When the
fugitives from Wyoming entered it, it was covered with a dense
growth of pines, growing mostly out of dark, murky water, which
in its turn was thick with a growth of moss and aquatic plants.
Snakes and all kinds of creeping things swarmed in the ooze.
Bear and panther were numerous.
Carpenter did not know any way around this terrible region, and
they were compelled to enter it. Henry was again devoutly
thankful that it was summer. In such a situation with winter on
top of it only the hardiest of men could survive.
But they entered the swamp, Carpenter silent and dogged, still
leading. Henry and his comrades kept close to the crowd. One
could not scout in such a morass, and it proved to be worse than
they bad feared. The day turned gray, and it was dark among the
trees. The whole place was filled with gloomy shadows. It was
often impossible to judge whether fairly solid soil or oozy murk
lay before them. Often they went down to their waists.
Sometimes the children fell and were dragged up again by the
stronger. Now and then rattle snakes coiled and hissed, and the
women killed them with sticks. Other serpents slipped away in
the slime.
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