FOREST TRAVEL SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS. 185 



she should go with me. The dear little thing actually 

 put on her bonnet, accompanied me for a quarter of a 

 mile, and then her brother had to carry her home by 

 force; my eyes moistened as she held forth her Httle 

 hand, and called out my name. 



On, on, without delay, till the evening of the 25th 

 January saw me at Bay de View, a little river running 

 between, and parallel to, the Cash and I'Anguille. I 

 pitched my camp on one of the many old Indian 

 sepulchral mounds there. Deer and turkeys were 

 plentiful, but, hke the little distiller, the idea of a 

 buffalo hunt had got fixed in my head. So on the 

 27th I followed the course of the stream, through the 

 wild forest, and at night, beside the crackhng fire, gave 

 myself up to troubled thoughts. I had become so used 

 to forest life, that I seldom required the compass; in 

 the level marshy land, with its straight gigantic trees, 

 the traveller can easily find his way by paying atten- 

 tion to the moss, which grows much longer and fuller 

 on the north side than on the south. 



In a day or two it began to freeze ; as the ground 

 was covered with water, in many places knee deep, the 

 noise I made in breaking the ice drove away all the 

 game within hearing. On the 28th and 29th January, 

 I could not get a shot, and lived on the remains of a 

 turkey, and some maize I had in my pockets. On the 

 30th I had nothing but the maize, which I roasted and 

 devoured with the greatest appetite; but instead of 

 appeasing my hunger, it only served to excite it the 

 more, and I began seriously to chew tender stems of 

 sassafras, in order to have something in my stomach. 



My baggage was no great burden to me. At 

 16* 



