386 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



night- piece was not bad. In the centre of the 

 steamer's deck, at an equal distance from stem and 

 stern, stood a knot of fellows of such varied and 

 characteristic appearance as might be sought for in 

 vain in any other country than ours. It seemed as if 

 all the western states and territories had sent their 

 representatives to our steamer. Suckers from Illinois, 

 and Badgers from the lead-mines of Missouri Wol- 

 verines from Michigan, and Buckeyes from Ohio 

 Eedhorses from old Kentuck, and Hunters from 

 Oregon, stood mingled before us, clad in all sorts of 

 fantastical and outlandish attire. One had a hunting- 

 shirt of blue and white striped calico, which made its 

 wearer's broad back and huge shoulders resemble a 

 walking feather-bed ; another was remarkable for a 

 brilliant straw-hat a New Orleans purchase, that 

 looked about as well on his bronzed physiognomy as 

 a Chinese roof would do on a pig-sty. Winebago 

 wampum belts and Cherokee moccasins, jerkins of 

 tanned and untanned deer-hide. New York frock- 

 coats, and red and blue jackets, composed some of the 

 numerous costumes, of which the mixture and contrast 

 were in the highest degree picturesque. 



In the middle of this group stood a personage of a 

 very different stamp a most interesting specimen of 

 the genus Yankee, contrasting in a striking manner 

 with the rough-hewn sons of Anak who surrounded 

 him. He was a man of some thirty years of age, as 

 dry and tough as leather, of grave and pedantic mien, 



