“EPISODES” OF WESTERN LIFE 275 
and returned to Kentucky in December of that year, 
but whether it was upon this or some other journey 
that he rode a wild horse through seven states in going 
from his home at Henderson to the Quaker city, or 
whether such a journey ever occurred, is immaterial 
to the interest of the narrative. In this instance, how- 
ever, we have the advantage of comparing the notes of 
a fellow traveler, Vincent Nolte, then a merchant at 
New Orleans.* First to follow Audubon’s account, as 
given in his “Episode,” we are told that he rode a wild 
mustang, named “Barro,” that had never known a shoe, 
having been recently captured near the headwaters of 
the Arkansas. In going east he diverged from the 
beaten track to extend his knowledge of the country and 
of its bird life. From Henderson he passed through 
the heart of Tennessee to Knoxville, thence to Abing- 
ton, the Natural Bridge, and Winchester in Virginia, 
crossed the corner of West Virginia to Harper’s Ferry, 
then to Frederick, Maryland, and on through Lancas- 
ter to Philadelphia; there, he said, he remained four 
days, and returned by way of Pittsburgh, Wheeling, 
Zanesville, Chillicothe, Lexington and Louisville, to 
Henderson. He estimated the whole distance traversed 
at “nearly two thousand miles,” and at a rate of “not 
less than forty miles a day.” Much is said in praise of 
his favorite bay horse, and its food and daily treatment 
are duly recorded. This horse was very docile, and 
would wade swamps, swim rivers, and clear a rail fence 
like an elk; corn blades as well as corn and oats entered 
into his daily ration, to which a pumpkin and fresh eggs, 
when procurable, were occasionally added. 
_ It was upon his return journey that the naturalist 
met with Vincent Nolte, who twelve years later did his 
*Vincent Nolte, Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres (Bibl. No. 176). 
