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AUDUBON 



faint aii^ weary, I managed to shoot a Porcupine, and we 

 ail tasted its flcsli. The night passed, I cannot tell you 

 how. Smouldering fires covered the ground, and trees 

 stood like pillars of fire, or fell across each other. The 

 stifling and sickening smoke still rushed over us, and the 

 burnt cinders and ashes fell thick about us. How we got 

 through that night I really cannot tell, for about some of 

 it I remember nothing." Here the hunter paused, and 

 took breath. The recital of his adventure seemed to have 

 exhausted him. His wife proposed that we should have 

 a bowl of milk, and the daughter having handed it to us, 

 we each took a draught. 



" Now," said he, " I will proceed. Towards morning, 

 although the heat did not abate, the smoke became less, 

 and blasts of fresh air sometimes made their way to us. 

 When morning came, all was calm, but a dismal smoke 

 still filled the air, and the smell seemed worse than ever. 

 We were now cooled enough, and shivered as if in an ague 

 fit; so we removed from the water, and went up to a burn- 

 ing log, where we warmed ourselves. What was to be- 

 come of us, I did not know. My wife hugged the child to 

 her breast, and wept bitterly; but God had preserved us 

 through the worst of the danger, and the flames had gone 

 past, so I thought it would be both ungrateful to him 

 and unmanly to despair now. Hunger once more pressed 

 upon us, but this was easily remedied. Several Deer were 

 still standing in the water, up to the head, and I shot one 

 of them. Some of its flesh was soon roasted ; and after 

 eating it we felt wonderfully strengthened. 



" By this time the blaze of the fire was beyond our 

 sight, although the ground was still burning in many 

 places, and it was dangerous to go among the burnt trees. 

 After resting awhile, and trimming ourselves, we prepared 

 to commence our march. Taking up the child, I led the 

 way over the hot ground and rocks ; and, after two weary 

 days and nghts, during which we shifted in the best 



