, and beautifully beset 

 vi'ith canes. Our baggage horses crossed not the river here at all, but, fetch- 

 ing a compass, went round the bend of it. On our way we forded Sable 

 creek, so called from the dark colour of the water, which happened, I sup- 

 pose, by its being shaded on both sides with canes. 



In the evening we quartered in a charming situation near the angle of the 

 river, from whence our eyes were carried down both reaches, which kept a 

 straight course for «, great way together. This prospect was so beautiful, 

 that we were perpetually climbing up to a neighbouring eminence, that we 

 n)ight enjoy it in more perfection. 



Now the weather grew cool, the wild geese began to direct their flight this 

 way from Hudson's bay, and the lakes that lay north-west of us. They are 

 very lean at their first coming, but fatten soon upon a sort of grass that 

 grows on the shores and rocks of this river. The Indians call this fowl 

 cohunks, from the hoarse note it has, and begin the year from the coming of 

 the cohunks, which happens in the beginning of October. These wild geese 

 are guarded from cold by a down, that is exquisitely soft and fine, which 

 makes them much more valuable for their feathers than for their flesh, which 

 is dark and coarse. 



The men chased a bear into the river that got safe over, notwithstanding 

 the continual fire from the shore upon him.. He seemed to swim but heavily, 

 considering it was for his life. Where the water is shallow, it is no uncom- 

 mon thing to see a bear sitting, in the summer time, on a heap of gravel in 

 the middle of the river, not only to cool himself, but likewise for the advan- 

 tage of fishing, particularly for a small shell-fish, that is brought down with the 

 stream. In the upper part of James river I have observed this sevei^al times, 

 and wondered veiy much, at first, how so many heaps of small stones came to 

 be piled up in the water, till at last we spied a bear sitting upon one of them, 

 looking with great attention on the stream, and raking up something with his 

 paw, which I take to be the shell-fish above mentioned. 



1 6th. It was ten o'clock this morning before the horses could be found, 

 having hidden themselves among the canes, whereof there was great plenty 

 just at hand. Not far from our camp we went over a brook, whose banks 

 were edged on both sides with these canes. But three miles further we 



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