ACROSS THE KOCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 19 



the creeks on our route, the late freshets having carried away the 

 briclfres. 



Our accommodation at the farm houses has generally been 

 good and comfortable, and the inhabitants obliging, and anxious 

 to please. They are, however, exceedingly inquisitive, pro- 

 pounding question after question, in such quick succession as 

 scarcely to allow you breathing time between them. This kind 

 of catechising was at first very annoying to us, but we have 

 now become accustomed to it, and have hit upon an expedient to 

 avoid it in a measure. The first question generally asked, is, 

 "where do you come from, gentlemen?" We frame our answer 

 somewhat in the style of Dr. Franklin. " We come from Penn- 

 sylvania; our names, Nuttall and Townsend ; we are travelling 

 to Independence on foot, for the purpose of seeing the country 

 to advantage, and we intend to proceed from thence across the 

 mountains to the Pacific. Have you any mules to sell 1" 

 The last clause generally changes the conversation, and saves 

 us trouble. To a stranger, and one not accustomed to the 

 manners of the western people, this kind of interrogating seems 

 to imply a lack of modesty and common decency, but it is cer- 

 tainly not so intended, each one appearing to* think himself enti- 

 tled to gain as much intelligence regarding the private aifairs 

 of a stranger, as a very free use of his lingual organ can pro- 

 cure for him. 



We found the common gray squirrel very abundant in 

 some places, particularly in the low bottoms along water 

 courses; in some situations we saw them skipping on al- 

 most every tree. On last Christmas day, at a squirrel hunt 

 in this neighborhood, about thirty persons killed the astonish- 

 ing number of twelve hundred, between the rising and setting of 

 the sun. 



This may seem like useless barbarity, but it is justified by the 

 consideration Ihat all the crops of corn in the country arc fre- 



