508 AUDUBON 



yet plenty of Red-headed Woodpeckers. Our captain 

 has just sent out four hunters this evening, who are to 

 hunt early to-morrow morning, and will meet the boat 

 some distance above ; Squires has gone with them. How 

 I wish I were twenty-five years younger ! I should like 

 such a tramp greatly ; but I do not think it prudent now 

 for me to sleep on the ground when I can help it, while 

 it is so damp. 



May 28, Tuesday. The wind blew from the south this 

 morning and rather stiffly. We rose early, and walked 

 about this famous Cedar Island, where we stopped to cut 

 large red cedars [Juniperus virginianus\ for one and a 

 half hours ; we started at half-past five, breakfasted rather 

 before six, and were on the lookout for our hunters. 

 Hunters ! Only two of them had ever been on a Buffalo 

 hunt before. One was lost almost in sight of the river. 

 They only walked two or three miles, and camped. Poor 

 Squires' first experience was a very rough one; for, al- 

 though they made a good fire at first, it never was tended 

 afterwards, and his pillow was formed of a buck's horn 

 accidentally picked up near the place. Our Sioux Indian 

 helped himself to another, and they all felt chilly and 

 damp. They had forgotten to take any spirits with them, 

 and their condition was miserable. As the orb of day 

 rose as red as blood, the party started, each taking a dif- 

 ferent direction. But the wind was unfavorable; it blew 

 up, not down the river, and the Buffaloes, Wolves, Ante- 

 lopes, and indeed every animal possessed of the sense of 

 smell, had scent of them in time to avoid them. There 

 happened however to be attached to this party two good 

 and true men, that may be called hunters. One was 

 Michaux ; the other a friend of his, whose name I do not 

 know. It happened, by hook or by crook, that these two 

 managed to kill four Buffaloes; but one of them was 

 drowned, as it took to the river after being shot. Only 

 a few pieces from a young bull, and its tongue, were 



