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so low that only a small boat can navigate it. One can see the many river beds, which in the spring must be great rivers, now hardly have water enough to run a mill. I kept on 'til we landed at Smithfield, a little town at the mouth of the Cumberland River, where the ship had to be lightened to be able to go higher up the river. Here I went ashore and took hire in a steamboat which should go up the Tennessee river. As I came on board I saw two Irishmen whipping an American whom I liked very well. We had eaten at the same table on the voyage up. I started to help him, and began to knock on one of them. But they let the American go and grabbed me. Two Irish women came to help them. The women were the worst. One of them hit me on the head with an ax. The other burnt me on the arm with a flatiron. I guess they would have killed me if the captain and the pilots had not come to my rescue. I could hardly see for a whole week, and I thought maybe they would not have me at all on the steamer I looked so terrible. But when they heard it was the Irishers that had whipped me it was all right.
It costs a great deal to run a steamship on the rivers. The steamer "Scotland", of about two hundred tons, spent about one thousand and twenty dollars monthly. Now we went down the river again to get to the mouth of the Tennessee which runs sixty miles below	the	Cumberland.	The ship was loaded
with salt for Carolsville, two hundred	and	fifty miles	from the	mouth. The
country is pretty flat. It is pretty to sail up a river as narrow as this, and, as the steamer keeps close to the side to escape the current, the trees often scrape against it.
About one hundred and fifty miles	up	one enters	the state	of Alabama,
where the country on one side belongs to	the	Indians, so	one never	sees a house
there. Often great flocks of squirrels swim across the river, and sometimes deer and raccoons. We caught a deer, but it was all we could do to row as fast as it could swim.
When we arrived at Carolsville the captain wanted us to unload at night, but two of us would not do it, so we asked for our pay, which was three hundred dollars, and went ashore. We got lodgings and stayed there as long as our money lasted.	In the meantime the water in the river fell so much we	could not
get down on a	steamship. Our host advised	us to stay	with him	and	cut wood,
which was the only work to be had in the place, or else go higher up the river to a place named Florentz, where could get work on a keel boat - a kind of flat boat that runs where the steamers cannot.
First we chose to cut wood, but when we tried it one day I found I was no good at it, so I took my gun on my shoulder, with a small satchel which I borrowed from the other man, left my clothes in Carolsville, and set out. The other man, who several times had taken the same trip, advised me what to do. I should keep to the river as much as possible and notice which way the current ran. I took some salt, and bread enough to last a few days. He showed me how I could broil on a stick what game I shot, and how to make fire with the gun.
So I started. As long as I could follow the road I was all right, but when it stopped I began to wish I had not	started.	Still, I	kept	on. The
country began to be very hilly with beautiful woods, mostly walnut, oak, and beech. There	were a great many squirrels	and doves.	Of the	latter I shot
four. In the evening I made camp at a little creek, gathered some dry twigs and made a fire. Then I picked my birds and roasted them, and, with a little salt, they were excellent. Although I knew there were no wild beasts which would attack a human being, I was pretty scared. To protect myself I kept such a roaring fire I was nearly roasted, and of course slept very little.
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