, that it is difficult, sometimes, to distinguish it at a
distance of a few rods.

It was new ground to Mr. Kinzie, whose journeys from the Portage to
Chicago had hitherto been made in the direct route by Kosh-ko-nong. He
therefore obliged Mr. Morrison to repeat the directions again and again,
though Plante, our guide, swaggered and talked big, averring that "he
knew every hill and stream and point of woods from that spot to
Chicago."

We had not proceeded many miles on our journey, however, before we
discovered that Monsieur Plante was profoundly ignorant of the country,
so that Mr. Kinzie was obliged to take the lead himself, and make his
way as he was best able, according to the directions he had received.
Nothing, however, like the "cross trails" we had been promised met our
view, and the path on which we had set out diverged so much from what we
knew to be the right direction, that we were at length compelled to
abandon it altogether.

We travelled the livelong day, barely making a halt at noon to bait our
horses and refresh ourselves with a luncheon. The ride was as gloomy and
desolate as could well be imagined. A rolling prairie, unvaried by
forest or stream--hillock rising after hillock, at every ascent of which
we vainly hoped to see a distant fringe of "_timber_." But the same
cheerless, unbounded prospect everywhere met the eye, diversified only
here and there by the oblong openings, like gigantic graves, which
marked an unsuccessful search for indications of a lead-mine.

So great was our anxiety to recover our trail, for the weather was
growing more cold, and the wind more sharp and piercing, that we were
not tempted to turn from our course even by the appearance, more than
once, of a gaunt prairie-wolf, peering over the nearest rising-ground
and seeming to dare us to an encounter. The Frenchmen, it is true, would
instinctively give a shout and spur on their horses, while the hounds,
Kelda and Cora, would rush to the chase; but the bourgeois soon called
them back, with a warning that we must attend strictly to the
prosecution of our journey. Just before sunset we crossed, with some
difficulty, a muddy stream, which was bordered by a scanty belt of
trees, making a tolerable encamping-ground; and of this we gladly
availed ourselves, although we knew not whether it was near or remote
from the place we were in search of.

We had ridden at least fifty miles since leaving Morrison's, yet I was
sensible of v