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INCIDENTS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE SAGINAW VALLEY BY JUDGE ALBERT MILLER
In the morning our blankets were frozen hard, and all our clothing being saturated with the recent rain, we were not in a very good plight to encounter the fierce northwest wind that swept over the prairie; but after partaking of a scant breakfast we started for home, and when we got to the prairie we
found that the rain had greatly increased the volume of water, and before we got across the Quanicassee prairie we sometimes had to wade waist deep in water, but when we reached the timbered land we had four or five miles of comparatively comfortable traveling; when, in the afternoon, we reached the Cheboyganing prairie, the prospect was rather disheartening for tired pedestrians; the wind was blowing a fierce gale, accompanied by frequent snow squalls. The water on the prairie was a foot deep, covered by ice that would bear us about every tenth step. There were five miles of that kind of traveling and the Cheboyganing creek between us and home; and it was presumptuous for us to undertake to perform it under the circumstances, for we could have built a fire in the timbered land, and subsisted till a change came in the weather; but we thought of nothing but to push ahead, and started out. Tromble wore moccasins which the ice soon cut in pieces. He then tied his mittens to his feet and walked in my tracks so as to protect his feet as much as possible. Our limbs soon became completely benumbed with cold, and our movements seemed mechanical, and we passed along in great suffering, till, at the dusk of evening, we reached the Cheboyganing creek, the volume of which had greatly increased from the recent rain, and nothing could be seen of the bridge that had carried us safely over two days before.
Michigan
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