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ADVENTURE OF AUDUBON.

ON my return from the Upper Mississippi, I found myself obliged to cross one of the wide prairies, which in that portion of the United States vary the appearance of the country. The weather was fine; all around me was as fresh and blooming as if it had just issued from the bosom of nature. My knapsack, my gun and my dog were all I had for baggage and company. But, although well moccasined, I moved slowly along, attracted by the brilliancy of the flowers, and the gambols of the fawns around their dams, to all appearance as thoughtless of danger as I felt myself.

My march was of long duration. I saw the sun sink beneath the horizon long before I could perceive any appearance of woodland, and nothing in the shape of man had I met with that day. The track which I followed was only an Indian trace; and as darkness overshadowed the prairie, I felt some desire to reach at least a copse, in which I might lie down to rest. The nighthawks were skimming over and around me, attracted by the buzzing wings of the beetles, which form their food, and the distant howling of wolves, gave me some hope that I should soon arrive at the skirts of some woodland.

I did so; and, at almost the same instant, a fire-light attracting my eye, I moved toward it, full of confidence that it proceeded from the camp of some wandering Indians. I was mistaken. I discovered, from its glare, that it was from the hearth of a small log-cabin, and that a tall figure passed and repassed between it and me, as if busily engaged in household arrangements.

I reached the spot, and presenting myself at the door, asked the tall figure, which proved to be a woman, if I might take shelter under her roof during the night. Her voice was gruff, and her attire negligently thrown about her. She answered in the affirmative. I walked in, took a wooden stool, and quietly seated myself by the fire. The next object that attracted my notice was a finely formed young Indian, resting his head between his hands, with his elbows on his knees. A long bow rested against the log wall near him, while a quantity of arrows, and two or three raccoon skins, lay at his feet. He moved not; he apparently breathed not. Accustomed to the habits of Indians, and knowing that they pay but little attention to the movements of civilized strangers, I addressed him in French, a language not unfrequently partially known to the people in that neighborhood. He raised his head, pointed to one of his eyes with his finger, and gave me a significant glance with the other. His face was covered with blood. The fact was, that an hour before this, as he was in the act of discharging an arrow at a raccoon in the top of a tree, the arrow had split upon the cord, and sprung back with such violence into his right eye as to destroy it forever.

Feeling hungry, I inquired what sort of fare I might expect.

Such a thing as a bed was not to be seen, but many large untanned bear and buffalo hides lay piled in a corner. I drew a fine time-piece from my breast, and told the woman that it was late, and that I was fatigued. She had espied my watch, the richness of which seemed to operate upon her feeling with electric quickness. She told me that there was plenty of venison and jerked buffalo-meat, and that on removing the ashes, I should find a cake. But my watch had struck her fancy, and her curiosity had to be gratified by an immediate sight of it. I took off the gold chain that secured it from around my neck, and handed it to her. She was all ecstasy, spoke of its beauty, asked me its value, and put the chain round her brawny neck, saying how happy the possession of such a watch would make her. Thoughtless, and as I fancied myself in so retired a spot secure, I paid little attention to her talk or her movements. I helped my dog to a good supper of venison, and was not long in satisfying the demands of my own appetite. The Indian rose from his seat as if in extreme suffering. He passed and repassed me several times, and once pinched me on the side so violently, that the pain nearly brought forth an exclamation of anger. I looked at him; his eye met mine; but his look was so forbidding, that it struck a chill into the more nervous part of my system. He again seated himself, drew his butcher-knife from its greasy scabbard, examined its edge as I would do that of a razor, suspected dull, replaced it, and taking his tomahawk from his back, filled the pipe of it with tobacco, and sent me expressive glances whenever our hostess chanced to have her back toward us.

Never until that moment had my senses been awakened to the danger which I now suspected to be about me. I returned glance for glance to my companion, and rested well assured that whatever enemies I might have, he was not of their number.

I asked the woman for my watch, wound it up, and under pretense of wishing to see how the weather might probably be on the morrow, took up my gun and walked out of the cabin. I slipped a ball into each barrel, scraped the edges of my flints, renewed the priming, and returning to the hut, gave a favorable account of my observations. I took a few bear skins, made a pallet of them, and calling my faithful dog to my side, lay down with my gun close to my body, and in a few minutes, to all appearance, was fast asleep.

A short time had elapsed, when some voices were heard, and from the corners of my eyes, I saw two athletic young men making their entrance, bearing a dead stag upon a pole. They disposed of their burden, and asking for whisky, helped themselves freely to it. Observing me and the wounded Indian, they asked who I was, and why the devil that rascal (meaning the Indian, who they knew understood not a word of English) was in the house. The mother-for so she proved to be-bade them speak less loudly, made mention of my watch, and took them to a corner, where

a conversation ensued, the purport of which it required little shrewdness in me to guess. I felt that he perceived danger in my situation, as the Indian exchanged a last glance with me.

The young men had eaten and drunk themselves into such a condition, that I already looked upon them as hors du combat; and the frequent visits of the whisky bottle to the ugly mouth of their dam, I hoped, would soon reduce her to a like state. Judge of my astonishment, when I saw this incarnate fiend take a large carvingknife and go to the grindstone to whet its edge. I saw her pour the water on the turning machine, and watched her working away with the dangerous instrument, until the sweat covered every part of my body in despite of my determination to defend myself to the last. Her task finished, she walked to her reeling sons, and said: "There, that'll soon settle him! Boys, kill you-and then for the watch."

I turned, cocked my gun-locks silently, touched my faithful companion, and lay ready to start up and shoot the first who might attempt my life. The moment was fast approaching, and that night might have been my last in this world, had not Providence made preparations for my rescue. All was ready. The infernal hag was advancing slowly, probably contemplating the best way of dispatching me while her sons should be engaged with the Indian. I was several times on the eve of rising and shooting her on the spot-but she was not to be punished thus. The door suddenly opened and there entered two stout travelers, each with a long rifle on his shoulder. I bounced up on my feet, and making them most heartily welcome, told them how well it was for me that they should arrive at that moment. The tale was told in a minute. The drunken sons were secured, and the woman, in spite of her defense and vociferations, shared the same fate. The Indian fairly danced for joy, and gave us to understand that, as he could not sleep for pain, he would watch over us. You may suppose that we slept much less than we talked. The two strangers gave me an account of their once having been in a somewhat similar situation. Day came, fair and rosy, and with it the punishment of our captives.

They were now quite sobered. Their feet were unbound, but their arms were still securely tied. We marched them into the woods off the road, and having used them as Regulators were wont to use such delinquents, we set fire to the cabin, gave all the skins and implements to the young Indian warrior, and proceeded well pleased toward the settlements.

During upward of twenty-five years, when my wanderings extended to all parts of our country, this was the only time at which my life was in danger from my fellow-creatures. Indeed, so little risk do travelers run in the United States, that no one born there ever dreams of any to be encountered on the road, and I can only account for this occurrence, by supposing that the inhabitants were not Americans.

Will you believe, reader, that not many miles from the place where the adventure happened, and where, twenty years ago, no habitation belonging to civilized man was expected, large roads are now laid out, cultivation has converted the woods into fertile fields, taverns have been erected, and much of what we Americans call comfort, is to be met with. So fast does improvement proceed in our abundant and free country.

EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS OF LONG, CASS, AND SCHOOLCRAFT. IMMEDIATELY after Florida was ceded to the United States by Spain, in 1819, an expedition was organized by the Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, to examine the country drained by the Missouri and its branches. The party under Major Stephen C. Long, comprising many scientific and military men, during the summer of 1819, examined the Lower Missouri, and passed the winter following at Council Bluffs, eight hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. In June (1820) they proceeded to examine the valley of the Platte, and followed up its south fork to its sources in the Rocky Mountains. Here Dr. James, the botanist, ascended a mountain eight thousand five hundred feet above the ocean, named, after him, James' Peak. From thence they struck the head waters of the Arkansas, and followed down it to its junction with the Mississippi. They obtained much information respecting the inhabitants, natural history, and geography of those regions, which was published, in 1823, by Dr. James.

The important fact was obtained, that the whole division of North America drained by the Missouri and the Arkansas and their tributaries, between the meridian of the mouth of the Platte and the Rocky Mountains, is almost entirely unfit for cultivation, and, therefore, uninhabitable for an agricultural people. The territory for five hundred miles east of the Rocky Mountains, extending from lat. 39 deg. to lat. 49 deg., was indeed found to be a desert of sand and stones. Later observations show the adjoining regions, for a great distance west of the Rocky Mountains, to be still more arid and sterile.

In 1820, Gov. Cass, with a corps of scientific men and soldiers, left Detroit to explore the headwaters of the Mississippi. He proceeded by the way of Sault St. Mary into Lake Superior and the St. Louis River, and reached the Mississippi at Sandy Lake, which he ascended as far as Cass Lake, but was obliged, from the low state of the water, want of supplies, and the lateness of the season, to return without ascertaining the sources of the Mississippi, which were then supposed to be in Lake Biche, about sixty miles northwest of Cass Lake. During this tour, he negotiated a treaty with the Indians of Sault St. Mary, and they ceded four miles square around the falls, including the site of the old French Fort, where,

two years later, Fort Brady, the most northern military post in the United States, was erected.

In 1823, Major Long led an expedition to explore St. Peter's or Minnesota River, and the country on the northern boundary between Red River of Hudson's Bay and Lake Superior. They left Philadelphia, and proceeding by the way of Wheeling and Chicago, reached the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien. From Fort Snelling, at the mouth of the St. Peter's, they passed to Big Stone Lake at its head, and thence to Lake Travers, and then traveled by land down Red River to Pembina, a village of Lord Selkirk's settlement. By a series of astronomical observations, they ascertained that this village was all within the boundary of the United States, except one log house. This information well pleased the inhabitants, especially when they discovered that the line so ran as to bring the buffalo hunting-ground within the limits of the republic. Finding it impracticable to travel by land along the boundary, on account of the numerous marshes and lagoons between Red River and Lake Superior, Long descended Red River to Lake Winnipeg, and returned by water, through the Lake of the Woods, Rainy Lake, Lake Superior, etc.

In 1832, another expedition under Mr. Henry R. Schoolcraft, left St. Mary's Falls on the 7th of June, and proceeding via Lake Superior and Sandy Lake, ascended the Mississippi to Cass Lake. Thence they ascended the Mississippi to its eastern source in Ossowa Lake, made a passage of six miles to Itasca Lake, its western fork, where they arrived on the 13th of July. The great mystery was now solved. Three centuries after it was discovered by the Spanish cavalier, de Soto, it was ascertained that this majestic river had its source in lat. 47 deg. 13 min. 35 sec. north, and that it ran through its entire length, wholly within the territory of the United States. On account of the circuitous course of this river near its head, its source lay off the usual route of the fur traders. This was the reason of its precise location being so long vailed in obscurity. Mr. Schoolcraft also explored Crow Wing, and the St. Croix Rivers.

LIFE AMONG THE TRAPPERS.

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THE trappers of the Rocky Mountains belong to a more approximating to the primitive savage, than, perhaps, any other class of civilized men. Their lives being spent in the remote wilderness of the mountains, with no other companion than Nature herself, their habits and character assume a most singular cast of simplicity, mingled with ferocity, appearing to take their coloring from the scenes and the objects which surround them. Knowing no want, save those of Nature, their sole care is to procure sufficient food to support life, and the necessary clothing to

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