PRAIRIE LIFE. 157 
daily, nay; nouns exposure of his life and pro- 
perty, an the habit of relying upon his 
own arm aed his own gun both for protec- 
tion and support. Ishe wronged? Nocourt 
or jury is called to adjudicate upon his dis- 
putes or his abuses, save his own conscience ; 
and no powers are invoked to redress them, 
save those with which the God of Nature has 
endowed him. He knows no government— 
no laws, save those of his own creation and 
adoption. He lives in no society which 
~he must’ look up to or propitiate. The ex- 
change of this untrammelled condition—this 
sovereign independence, for a life in civiliza- 
tion, where both his physical and moral free- 
dom are invaded at every turn, by the com- 
plicated machinery of social institutions, is 
certainly likely to commend itself to but few, 
—not even to all those who have been edu- 
cated to find their enjoyments in the arts and 
elegancies peculiar to civilized society ;—as is 
evinced by the frequent instances of men of 
letters, of refinement and of wealth, volunta- 
rily abandoning society for a life upon the 
Prairies, or in the still more savage moun- 
tain wilds. 
A ‘tour on the Prairies’ is certainly a dan- 
gerous experiment for him who would live a 
quiet contented life at home among his friends 
and relatives: not so dangerous to life or 
health, as prejudicial to his domestic habits. 
Those who have lived pent up in our large 
cities, know but little of the broad, unem- 
barrassed freedom of the Great Western Prai- 
VOL. HH. 
