Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/120

 94 Here I first took notice of Mr. Dale's servant, a soldier, who was afterwards a source of great amusement to us. "Well, Sheridan, how did you pass last night?"—"Why, sir, I just lay on that 'dentical spot there fornent you at the fire all night, rain or no rain; for I thought I might as well keep one side dry, any way—the side that was under me." Morning or evening, wet or dry, busy or idle, Sheridan whistled or sung incessantly: it was his duty to wheel a perambulator (an instrument for measuring distances), and off he started with it this morning, singing with stentorian voice the old drum beat, "Tither, row dow, dow, dow; and tither, ither, row, dow; tither ither, row, dow.

Nothing remarkable on this day's journey. Changed our course to wind up a steep hill; and at the end of four miles and a half reached a watered valley: stopped here, and had a pleasant bivouack, about a hundred yards from a swampy stream of good water. One of the party slept in the hollowed part of a tree, and made a tent of his blanket, tied by ropes to two of the trees called blackboys.

10th.—We passed this day over a broken hilly country; where large masses of granite appeared in several places of a tabular shape. After crossing over one of those tables, alongside which ran a strong rivulet, we came to deep and rapid streams (branches of the river