many pleasant incidents associated with
them.

One afternoon, when approaching "Tower Falls," I came upon a large
hollow tree, which, from the numerous tracks surrounding it, and the
matted foliage in the cavity, I recognized as the den of a bear. It
was a most inviting couch. Gathering a needful supply of wood and
brush, I lighted a circle of piles around the tree, crawled into the
nest, and passed a night of unbroken slumber. I rose the next morning
to find that during the night the fires had communicated with the
adjacent forest, and burned a large space in all directions, doubtless
intimidating the rightful proprietor of the nest, and saving me from
another midnight adventure.

At "Tower Falls" I spent the first half of a day in capturing a
grasshopper, and the remainder in a fruitless effort to catch a mess
of trout. In the agony of disappointment, I resolved to fish no more.
A spirit of rebellion seized me. I determined that thistles should
thenceforth be my only sustenance. "Why is it," I asked myself, "that
in the midst of abundance, every hour meeting with objects which would
restore strength and vigor and energy, every moment contriving some
device to procure the nourishment my wasting frame requires, I should
meet with these repeated and discouraging failures." Thoughts of the
early teaching of a pious mother suppressed these feelings. Oh! how
often have the recollections of a loved New England home, and the
memories of a happy childhood, cheered my sinking spirits, and
dissipated the gathering gloom of despair! There were thoughts and
feelings and mental anguishes without number, that visited me during
my period of trial, that never can be known to any but my God and
myself. Bitter as was my experience, it was not unrelieved by some of
the most precious moments I have ever known.

Soon after leaving "Tower Falls," I entered the open country. Pine
forests and windfalls were changed for sage brush and desolation, with
occasional tracts of stinted verdure, barren hillsides, exhibiting
here and there an isolated clump of dwarf trees, and ravines filled
with the rocky debris of adjacent mountains. My first camp on this
part of the route, for the convenience of getting wood, was made near
the summit of a range of towering foot-hills. Towards morning a storm
of wind and snow nearly extinguished my fire. I became very cold; the
storm was still raging when I arose, and the ground white with snow. I
was perfectly