ALEXANDER WILSON, 
XCVll 
bit of supper, and lay down to sleep, listening to the Owls and the 
Chuck-will’s- widow, a kind of Whip-poor-will that is very numerous 
here. I got up several times during the night to recruit my fire, 
and see how my horse did, and, but for the gnats, would have 
slept tolerably well. These gigantic woods have a singular effect 
by the light of a large fire, the whole scene being circumscribed 
by impenetrable darkness, except that in front, where every leaf is 
strongly defined, and deeply shaded. In the morning, I hunted 
until about six, when I again renewed my shouting for the boat, 
and it was not until it was near eleven that it made its appearance. 
I was so enraged with this delay, that had I not been cumbered 
with baggage, I believe I should have ventured to swim the river. 
I vented my indignation on the owner of the boat, who is a 
half-breed, threatening to publish him in the papers, and 
advise every traveller I met to take the upper ferry. This man 
charges one dollar for man and horse, and thinks, because he is a 
chief, he may do in the way what he pleases. The country now 
assumed a new appearance ; no brushwood — no fallen or rotten 
timber; one could see a mile through the woods, which were covered 
with high grass, fit for mowing. These woods are burnt every 
spring, and thus are kept so remarkably clean, that they look like 
the most elegant nobleman’s parks. A profusion of flowers alto- 
gether new to me, and some of them very elegant, presented them- 
selves to my view as I rode along. This must be a heavenly place 
for the botanist. The most observable of these flowers was a kind 
of sweetwilliam of all tints, from white to the deepest crimson ; 
a superb thistle, the most beautiful I had ever seen ; a species of 
passion flower, very beautiful ; a stately plant of the sun flower 
family, the button of the deepest orange, and the radiating petals 
bright carmine, the breadth of the flower is about four inches ; a 
large white flower, like a deer’s tail ; great quantities of the 
sensitive plant, that shrunk instantly on being touched, covered 
the ground in some places. Almost every flower was new to 
me, except the Carolina pink root and Columbo, which grew in 
abundance on every side. At Bear Creek, which is a large and 
rapid stream, I first observed the Indian boys with their bloiv-guns. 
These are tubes of cane, seven feet long, and perfectly straight, 
when well made. The arrows are made of slender slips of cane, 
