158 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



ship, or a new acquisition from the Indian, furnishes an 

 incentive to move again further west. 



This first class of moving emigrants, or pioneers, com- 

 monly select for their residence a position in a grove, or 

 dense body of timber, where, by the exclusion of sunbeams, 

 and almost of the atmosphere, a perpetual dampness reigns. 

 This is frequently upon a low bottom, or on the banks of a 

 stream. Though he has no intention of passing his life there, 

 yet the fancied wealth of the timber region, its superior 

 value, as he thinks, over the prairie, decides his choice in 

 favor of that position ; and, neglecting the high, open, 

 healthy prairie, that spreads before him, a sea in extent, a 

 virgin soil unequalled and inexhaustible, where, in two years, 

 he might be the possessor of a rich farm, he seeks the immer- 

 sion of a dense and damp forest, where, with his poor cabin 

 and his habits of life, his exposure and hardship, combined 

 with the atmosphere and the decaying vegetation, the fever 

 and ague is soon added to the list of his comforts, and sets 

 its mark of pallid emaciation on the countenances of the 

 family. This injudicious selection has led to the supposition 

 that the country was more unhealthy than, in fact, it is. 



The following, from Birkbeck's Notes, is a lively picture 

 of Western life in some positions ; exhibiting the effect of a 

 situation like that above-mentioned : — 



" Our journey across the Little Wabash was a complete 

 departure from all mark of civilisation. We saw no bears, 

 as they are now buried in the thickets, and seldom appear by 

 day ; but, at every few yards, we saw recent marks of their 

 doings — * wallowing' in the long grass, or turning over the 

 decayed logs in quest of beetles or worms, in which work the 

 strength of this animal is equal to that of four men. Wan- 

 dering without track, where even the sagacity of our hunter- 



