EPISODES 477 



Some days passed, during which we followed our several 

 occupations. M. de T. searched the woods for plants, and 

 I for birds. He also followed the margins of the Ohio, 

 and picked up many shells, which he greatly extolled. 

 With us, I told him, they were gathered into heaps to 

 be converted into lime. " Lime ! Mr. Audubon ; why, 

 they are worth a guinea apiece in any part of Europe." 

 One day, as I was returning from a hunt in a cane-brake, 

 he observed that I was wet and spattered with mud, and 

 desired me to show him the interior of one of these places, 

 which he said he had never visited. 



The cane, kind reader, formerly grew spontaneously 

 over the greater portions of the State of Kentucky 

 and other western districts of our Union, as well as in 

 many farther south. Now, however, cultivation, the in- 

 troduction of cattle and horses, and other circumstances 

 connected with the progress of civilization, have greatly 

 altered the face of the country, and reduced the cane 

 within comparatively small limits. It attains a height of 

 from twelve to thirty feet, and a diameter of from one to 

 two inches, and grows in great patches resembling osier- 

 holts, in which occur plants of all sizes. The plants fre- 

 quently grow so close together, and in course of time 

 become so tangled, as to present an almost impenetrable 

 thicket. A portion of ground thus covered with canes is 

 called a cane-brake. 



If you picture to yourself one of these cane-brakes grow- 

 ing beneath the gigantic trees that form our western forests, 

 interspersed with vines of many species, and numberless 

 plants of every description, you may conceive how difficult 

 it is for one to make his way through it, especially after a 

 heavy shower of rain or a fall of sleet, when the traveller, 

 in forcing his way through, shakes down upon himself 

 such quantities of water as soon reduce him to a state of 

 the utmost discomfort. The hunters often cut little paths 

 through the thickets with their knives, but the usual mode 



