24th.  I made one of a party of sixteen, who dined with Mr. Ermatinger.  I here first tasted the flesh of the cariboo, which is a fine flavored venison.  I do not recollect any wise or merry remark made during dinner, which is worth recording.  As toasts show the temper of the times, and bespeak the sentiments of those who give them, a few of them may be mentioned.  After several formal and national toasts, we had Mr. Calhoun, Governor Cass, General Brown, Mr. Sibley, the representative of Michigan, Colonel Brady, and Major Thayer, superintendent of the military academy.  In coming home in the cariole, we all missed the balizes, and got completely upset and pitched into the snow.

25th.  Mr. John Johnston returned me Silliman’s Travels, and expressed himself highly pleased with them.  Mr. Johnston evinces by his manners and conversation and liberal sentiments that he has passed many of his years in polished and refined circles.  He told me he came to America during the presidency of General Washington, whom he esteems it a privilege to have seen at New York, in 1793.  Having letters to Lord Dorchester, he went into Canada, and through a series of vicissitudes, finally settled at these falls about thirty years ago.  In 1814, his property was plundered by the Americans, through the false representations of some low-minded persons, his neighbors and opponents in trade, with no more patriotism than he; in consequence of which he returned to Europe, and sold his patrimonial estate at “Craige,” in the north of Ireland, within a short distance of the Giant’s Causeway, and thus repaired, in part, his losses.

26th.  Devoted to reading—­a solid resource in the wilderness.

27th.  Finished the perusal of Marshall’s Washington, and took the notes contained in memorandums P. and R. The first volume of this work is intended as introductory, and contains the best recital of the political history of the colonies which I have read.  The other four volumes embrace a wide mass of facts, but are rather diffuse and prolix, considered as biography, A good life of Washington, which shall comprise within a small compass all his prominent public and private acts, still remains a desideratum.

28th.  Our express returned this morning, bringing me New York papers to the 11th of November.  We are more than two months and a half behind the current news of the day.  We have Washington dates to the 9th of November, but of course they convey nothing of the proceedings of Congress.

29th.  I read St. Clair’s “Narrative of his Campaign” against the Indians in 1791, and extracted the notes contained in memorandum A.A.  The causes of its failure are explained in a satisfactory manner, and there is proof of Gen. St. Clair’s vigilance and intrepidity.  Dissensions in his camp crippled the old general’s power.

30th.  I took up the subject of the Indian language, after an interval of eight or nine days, and continued to transcribe into my vocabulary until after the hour of midnight.  It comprises now rising of fifteen hundred words, including some synonyms.