72 EMIGRANTS TO THE WEST. [CHAP. XXIV. 



myself that it was now so cold. Moreover, there 

 are parties of emigrants in some of these woods, 

 where women delicately brought up, accustomed to be 

 waited on, and with infants at the breast, may now 

 be seen on their way to Texas, camping out, although 

 the ground within their tent is often soaked with 

 heavy rain. &quot; If you were here in the hot season,&quot; 

 said another, &quot; the exuberant growth of the creepers 

 and briars would render many paths in the woods, 

 through which you now pass freely, impracticable, 

 and venomous snakes would make the forest dan 

 gerous.&quot; 



Calling on a proprietor to beg him to show me 

 some fossil bones, he finished by offering me his 

 estate for sale at 3500 dollars. He said he had been 

 settled there for twenty years with his wife, longer 

 than any one else in the whole country. He had no 

 children ; and when I expressed wonder that he 

 could leave, at his advanced age, a farm which he 

 had reclaimed from the wilderness and improved so 

 much, he answered, &quot; I hope to feel more at home 

 in Texas, for all my old neighbours have gone there, 

 and new people have taken their place here.&quot; 



The uncertainty of the cotton crops, and the sudden 

 fluctuations in the value of cotton from year to year, 

 have been the ruin of many, and have turned almost 

 every landowner into a merchant and speculator. The 

 maize, or Indian corn, appears to be almost as pre 

 carious a crop, for this year it has entirely failed in 

 many places owing to the intense summer heat. I 

 passed some mills in which the grain, cob, and husk 

 were all ground up together for the cattle and hogs, 



