At the Shawnee Indian camp, to relate a characteristic anecdote, Audubon noticed that a squaw who "had been delivered of beautiful twins during the night" was busied on the next day at her usual task of tanning deer skins. "She cut two vines," his record reads, "at the roots of opposite trees and made a cradle of the bark, in which the new born ones were wafted to and fro with a push of her hand, while from time to time she gave them the breast, and was apparently as unconcerned as if the event had not taken place." When at last our adventurers gained the Mississippi, the mighty volume of which was running three miles an hour, the patron ordered all hands ashore to pull at the bow rope. This characteristic remark of the naturalist is delightful, as showing the "single eye" which it has been declared of old shall be "full of light": "we made," said Audubon, "seven miles a day up the famous river; but while I was tugging with my back at the cordella, I kept my eyes fixed on the forests or the ground, looking for birds or curious shells." Warping against the current was both difficult and dangerous, and though they rose two hours before the sun, they could make but one mile an hour or ten miles in the day. At night they would go ashore, light a good fire and cook their supper; then, after posting a sentinel to guard against unfriendly surprises, they would roll in their buffalo skins and sleep without further concern. Notwithstanding all their efforts, when they reached the Great Bend at Tawapatee Bottom, they were obliged to unship their cargo, protect their boat as best they could from being crushed in the growing pack, and await the final breaking up of the ice. "The sorrows of Rozier," at this dismal announcement, said Audubon, "were too great to be described; wrapped in a blanket, like a squirrel in winter quarters with his tail about his nose, he slept and dreamed his time away, being seldom seen except at meals." There was not a white man's cabin within twenty miles, but a new field opened to the naturalist, who tramped through the deep forests, and soon became acquainted with all the Indian trails and lakes in the neighborhood. The six weeks spent at this camp passed pleasantly for Audubon, who devoted much of the time in studying the Osage Indians, whom he thought superior to the Shawnees, as well as in watching for wolves, bears, deer, cougars, racoons and wild turkeys, some of which were attracted by the bones and scraps of food thrown out for them: "I drew," said he, "more or less, by the side of our great camp-fire, every day." While detained at this point, they used for bread the breasts of turkeys, buttered with bear's grease, and opossum and bear's meat, until their stomachs revolted and they longed for a little Indian meal, which was procured only with the greatest difficulty.