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BREAKING UP OF THE ICE. 



While proceeding up the Mississippi above its junction with the Ohio, 

 I found, to my great mortification, that its navigation was obstructed by 

 ice. The chief conductor of my bark, who was a Canadian Frenchman, 

 was therefore desired to take us to a place suitable for winter-quarters, 

 which he accordingly did, bringing us into a great bend of the river called 

 Tawapatee Bottom. The waters were unusually low, the thermometer 

 indicated excessive cold, the earth all around was covered with snow, dark 

 clouds were spread over the heavens, and as all appearances were unfa- 

 vourable to the hope of a speedy prosecution of our voyage, we quietly 

 set to work. Our bark, which was a large keel-boat, was moored close 

 to the shore, the cargo was conveyed to the woods, large trees were 

 felled over the water, and were so disposed as to keep off the pressure 

 of the floating masses of ice. In less than two days, our stores, bag- 

 gage, and ammunition, were deposited in a great heap under one of the 

 magnificent trees of which the forest was here composed, our sails were 

 spread over all, and a complete camp was formed in the wilderness. Every 

 thing around us seemed dreary and dismal, and had we not been endowed 

 with the faculty of deriving pleasure from the examination of nature, we 

 should have made up our minds to pass the time in a state similar to that 

 of bears during their hybernation. We soon found employment, how- 

 ever, for the woods were full of game ; and deer, turkeys, racoons, and 

 opossums might be seen even around our camp ; while on the ice that now 

 covered the broad stream rested flocks of swams, to surprise which the 

 hungry wolves were at times seen to make energetic but unsuccessful 

 eflbrts. It was curious to see the snow-white birds aU lying flat on the 

 ice, but keenly intent on watching the motions of their insidious enemies, 

 until the latter advanced within the distance of a few hundred yards, when 

 the swans, sounding their trumpet-notes of alarm, would all rise, spread 

 out their broad wings, and after running some yards and battering the 

 ice until the noise was echoed like thunder through the woods, rose ex- 

 ultingly into the air, leaving their pursuers to devise other schemes for 

 gratifying their craving appetites. 



The nights being extremely cold, we constantly kept up a large fire, 

 formed of the best wood. Fine trees of ash and hickory were felled, cut 



