Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 8).djvu/196

 in the protection of innocence, it courts a bloody sacrifice. In love too, its happiness is productive of piety, and the tenderness of its sentiments is equalled only by the purity of its motives.

The day after leaving the Lake the weather was cold and windy. After travelling some miles in a southwesterly direction, I entered a beautiful and solitary wood. It had more the appearance of an improved forest than of a wilderness. In this wood I sat down to make some remarks in my journal. I generally stopped two or three times a day for this purpose;—sometimes sitting on a stump, sometimes under a tree, and sometimes by the side of huge masses of ice near the shores of the Lake. A record of passing scenes and events should immediately be made by the traveller. By delay, their impressions upon his mind become less legible, and then art must supply, in some measure, the place of nature.

The rain storm, and the moderate weather of which I have spoken, covered many places in this part of the country with water to the depth of several feet. Here low grounds and prairies made their appearance, and wading over them, through snow, and water, and ice, was both laborious and painful.

The weather having again become cold, the surface of the snow congealed to a hard crust, so that my moccasons and socks became completely worn through, and my feet much swolen. I deemed it advisable, as the remains of my moccasons and socks were no security to my feet, and at the same {92} time retarded my progress, to throw them aside and travel barefooted. From this mode of travelling I found no serious inconvenience. At length, however, my feet swelled to an alarming size; but believing that rest alone would remove the evil, and not being willing to afford myself much, I concluded to abandon them to