for a considerable time, although of course without effect.

The banks of Lake Erie, in the vicinity of Huron, are thickly studded
with small trees and coppice wood. This scenery, being interspersed with
open natural meadow-land, gives it a park-like aspect, and several spots
would, graced with a mansion, have formed an estate any nobleman in
Europe might have been proud of, the shores of Canada, looming in the
hazy distance, giving a fine effect to the scene.

The noise and disagreeable odour arising from the bull-frogs and other
reptiles that infest the swamp opposite the village at night, filled the
air, and rendered it impossible for me to sleep. As I lay restless on my
bed, I suddenly heard a gun fired, and, starting up in some alarm, I
hastily put on my clothes and descended to the bar of the hotel. Here
several of the inmates were assembled, and were preparing to cross the
creek with lanterns, to explore the swamp, cries of distress having been
distinctly heard, as of some benighted traveller who had lost his way.
After listening intently, and firing several rifles to guide the
wanderer or apprize him that assistance was at hand, the party crossed
the creek in a canoe, and moved along the skirts of the morass,
hallooing loudly all the time; the cries, however, heard only at
intervals at the commencement, became gradually indistinct, and at last
ceased altogether. After an ineffectual search for an hour or more, the
party again turned towards Huron, strongly impressed with the belief,
that the unfortunate being had sunk with his horse in the soft bed of
the swamp, which is some miles in extent, and had perished miserably.
The day following, I visited the nearest point from which the cries were
heard, but I could discern no sign of the sufferer, nor could I even
trace footmarks; this, however, is not remarkable, as they would
speedily be obliterated by the many reptiles nurtured in the morass. It