w having come in contact
with it when pressing his way through the swamp. He now gave himself up
for lost, for the night was extremely cold, and he had neither fire to
warm him, nor roof to shelter his head. To sleep thus he knew was
certain death. He therefore paced up and down as long as he was able to
stand, but his boots were frozen stiff, and his feet numb with the
cold. After great difficulty he managed to pull off his boots, and
having wrapped up his feet in his woollen cap, he lay down on the path
he bad beaten in the snow, for he could no longer resist the
inclination to sleep.

While in the act of lying down, he distinctly heard a cock crow at no
great distance. By a great effort he roused himself, and called as
loudly as he was able. Once he thought he heard an answer to his cry--
again the horn seemed to ring in his ears,--and then all was blank.

At daylight he was found by some of his own neighbours; one of whom was
up early in the morning feeding his oxen, preparatory to a journey to
the front, when he heard the shouts, which sounded to him like those of
some person in distress. He immediately blew his dinner horn, that the
sound might guide the lost person, and having collected three or four
of his neighbours, they started into the woods in the direction from
whence the shouts of the lost man had proceeded. Half a mile from the
clearing, they came across his track, which they only followed for a
few yards, when to their surprise they found their poor neighbour, whom
at first they concluded to be dead. It was some time indeed before they
could wake him, so overpowered was he with fatigue and the death-like
sleep he had fallen into.

His friends lost no time in carrying him home; but unfortunately they
placed him near a large fire, instead of rubbing his hands and feet
with snow. The too sudden reaction of the blood caused him the most
excruciating agony, for both his hands and feet were badly frozen. At
length Dr. Hutchinson* was sent for from Peterborough, who found
mortification had commenced, and that there was no chance of the poor
fellow's recovery which proved too true, for he expired the next day, a
week from the morning he was found.

[* Dr. Hutchinson, is a medical practitioner of great note, and one of
the first settlers and oldest magistrates in that section of the
country. I had the particulars of this story from him; though, as it
was some years ago, I may have made some mistake as to the