So deeply is it sunk in the sod which covers the prairies, that it is difficult, sometimes, to distinguish it at a distance of a few rods.
It was new ground to Mr.Kinzie, whose journeys from the Portage to Chicago had hitherto been made in the direct route by Kosh-ko-nong.

He therefore obliged Mr.Morrison to repeat the directions again and again, though Plante, our guide, swaggered and talked big, averring that "he knew every hill and stream and point of woods from that spot to Chicago." We had not proceeded many miles on our journey, however, before we discovered that Monsieur Plante was profoundly ignorant of the country, so that Mr.Kinzie was obliged to take the lead himself, and make his way as he was best able, according to the directions he had received.
Nothing, however, like the "cross trails" we had been promised met our view, and the path on which we had set out diverged so much from what we knew to be the right direction, that we were at length compelled to abandon it altogether.
We travelled the livelong day, barely making a halt at noon to bait our horses and refresh ourselves with a luncheon.

The ride was as gloomy and desolate as could well be imagined.

A rolling prairie, unvaried by forest or stream--hillock rising after hillock, at every ascent of which we vainly hoped to see a distant fringe of "_timber_." But the same cheerless, unbounded prospect everywhere met the eye, diversified only here and there by the oblong openings, like gigantic graves, which marked an unsuccessful search for indications of a lead-mine.
So great was our anxiety to recover our trail, for the weather was growing more cold, and the wind more sharp and piercing, that we were not tempted to turn from our course even by the appearance, more than once, of a gaunt prairie-wolf, peering over the nearest rising-ground and seeming to dare us to an encounter.

The Frenchmen, it is true, would instinctively give a shout and spur on their horses, while the hounds, Kelda and Cora, would rush to the chase; but the bourgeois soon called them back, with a warning that we must attend strictly to the prosecution of our journey.