26 LIFE OP AUDUBON. 



and resume trade, was seized with melancholy at the prospect 

 occasioned by the delay. He brooded in silence over a mishap 

 which had given me great occasion for rejoicing." 



A narrative of Audubon's stay at Cash Creek, and perilous 

 journey up the Mississippi, is picturesquely given in his journal, 

 and from which the following is extracted : — 



" The second morning after our arrival at Cash Creek, while 

 I was straining my eyes to discover whether it was fairly day 

 dawn or no, I heard a movement in the Indian camp, and 

 discovered that a canoe, with half a dozen squaws and as many 

 hunters, was about leaving for Tennessee. I had heard that 

 there was a large lake opposite to us, where immense iiocks of 

 swans resorted every morning, and asking permission to join 

 them, I seated myself on my haunches in the canoe, well pro- 

 vided with ammunition and a bottle of whisky, and in a few 

 minutes the paddles were at work, swiftly propelling us to the 

 opposite shore. I was not much surprised to see the boat 

 paddled by the squaws, but I was quite so to see the hunters 

 stretch themselves out and go to sleep. On landing, the squaws 

 took charge of the canoe, secured it, and went in search of nuts, 

 while we gentlemen hunters made the best of our way through 

 thick and thin to the lake. Its muddy shores were overgrown 

 with a close growth of cotton trees, too large to be pushed 

 aside, and too thick to pass through except by squeezing your- 

 self at every few steps ; and to add to the difficulty, every few 

 rods we .came to small nasty lagoons, which one must jump, 

 leap, or swim, and this not without peril of broken limbs or 

 drowning. 



" But when the lake burst on our view there were the swans 

 by hundreds, and white as rich cream, either dipping their 

 black bills in the water, or stretching out one leg on its surface, 

 or gently floating along. According to the Indian mode of 

 hunting, we had divided, and approached the lagoon from 

 different sides. The moment our vidette was seen, it seemed as 

 if thousands of large, fat, and heavy swans were startled, and as 

 they made away from him they drew towards the ambush of 

 death ; for the trees had hunters behind them, whose touch of the 

 trigger would carry destruction among them. As the first party 

 fired, the game rose and flew within easy distance of the party 



