492 AUDUBON 



about two and a half miles. This was accordingly done ; 

 Bell, Harris, Mr. La Barge 1 — the first pilot — a mulatto 

 hunter named Michaux, and I, started at nine. We first 

 crossed through tangled brush-wood, and high-grown 

 rushes for a few hundreds of yards, and soon perceived 

 that here, as well as all along the Missouri and Mississippi, 

 the land is highest nearest the shore, and falls off the 

 farther one goes inland. Thus we soon came to mud, and 

 from mud to muddy water, as pure as it runs in the Mis- 

 souri itself; at every step which we took we raised several 

 pounds of mud on our boots. Friend Harris very wisely 

 returned, but the remainder of us proceeded through thick 

 and thin until we came in sight of the prairies. But, alas ! 

 between us and them there existed a regular line of wil- 

 lows — and who ever saw willows grow far from water ? 

 Here we were of course stopped, and after attempting in 

 many places to cross the water that divided us from the 

 dry land, we were forced back, and had to return as best 

 we could. We were mud up to the very middle, the per- 

 spiration ran down us, and at one time I was nearly ex- 

 hausted ; which proves to me pretty clearly that I am no 

 longer as young, or as active, as I was some thirty years 

 ago. When we reached the boat I was glad of it. We 

 washed, changed our clothes, dined, and felt much re- 

 freshed. During our excursion out, Bell saw a Virginian 

 Rail, and our sense of smell brought us to a dead Elk, 

 putrid, and largely consumed by Wolves, whose tracks 

 were very numerous about it. After dinner we went to 



1 This is Captain Joseph La Barge, the oldest living pilot on the Mis- 

 souri, and probably now the sole survivor of the " Omega " voyage of 1843. 

 He was born Oct. I, 1815, of French parentage, his father having come to 

 St. Louis, Mo., from Canada, and his mother from lower Louisiana. The 

 family has been identified with the navigation of the Western rivers from 

 the beginning of the century, and in 1850 there were seven licensed pilots 

 of that name in the port of St. Louis. Captain Joseph La Barge still lives 

 in St. Louis, at the age of eighty-two, and has a vivid recollection of Aud- 

 ubon's voyage of 1843, some incidents of which he has kindly communi- 

 cated through Captain H. M. Chittenden, U. S. army. 



