44 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



the capture of them the next morning. With 

 such intervals of joyous sociality months passed 

 before the journey westward was accomplished, 

 occasional skirmishes occurring between the in- 

 truders and the wily Indians who sometimes 

 crept unperceived into the settlers' camps. 

 Still cheerfully they pressed on, till at length 

 the land was cleared for a permanent residence. 

 On reaching the banks of the Ohio, some, in 

 primeval fashion, constructed arks for a home 

 on its inviting current. These arks or flat boats, 

 thirty or forty feet long and ten or twelve in 

 breadth, were considered so stupendous as to 

 hold men, women, children, cattle, poultry, ve- 

 getables, and a host of miscellaneous wares. 

 The roof or deck constituting a farm yard, was 

 covered with hay, ploughs, carts, and agricultu- 

 ral implements — the spinning wheel of the mat- 

 ron morever conspicuous among them. 



In these floating habitations, containing their 

 owners' all, the emigrants, fearful of discovery 

 by the Red Skins, denied themselves even fire 

 or light by night, so fearful were they of a sur- 

 prise from the ferocious and ever watchful foe. 

 Many an encounter, to the discomfiture of the 

 Indian hordes, ensued ; for, to the exercise of 

 the settler's courage on these occasions is proba- 

 bly owing that extraordinary skiU in the use of 



