f IT' 



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234 



AUDUBON 



One of these castigations, which took place more within 

 my personal knowledge, was performed on a fellow who 

 was neither a thief nor a murderer, but who had misbe- 

 haved other\vise sufficiently to bring himself under the 

 sentence with mitigation. He was taken to a place where 

 nettles were known to grow in great luxuriance, completely 

 stripped and so lashed with them that, although not mate- 

 rially hurt, he took it as a hint not to be neglected, left the 

 country, and was never again heard of by any of the party 

 concerned. 



Probably at the moment when I am copying these notes 

 respecting the early laws of our frontier people, few or no 

 Regulating Parties exist, the terrible examples that were 

 made having impressed upon the new settlers a salutary 

 dread, which restrains them from the commission of 

 flagrant crimes. 



THE EARTHQUAKE 



TRA^'ELLIXG through the Barrens of Kentucky (of which 

 I shall give you an account elsewhere) in the month 

 of November, I was jogging on one afternoon, when 

 I remarked a sudden and strange darkness rising from 

 the western horizon. Accustomed to our heavy storms 

 of thunder and rain I took no more notice of it, as I 

 thought the speed of my horse might enable me to get 

 under shelter of the roof of an acquaintance, who lived 

 not far distant, before it should come up, I had proceeded 

 about a mile, when I heard what I imagined to be the 

 distant rumbling of a violent tornado, on which I spurred 

 my steed, with a wish to gallop as fast as possible to a 

 place of shelter; but it would not do, the animal knew 

 better than I what was forthcoming, and instead of going 

 faster, so nearly stopped that I remarked he placed one 

 foot after another on the ground, with as much precaution 



