and proceeded through the woods to find the lines and see the lands.  Much swamp and cane; had to wade a good deal, and in one place got over my boot tops in a slough.  Although a trace had been cut as far as we went, it was laborious travelling, and I returned to camp at night, wet, tired and dispirited, dreading the consequences to my health.  Washed and dried my feet by the fire, and changed stockings and put on shoes, and did not take cold.  Just behind our camp is a small lake or pond, in which Hudgins shot a duck, which we cooked for supper.

Friday, Nov. 27, 1835

A rain came on last night, which has made the woods and cane so wet that we would not venture in them today.  Showery all day.  I made an unsuccessful hunt on the creek.  Shot once and missed.  Hudgins killed another duck.  He has fired five times and only killed two.  Wrote a little in journal, the first chance I have had since last Sunday, at Cullen's.

Saturday, Nov. 28, 1835

A fine, clear day, white frost.  All hands went into the woods.  We were seven hours out; constant exertion in clambering through cane brakes, entangled with briars, vines, etc., and wading through sloughs.  The general character of the land is good; a succession of cane brakes, holly groves and open woods, where the ground is generally covered with water, sometimes knee-deep.  The fatigue consequent on such laborious exertion is excessive.  Feet wet again.  I could not walk through the cane with the rapidity of the others, and not wishing to retard them, I started to return on the trace, while they designed, after pursuing the line to a corner, to strike for the bayou on a western course.  I missed the trace, and had to make my way for a mile alone through the thicket.  I knew the course by a pocket compass, and that the bayou was on my left, so felt no apprehension.  But the solitude of these deep recesses of wild nature was awful, and I could realize the horrors of being lost in a cane brake.  By inclining to the west I avoided the sloughs, and got better ground than that we had cut through, the ground rising towards the bayou, the banks of which are fifteen to thirty feet above the bottom.  In the midst of the thickest cane I discovered a mound, and tired and belated as I was, could not avoid pausing to contemplate it.  I walked or rather clambered over it, and, as nearly as I could judge, it was about twelve feet above the surrounding level, and forty or fifty feet across the top.  Struck the cross trace much nearer the bayou than I expected, and reached the camp about three-fourths of an hour before the other party.  Hudgins has killed another duck, Murphy also one, so we breakfast and sup (or dine) on stewed duck, and coffee.  We all keep well, but excessively sore and fatigued.