II 



i 



490 



AUDUBON 



it. When it reached the shore, it tried several times to 

 cHmb up, but each time fell back. It at last succeeded, 

 almost immediately started off at a gallop, and was 

 soon lost to sight. We stopped to cut wood at twelve 

 o'clock, in one of the vilest places we have yet come to. 

 The rushes were waist-high, and the whole underbrush 

 tangled by grape vines. 'The Deer and the Elks had 

 beaten paths which we followed for a while, but we saw 

 only their tracks, and those of Turkeys. Harris found a 

 heronry of the common Blue Heron, composed of about 

 thirty nests, but the birds were shy and he did not shoot 

 at any. Early this morning a dead Buffalo floated by 

 us, and after a while the body of a common cow, which 

 had probably belonged to the fort above this. Mr. Sire 

 told us that at this point, two years ago, he overtook 

 three of the deserters of the company, who had left a 

 keel-boat in which they were going down to St. Louis. 

 They had a canoe when overtaken ; he took their guns 

 from them, destroyed the canoe, and left them there. On 

 asking him what had become of them, he said they had 

 walked back to the establishment at the mouth of Vermil- 

 ion River, which by land is only ten miles distant; ten 

 miles, through such woods as we tried in vain to hunt in, 

 is a walk that I should not like at all. We stayed cutting 

 wood for about two hours, when we started again ; but a 

 high wind arose, so that we could not make headway, and 

 had to return and make fast again, only a few hundred 

 yards from the previous spot. On such occasions our cap- 

 tain employs his wood-cutters in felling trees, and splitting 

 and piling the wood until his return downwards, in about 

 one month, perhaps, from now. In talking with our cap- 

 tain he tells us that the Black Bear is rarely seen swim- 

 ming this river, and that one or two of them are about all 

 he observes on going up each trip, I have seen them 

 swimming in great numbers on the lower parts of the 

 Ohio, and on the Mississippi. It is said that at times, 



