44 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
the capture of them the next morning. With 
such intervals of joyous sociality months passed 
before the journey westward was accomplished, 
occasional skirmishes occurring between the in- 
truders and the wily Indians who sometimes 
crept unperceived into the settlers’ camps. 
Still cheerfully they pressed on, till at length 
the land was cleared for a permanent residence, 
On reaching the banks of the Ohio, some, in 
primeval fashion, constructed arks for a home 
on its inviting current. These arks or flat boats, 
thirty or forty feet long and ten or twelve in 
breadth, were considered so stupendous as to 
hold men, women, children, cattle, poultry, ve- 
getables, and a host of miscellaneous wares. 
The roof or deck constituting a farm yard, was 
covered with hay, ploughs, carts, and agricultu- 
ral implements—the spinning wheel of the mat- 
ron morever conspicuous among them. 
In these floating habitations, containing their 
owners’ all, the emigrants, fearful of discovery 
by the Red Skins, denied themselves even fire 
or light by night, so fearful were they of a sur- 
prise from the ferocious and ever watchful foe. 
Many an encounter, to the discomfiture of the 
Indian hordes, ensued; for, to the exercise.of 
the settler’s courage on these occasions is proba- 
bly owing that extraordinary skill in the use of 
