LIFE OF WILSON. xciii 



a better account of the road than I had received. I passed through many bad 

 swamps to-day ; and at about five in the evening came to the banks of the 

 Tennessee, which was swelled by the rains, and is about half a mile wide thirty 

 miles below the Muscle Shoals, and just below a long island laid down in 

 your small map. A growth of canes, of twenty and thirty feet high, covers 

 the low bottoms ; and these cane swamps are the gloomiest and most desolate 

 looking places imaginable. I hailed for the boat as long as it was light, with- 

 out effect; I then sought out a place to encamp, kindled a large fire, stripped 

 the canes for my horse, eat a bit of supper, and lay down to sleep ; listening to 

 the owls, and the Chuck- Wills- Widow, a kind of Whip-poor- Will, that is very 

 numerous here. I got up several times during the night to recruit my fire, 

 and see how my horse did ; and, but for the gnats, would have slept tolerably 

 well. These gigantic woods have a singular effect by the light of a large fire ; 

 the whole scene being circumscribed by impenetrable darkness, except that in 

 front, where every leaf is strongly defined, and deeply shaded. 



" In the morning I hunted until about six, when I again renewed my shout- 

 ings for the boat, and it was not until near eleven that it made its appearance. 

 I was so enraged at this delay, that, had I not been cumbered with baggage, I 

 believe I should have ventured to swim the river. I vented my indignation 

 on the owner of the boat, who is a half-breed, threatening to publish hiin in 

 the papers, and advise every traveller I met to take the upper ferry. This man 

 charges one dollar for man and horse, and thinks, because he is a chief, he may 

 do in this way what he pleases. The country now assumed a new appearance ; 

 no brushwood-^no fallen or rotten timber ; one cowld see a mile through the 

 woods, which were covered with high grass fit for mowing. These woods are 

 burnt every spring, and thus are kept so remarkably clean, that they look like 

 the most elegant noblemen's parks. A profusion of flowers, altogether new to 

 me, and some of them very elegant, presented themselves to my view as I rode 

 along. This must be a heavenly place for the botanist. The most observable 

 of these flowers was a kind of Sweet William, of all tints, from white, to the 

 deepest crimson. A superb Thistle, the most beautiful I had ever seen. A 

 species' of Passion flower, very beautiful. A stately plant of the Sunflower 

 family — the button of the deepest orange, and thejadiating petals bright 

 carmine, the breadth of the flower about four inches. A large white flower 

 like a deer's tail. Great quantities of the Sensitive plant, that shrunk instantly 

 on being touched, covered the ground in some places. Almost every flower was 

 new to me, except the Carolina Pink-root, and Colombo, which grew in abun- 

 dance on every side. At Bear creek, which is a large and rapid stream, I first 

 observed the Indian boys with their blow-guns. These are tubes of cane seven 

 feet long, and perfectly straight, when well made. The arrows are made of 

 slender slips of cane, twisted, and straightened before the fire, and covered for 

 several inches at one end with the down of thistles, in a spiral form, so as just 

 to enter the tube. By a puff' they can send these with such violence as to enter 

 the body of a partridge, twenty yards off. I set several of them a hunting 

 birds by promises of reward, but not one of them could succeed. I also tried 

 some of the blow-guns myself, but found them generally defective in straight- 

 ness. I met six parties of boatmen to-day, and many straggling Indians, and 



