d cabin, and several others did the same.
There were, in fact, not cots enough for all the passengers excluded
from the state-rooms. I found that some, and I presume most, of the
passengers, by making the clerk believe that they would otherwise take
the "Swamp Fox," had obtained their passage at considerably less price
than I had paid.

[The above are the principal events of this description of
steamboat life before the war. Our passenger's journey ended at
Natchitoches, on the Red River, whence he started on a vagrant
trip through Texas, in which we need not follow him.]

WINTER ON THE PRAIRIES.

G. W. FEATHERSTONHAUGH.

[Of the earlier records of English travel in America one of the
most interesting and informing works is Featherstonhaugh's "A
Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor," a journey made by the author
in 1835, and yielding much useful information on what is now
the ancient history of the great West. The selection given is
devoted to some of his prairie experiences during his journey
through the Sioux country from Lac qui Parle to Lake Travers.]

Renville had procured me a _charette_, or cart, to carry the tent,
baggage, and provisions. I was to ride an old gray mare, with a foal
running alongside; one of the Canadians was to drive the _charette_, and
Miler and the rest were to walk. The morning was exceeding cold, and our
road was along the prairie parallel with the lake. All the country in
every direction, having been burnt over, was perfectly black, and a
disagreeable sooty odor filled the atmosphere. At the end of five hours
of a very tedious march we reached a stream called _Wahboptah_, which
may be translated _Ground-nut_ river, the savages being in the habit of
digging up the _Psoralea esculenta_, a nutritive bulbous root which
grows here. The stream was about thirty feet wide, and had some trees
growing on its banks. Having built up a good fire, the men proceeded to
cook their dinner, while I strolled up the stream and collected some
very fine unios, although I found it bitterly cold wading in the shallow
water to procure them.

Having fed our horses on the grass near the stream which had not been
burnt over, we started again for _Les Grosses Isles_, which we were
instructed were distant about seven leagues, at the foot of Big Stone
Lake. During the first two leagues the strong sooty smell of the country
gave me a severe headache, and th