30 LIFE OF AUDUBON. 



carcass of a dead animal ; and I was not long in meeting strol- 

 ling natives in the woods. They gradually accumulated, and 

 before a week had passed great numbers of these unfortunate 

 beings were around us, chiefly Osages and Shawnees. The 

 former were well-formed, athletic, and robust men, of a noble 

 aspect, and kept aloof from the others. They hunted nothing 

 but large game, and the few elks and bufialoes that remained in 

 the country. The latter had been more in contact with the 

 whites, were much inferior, and killed opossums and wild tur- 

 keys for a subsistence. The Osages being a new race to me, I 

 went often to their camp, to study their character and habits ; 

 but found much difficulty in becoming acquainted with them. 

 They spoke no French, and only a few words of English, and 

 their general demeanour proved them to be a nobler race. Yet 

 they were delighted to see me draw, and when I made a tolerable 

 likeness of one of them with red chalk, they cried out with 

 astonishment, and laughed excessively. They stood the cold 

 much better than the Shawnees, and were much more expert 

 with bows and arrows. 



" The bones we threw around our camp attracted many 

 wolves, and afforded us much sport in hunting them. Here I 

 passed six weeks pleasantly, investigating the habits of wild 

 deer, bears, cougars, racoons, and turkeys, and many other 

 animals, and I drew more or less by the side of our great camp- 

 fire every day ; and no one can have an idea of what a 

 good fire is who has never seen a camp-fire in the woods of 

 America. Imagine four or five ash-trees, three feet in diameter 

 and sixty feet long, cut and piled up, with all their limbs and 

 branches, ten feet high, and then a fire kindled on the top with 

 brush and dry leaves ; and then under the smoke the party lies 

 down and goes to sleep. 



" Here our bread gave out ; and after using the breast of wild 

 turkeys for bread, and bear's grease for butter, and eating 

 opossum and bear's meat until our stomachs revolted, it was 

 decided that a Kentuckian named Pope, our clerk, and a good 

 woodsman, should go with me to the nearest settlement and try 

 and bring some Indian meal. On the way we saw a herd of 

 deer, and turned aside to shoot one ; and having done so, and 

 marked the place, we continued our journey. We walked 



