EPISODES 261 



interesting productions, —birds, quadrupeds, and reptiles, 

 as well as molluscous animals, many of which, I am per- 

 suaded, have never been described. 



In the course of one of my rambles, I chanced to meet 

 with a squatter's cabin on the banks of the Cold Water 

 River. In the owner of this hut, like most of those 

 adventurous settlers in the uncultivated tracts of our 

 frontier districts, I found a person well versed in the 

 chase, and acquainted with the habits of some of the larger 

 species of quadrupeds and birds. As he who is desirous 

 of instruction ought not to disdain listening to any one 

 who has knowledge to communicate, however humble may 

 be his lot, or however limited his talents, I entered the 

 squatter's cabin, and immediately opened a conversation 

 with him respecting the situation of the swamp, and its 

 natural productions. He told me he thought it the very 

 place I ought to visit, spoke of the game which it con- 

 tained, and pointed to some Bear and Deer skins, adding 

 that the individuals to which they had belonged formed 

 but a small portion of the number of those animals which 

 he had shot within it. My heart swelled with delight, 

 and on asking if he would accompany me through the 

 great morass, and allow me to become an inmate of his 

 humble but hospitable mansion, I was gratified to find 

 that he cordially assented to all my proposals. So I im- 

 mediately unstrapped my drawing materials, laid up my 

 gun, and sat down to partake of the homely but whole- 

 some fare intended for the supper of the squatter, his 

 wife, and his two sons. 



The quietness of the evening seemed in perfect accord- 

 ance with the gentle demeanor of the family. The wife 

 and children, I more than once thought, seemed to look 

 upon me as a strange sort of person, going about, as I told 

 them I was, in search of birds and plants; and were I 

 here to relate the many questions which they put to me 

 in return for those I addressed to them, the catalogue 



