LIFE OF WILSON. 
liii 
years ; having walked this day thirty-four miles. On the morning 
of the 22d we started as usual by five — road rough — and Isaac 
grunting and lagging behind. This day we were joined by another 
young traveller, returning home to his father s on the Mohauk , 
he had a pocket bottle, and made frequent and long applications 
of it to his lips. The road this day bad, and the snow deeper than 
before. Passing through Oneida castle, I visited every house with- 
in three hundred yards of the road, and chatted to the copper-co- 
loured tribe. In the evening we lodged at Lards’ tavern, within 
eleven miles of Utica, the roads deplorably bad, and Isaac and his 
disconsolate companion groaning at every step behind me, so that, 
as drummers do in battle, I was frequently obliged to keep before, 
and sing some lively ditty, to drown the sound of their ohs ! and 
ahs ! and O Lords ! The road for fifteen or twenty miles was knee 
deep of mud. We entered Utica at nine the next morning. This 
place is three times larger than it was four years ago ; and from 
Oneida to Utica is almost an entire continued village. This even- 
ing we lodged on the east side of the Mohawk, fifteen miles below 
Utica, near which I shot a bird of the size of a Mocking-bird, which 
proves to be one never yet described by naturalists. I have it here 
in excellent order. From the town called Herkimer we set ofl 
through deep mud, and some snow; and about mid-day, between 
East and West Canada Creeks, I shot three birds of the Jay kind, 
all of one species, which appears to be undescribed. Mr. Bartram 
is greatly pleased at the discovery ; and I have saved two of them 
in tolerable condition. Below the Little Falls the road was exces- 
sively bad, and Isaac was almost in despair, in spite of all I could 
do to encourage him. We walked this day twenty-four miles ; and 
early on the 25th started off again through deep mud, till we came 
within fifteen miles of Schenectady, when a boat coming down the 
river, Isaac expressed a wish to get on board. I walked six miles 
afterwards by myself, till it got so dark that I could hardly rescue 
myself from the mud holes. The next morning I entered Schenec- 
VOL. IX. 
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