86 HUNTING SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



stand enough of tanning to prepare the leather ; they 

 make their own ploughs, dig wells, &c. ; for all which 

 operations Europeans require so many different work- 

 men. 



As we sat together before the fire, there was no dif- 

 ficulty in getting Slowtrap to relate some of his adven- 

 tures with the Indians in his early days. In the evening 

 we brought in some pumpkins, and as we cut them into 

 thin rings to hang on the poles to dry he began to speak 

 in the following words of the perils he had been exposed 

 to in Kentucky, and his narrow escapes from the Indians : 

 " Kentucky was at that time a wilderness, when my father, 

 my uncle, and myself, arrived near the dwelling of Daniel 

 Boone, to look about for a spot that would suit us; for 

 North Carolina, where we then lived, began to be too 

 populous, and a man who wanted to shoot a turkey or 

 partridge was tired before he had walked half an hour, 

 from the number of fences he was obliged to climb over. 

 I was then just eighteen, as strong as a four-year-old bear, 

 and was delighted at the thought of meeting the Indians. 

 It was about this time of the year, and the game we saw 

 made our hearts bound : numbers of bears, deer, and buf- 

 faloes ; while the turkeys would hardly get out of our 

 way. It would tire you to tell you of all the sport we 

 had, for no country in the world could boast of more game 

 than Kentucky thirty years ago ; but now it is no better 

 there than it was then in North Carolina, and five years 

 hence, a man who wants to shoot a bear in Arkansas, 

 will have, many a weary mile to tramp. One evening we 

 arrived at the edge of a cane-brake, and as there was 

 good feeding for the horses, we resolved to pass the night 



