THE DIVIDING LINE. 



Gl 



23d. At the distance of sixty-two poles from where we lay, we crossed 

 the south branch of what we took for the Irvin, nor was it without difficulty 

 we got over, though it happened to be without damage. Great part of the 

 way after that was mountainous, so that we were no sooner got down one 

 hill, but we were obliged to climb up another. Only for the last mile of our 

 stage, we encountered a locust thicket that was level, but interlaced terribly 

 with briers and grape vines. We forded a-large creek, no less than five 

 times, the banks of which were so steep tliat we were forced to cut them 

 down with a hoe. We gave it the name of Crooked creek, because of its 

 meanders. The sides of it were planted with shrub-canes, extremely inviting 

 to the horses, which were now quite jaded with clambering up so many pre- 

 cipices, and tugging through so many dismal thickets, notwithstanding which 

 we pushed the line this day four miles sixty-nine poles. The men were so 

 unthrifty this morning as to bring but a small portion of their abundance 

 along with them. This was the more unlucky, because we could discover 

 no sort of game the whole livelong day. Woodsmen are certainly good 

 Christians in one respect, at least, that they always leave the morrow to care 

 for itself; though for that very reason they ought to pray more fervently for 

 their daily bread than most of them remember to do. 



The mountains were still concealed from our eyes by a cloud of smoke. 

 As we went along we were alarmed at the sight of a great fire, which showed 

 itself to the northward. This made our small corps march in closer order 

 than we used to do, lest perchance we might be waylaid by Indians. It 

 made us look out sharp to see if we could discover any track or other token 

 of these insidious foresters, but found none. In the mean time we came 

 often upon the track of bears,^ which cannot without some skill be distin- 

 guished from that of human creatures, made with naked feet. And indeed a 

 young woodsman would be puzzled to find out the difference, which consists 

 principally in a bear's paws being something smaller than a man's foot, and 

 in its leaving sometimes the mark of its claws in the impression made upon 

 the ground. 



The soil, where the locust thicket grew, was exceedingly rich, as it con- 

 stantly is, where that kind of tree is naturally and largely, produced. But 

 the desolation made there lately, either by fire or caterpillars, had been so 

 general, that we could not see a tree of any bigness standing within our pros- 

 pect. And the reason why a fire makes such a havoc in these lonely parts is 

 this. The woods are not there burnt every year, as they generally are amongst 

 the inhabitants. But the dead leaves and trash of many years are heaped 

 up together, which being at length kindled by the Indians that happen to pass 

 that way, furnish fuel for a conflagration that carries all before it. There 

 is a beautiful range of hills, as level as a terrace-walk, that overlooks the 

 valley through which Crooked creek conveys its spiral stream. This terrace 

 runs pretty near east and west, about two miles south of the line, and is 

 almost parallel with it. - The horses had been too much harassed to permit 

 us to ride at all out of our way, for the pleasure of any prospect, or the 

 gratification of any curiosity. This confined us to the narrow sphere of our 

 business, and is at the same time a just excuse for not animating our story 

 with greater variety. 



24th. The surveyors went out the sooner this morning, by reason the men 

 lost very little time in cooking their breakfast. They had made but a spare 

 meal over night, leaving nothing but the hide of a bear for the morrow. 

 Some of the keenest of them got up at midnight to .cook that nice morsel after 

 the Indian manner. They first singed the hair clean off, that none of it might 

 stick in their throats ; then they boiled the pelt into soup, which had a stratum 



9 



