All trembling, I reached the Falls of Niagara, and oh, what a scene! My blood shudders still, although I am not a coward, at the grandeur of the Creators power; and I gazed motionless on this new display of the irresistible force of one of His elements.

Almost every day, instead of going to school when I ought to have gone, I usually made for the fields, where I spent the day.

I can scarcely manage to scribble a tolerable English letter. I know that I am not a scholar, but meantime I am aware that no man living knows better than I do the habits of our birds.

Hunting, fishing, drawing, and music occupied my every moment. Cares I knew not, and cared naught about them.

My drawings at first were made altogether in watercolors, but they wanted softness and a great deal of finish.

The fact is I am growing old too fast, alas! I feel it, and yet work I will, and may God grant me life to see the last plate of my mammoth work finished.

The worse my drawings were, the more beautiful did the originals appear.