ded by nuisances and petty wants;
the former of which might be removed, and the latter supplied, by the
application of one tenth part of the time that is loitered away in their
innumerable idle days.

The _Little Wabash_, which Mr. Birkbeck crossed in search of some
Prairies, that had been described to him in glowing colours, was, at
this season, a sluggish and scanty stream; but, for three months of the
latter part of winter and the beginning of spring, it covers a great
space of ground, by the overflow of waters collected in its long course.
The _Skillet Fork_ is a river of similar character; and the country that
lies between them must labour under the inconvenience of absolute
seclusion, for many months every year, until bridges and ferries are
established. Having made his way through this wildest of wildernesses to
the Skillet Fork, Mr. Birkbeck crossed that river at a shoal. The
country, on each side of it, is flat and swampy; so that the water, in
many places, even at this season, rendered travelling disagreeable; yet
here and there, at ten miles' distance, perhaps, the very solitude
tempts persons to pitch their tents for a season.

At one of these lone dwellings Mr. Birkbeck found a neat, respectable
looking female, spinning under the little piazza at one side of the
cabin, which shaded her from the sun. Her husband was absent on
business, which would detain him some weeks: she had no family, and no
companion except her husband's dog, which usually attended him during
his bear-hunting, in the winter. She said she was quite overcome with
"lone," and hoped the party would tie their horses in the wood, and sit
awhile with her, during the heat of the day. They did so, and she
rewarded them with a basin of coffee. She said her husband was kind and
good, and never left her without necessity. He was a true lover of
bear-hunting; and, in the preceding winter, had killed a great number of
bears.

On the second of August the party lodged at another cabin, where similar
neatness prevailed, both within and without. The woman was neat, and the
children were clean in skin, and whole in their clothes. The man
possessed good sense and sound notions, and was ingenious and
industrious. He lived on the edge of the Seven Miles' Prairie, a spot
charming to the eye, but deficient in water.

Mr. Birkbeck considers _Shawnee Town_ as a phaenomenon, evincing the
pertinacious adherence of man to the spot where he has once established