deer are scarcely to be seen,
so changed is this lovely wilderness, that green pastures and yellow
cornfields now meet the eye on every side, and the wild beasts retire to
the less frequented depths of the forest.

From the undulating surface, the alternations of high hills, deep
valleys, and level table-lands, with the wide prospect they command, the
Rice Lake Plains still retain their picturesque beauty, which cannot be
marred by the hand of the settler even be he ever so devoid of taste;
and many of those who have chosen it as their home are persons of taste
and refinement, who delight in adding to the beauty of that which Nature
had left so fair.

APPENDIX D. Page 157, _note_.

"I will now," says our Indian historian, "narrate a single circumstance
which will convey a correct idea of the sufferings to which Indians were
often exposed. To obtain furs of different kinds for the traders, we had
to travel far into the woods, and remain there the whole winter. Once we
left Rice Lake in the fall, and ascended the river in canoes as far as
Belmont Lake. There were five families about to hunt with my father
on his ground. The winter began to set in, and the river having frozen
over, we left the canoes, the dried venison, the beaver, and some flour
and pork; and when we had gone further north, say about sixty miles from
the white settlements, for the purpose of hunting, the snow fell for
five days in succession, to such a depth, that it was impossible to
shoot or trap anything; our provisions were exhausted, and we had no
means of procuring any more. Here we were, the snow about five feet
deep, our wigwam buried, the branches of the trees falling all about us,
and cracking with the weight of the snow.

"Our mother (who seems, by-the-bye, from the record of her son, to have
been a most excellent woman) boiled birch-bark for my sister and myself,
that we might not starve. On the seventh day some of us were so weak
they could not guard themselves, and others could not stand alone. They
could only crawl in and out of the wigwam. We parched beaver skins and
old mocassins for food. On the ninth day none of the men could go abroad
except my father and uncle. On the tenth day, still being without
food, the only ones able to walk about the wigwam were my father, my
grandmother, my sister, and myself. Oh, how distressing to see
the starving Indians lying about the wigwam with hungry and eager
looks!--the children would cry for so