—143— 
rie, which is accounted as half way between the boun- 
dary of Missouri and Penn’s Fort, and on which some 
travelers have marked their names. On the 28th we 
passed Walnut Creek. An unlucky accident sepa- 
rated me here from my companions. My horse had 
broken down a good deal of late, and so I had to 
walk more than was to my liking. As the party were 
late about starting the next morning, I took my horse 
by the bridle and started ahead, in the expectation 
that the mounted party would soon overtake me. 
Later on I tried to drive my animals before me, but 
they often ran to one side and probably in this way 
brought me on a wrong road, which became less 
marked after a few miles, and finally totally ran out. 
It was foggy, and I could discover nothing of my 
companions. So, in order not to lose time unneces- 
sarily, I determined to push on in an eastern direc- 
tion, hoping in this way to reach the road before 
long. After I had gone some miles further, I saw a 
great swamp lying before me. Toward north and 
south I could see no end to it, but it seemed to extend 
only a few miles toward the east. The water was not 
very deep and the ground pretty firm. So I resolved 
to try at every risk to get through in an eastern di- 
rection. I rode my horse forward at the slowest pace, 
but it often slid down on grass and reeds. My pack 
animal I led after me with a rope. All sorts of 
water birds swarmed around from all sides. Never 
have I seen together such quantities of swans, cranes, 
pelicans, geese and ducks, as were here. The swamp 
Return to 
Boundary of 
Missouri 
