46 NUTES TAKEN. 
our hapless party went floundering and plunging on, some- 
times brought to a dead stand, anon sinking to the saddle 
girths, then plunging into a slough and wondering what was 
to come next, until bedaubed and bespattered, breathless and 
half suffocated, we emerged upon the banks of the stream, and 
cast an involuntary glance backwards to see whether we had 
not left part of ourselves or our horses behind us. 
With the loss of several horse and mule shoes, and the 
breaking of a swingle tree in the ambulance, we got through, 
and arriving on the banks of the stream found it too high to 
cross with our wagons, and so set about to repair damages. 
In course of the afternodn, we attempted to cross our horses 
over by swimming them, but on account of the bad landing en 
the opposite shore, were obliged to desist. 
Having crossed myself, in a dug-out,* in anticipation of my 
horse, I came near having an unpleasant adventure, viz., a 
night alone in a Choctaw swamp. 
_ Finding no likelihood of getting my horse, I started on foot 
for Boggy Depot—a collection of dwellings and stores about 
a mile from the stream—as the most comfortable place to 
spend the night. . 
ignrene my guide gave me a es a which, so far 
ye 4 qT t. 
ing direct, only usion worse confounded. 
* A “dug-out” is a canoe made out of a solid log, the heart dug out with a 
hatchet or adze, hence itsname. The more primitive way of making them was 
to burn them out, though there is no authority for saying that in consequence 
ssa were called “ burnt-outs.” - 
a 
