64 
THE HISTORY OT 
they keep commonly to the northward of thirty-seven degrees, as the buffa- 
loes, for the most part, confine themselves to the southward of that latitude. 
The elk is full as big as a horse, and of the ,deer kind. The stags only have 
horns, and those exceedingly large and spreading. Their colour is some- 
thing lighter than that of the red deer, and their flesh tougher. Their swift- 
est speed is a large trot, and in that motion they turn their horns back upon 
their necks, and cock their noses aloft in the air. Nature has taught them 
this attitude to save their antlers from being entangled in the thickets, which 
they always retire to. They are very shy, and have the sense of smelling so 
exquisite that they wind a man at a great distance. For this reason they are 
seldom seen but when the air is moist, in which case their smell is not so 
nice. They commonly herd together, and the Indians say, if one of the 
drove happen by some wound to be disabled from making his escape, the 
rest will forsake their fears to defend their friend, which they will do with 
great obstinacy, till they are killed upon the spot. Though, otherwise, they 
are so alarmed at the sight of a man, that to avoid him they will sometimes 
throw themselves down very high precipices into the river. • 
A misadventure happened here, which gave us no small perplexity. One 
of the commissioners was so unlucky as to bruise his foot against a stump, 
which brought on a formal fit of the gout. It must be owned there could 
not be a more unseasonable time, nor a more improper situation, for any one 
to be attacked by that cruel distemper. The joint was so inflamed that he 
could neither draw shoe nor boot upon it ; and to ride without either would 
have exposed him to so many rude knocks and bruises, in those rough woods, 
as to be intolerable even to a stoic. It was happy, indeed, that we were to 
rest here the next day, being Sunday, that there might be leisure for trying 
some speedy remedy. Accordingly he wms persuaded to bathe his foot in 
cold water, in order to repel the humour and assuage the inflammation. This 
made it less painful, and gave us hopes, too, of reducing the swelling in a 
short time. 
Our men had the fortune to kill a brace of bears, a fat buck, and a wild 
turkey, all which paid them with interest for yesterday’s abstinence. This 
constant and seasonable supply of our daily Avants made us reflect thankfully 
on the bounty of Providence. And that we might not be unmindful of being 
all along fed by Heaven in this great and solitary wilderness, we agreed to 
wear in our hats the maosti, which is, in Indian, the beard of a wild turkey- 
cock, and on our breasts the figure of that fowl with its wings extended, and 
holding in its claws a scroll, with this motto, “ Vice coturnicum,'’’ meaning that 
we had been supported by them in the wilderness in the room of quails. 
27th. This being Sunday we were not wanting in our thanks to Pleaven 
for the constant support and protection wa had been favoured with. Nor 
did our chaplain fail to put us in mind of our duty by a sermon proper for 
the occasion. We ordered a strict inquiry to be made into the quantity of 
bread we had left, and found no more than would subsist us a fortnight at 
short allowance. We made a fair distribution of our whole stock, and at 
the same time recommended to the men to manage this, their last stake, to the 
best advantage, not knowing how long they would be obliged to live upon it. 
We likewise directed them to keep a watchful eye upon their horses, that 
none of them might be missing the next morning, to hinder our return. 
There fell some rain before noon, which made our camp more a bog than it 
was before. This moist situation began to infect some of the men with fevers, 
and some with fluxes, which however we soon removed with Peruvian bark 
and ipocoacanah. In the afternoon we marched up again to the top of 
the hill to entertain our eyes a second time with the view of the mountains, 
but a perverse fog arose that hid them from our sight. In the evening we 
