oper nor Irving has more truly
reproduced the grand and savage features of American scenery, or the
reckless generous daring of the rude backwoodsman, than Gerstaecker,
writing, from some chance hut, his nocturnal landing place on the shore
of some mighty river in Nebraska or Arkansas. Next we hear of him in
South America, and then in California, passing a winter among the miners
of the remotest districts, digging gold, hunting, trafficking, fighting
in case of need like the rest, and every where sending home the most
lively daguerreotypes of the country, the people, and his own adventures
among them. Finally, having seen all that was in California, he takes
passage for the Sandwich Islands, where he remains long enough to
exhaust all the romance remaining, and to gather every sort of useful
information. From there he set out upon an indefinite voyage on board of
a whaler going to the Southern seas in search of oil. Chance, however,
brings him up at Australia: and he at once sets about travelling through
the settled portions of the Continent, taking the luck of the day every
where with exhaustless good humour, and never getting low spirited, no
matter how untoward the mishaps encountered. Less elegant and poetic
than Taylor, he dashes ahead with a more perfect indifference to
consequences, and a more utter reliance on coming out all right in the
end. In his last letter, he gives an account of a voyage in a canoe from
Albury, on the upper waters of Hume River, down to Melbourne, at its
mouth. He had got out of funds, and was thus obliged to set out on this
route contrary to the advice of the settlers at Albury, who represented
to him that the danger of being killed and eaten by the natives along
shore, who had never come in contact with whites, was inevitable, and
that they would be sure to destroy him before he reached his
destination. This was, however, only an additional inducement to the
trip. While making preparations for it, he fell in with a young
fellow-countryman in the settlement, who desired to make the same
journey, and who was willing to encounter the risks of the river rather
than pay the heavy expenses of the trip by land. They accordingly
proceeded to dig a canoe out of a caoutchouc tree, furnished themselves
with paddles, a frying-pan, blankets, some crackers, sugar, salt, tea,
and powder, and embarked. The river was shallow, and full of windings
and sandbanks, sunken caoutchouc trees had planted the strea
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