1G8 WILD SPORTS IX THE FAR ^YEST. 



north: so, as soon as they could after hinding, they 

 placed it in a grave, which they dug with the assistance 

 of the inhabitants of the place. Mrs. S. assured me 

 that she had never seen such a corpse. His limbs were 

 quite pliant, and almost warm, and his cheeks still red ; 

 but the cold earth soon covered him, and nothing was 

 ever said on the subject. 



By the 29th September I was pretty well again, and 

 helped S. to get in the corn from the more distant field ; 

 but as it came on to rain, I was none the better for it. 

 On the first October an old man from Tennessee came 

 with his son to the marshes to buy cattle. We mounted 

 to drive them together that they might see them, for at 

 this season, Avhen the grass is everywhere in abundance, 

 the beasts do not remain in one place, but are one day 

 here, the next day there. There cannot be a better 

 place in the world for cattle than the marshes. In sum- 

 mer the woods are filled with pea- vine as high as the 

 Imees, as well as with the finest grass, wild oats, and 

 wild rye ; in the winter the evergreen canebrakes afford 

 the finest pasture for cattle and deer, and winter grass 

 grows in many parts of the marshes. 



We worked our way through thorns and creepers, 

 reeds and forests, and almost impenetrable sassafras 

 bushes, and came back without having seen a single 

 hom. One of the consequences was that I was again 

 laid up, but this time I had a companion in the young 

 stranger, who had thus to pay his footing in the swamps. 

 On the second day he was so ill that his life was de- 

 spaired of; but at last he recovered. 



On the 7th October I rode for the sake of exercise, 

 towards a settlement about twelve miles off. It began 



