"We started for our ride across the prairie about two o'clock, and reached the station in about an hour and a-half. We crossed several streams and some marshy ground, and started several prairie chickens. After examining the place, and finding that it would be very inconvenient to get the material there, we thought that it would be better to remain at Jefferson, and we mounted to return. After we had left some time, and as I was suffering from my leg, and could not ride fast, I persuaded Mr. Douglas to ride on, and get back before sunset to keep an appointment with a carpenter, and not to mind me, as I could ride slowly back. He very reluctantly did so, and when I was left alone, I felt quite at home, steering my horse across the boundless prairie by the setting sun. Now, my horse had crossed many streams, and soft wet places in going out, so I took it for granted that he knew more about the prairie than I did, and would not allow me to get into difficulties, and consequently steered a straight course for that point of the compass in the direction of Jefferson. The sun had just touched the horizon. I was crossing some marshy ground with reeds up to my shoulders, when I saw my horse's nostrils distended, and his ears forward. I immediately put my helm down and brought him round, and just as I had done so, down he sank; I found myself up to my ankles in mud, and up to the calf of the leg in water; the horse was fixed immovable, no struggling, but snorting and dreadfully frightened. I have been in various situations of difficulty; but when I looked up and saw the tall reeds far above my head, and the sun setting, I must confess that I thought my case a serious one. I remembered the fate of a young French officer of the combined fleet that was at anchor at the entrance to the "Dardanelles," who went on shore to shoot, and as he did not return that night, we landed in the morning to look for him, and not far from the ship, we found him in a bog up to his waist, his gun a few feet in front of him, and he quite dead. I knew that if a man once gets up to his waist, it would be impossible to extricate himself; however, when I dismounted I sank up to my knees, and although that was not the place to philosophize, still I did so, and I began to think what is the reason that a man in struggling works himself down, and I immediately discovered that on raising the heel I produced a vacuum, as the mud prevents either water or air getting underneath the foot, and so with 15 lbs. to the square inch, in addition to your weight you soon disappear. That being the case, I did not attempt to raise the foot, but moved it backwards and forwards in a horizontal position until I made the hole so big, that water got under the foot, when I could lift it up with the greatest ease. After extricating myself I tore down some reeds and made a platform round my horse, then I patted his neck, and spoke good-naturedly to him, and then went astern, and by means