vi PREFACE 



accounts of some queer people are faithful description, if 

 written in a style of my own. 



I gather from what some of my critics have said — 

 and I am much beholden to them for several valuable 

 hints which I have tried to act on — that they would like 

 a freer and more connected use of dates. I regret that 

 there are circumstances, such as the irregular manner in 

 which I sometimes made my notes, the intervals of 

 trading journeys, causing a break in the time, &c., which 

 make it impossible for me to present a narrative in jour- 

 nal form. The first half of the book, however, giving my 

 first experiences in America, when I was a mere boy, is 

 tolerably connected. 



Finally, let me say, that all my books are retrospec- 

 tive in point of time — a fault that I regret, but one 

 which it is now too late to remedy. To a great extent I 

 describe a beautiful past; for the face of the great 

 American Continent is everywhere changing fast in ap- 

 pearance — too fast to please those who adore Nature 

 in her virgin mantle. 



