He is a slightly-built man, about sixty years of age. He was the guide for the scientific corps, who made a geological reconnoissance of that region many years before, and for a quarter of a century he had there battled the elements and the beasts with a strong arm and unflinching will. Many of the tales of his experience are full of the wildest

THE HUDSON.

romance, and we hoped to hear the narrative of some adventure from his own lips.

For many years John carried no other weapons than a huge jack-knife and a pistoL One of the most stirring of his thousand adventures in the Avoods is connected with the history of that pistol. It has been related by an acquaintance of the writer, a man of rare genius, and Avho, for many years, has been an inmate of an asylum for the insane, in a neighbouring State. John Cheney was his guide more than twenty years before our visit. The time of the adventure alluded to was winter, and the snow lay four feet deep in the woods. John went out upon snowshoes, with his rifle and dogs. He wandered far from the settlement, and made his bed at night in the deep snow. One morning he arose to examine his traps, near which he would lie encamped for weeks in complete solitude. When hovering around one of them, he discovered a famished wolf, who, iinappalled by the hunter, retired only a few steps, and then, turning round, stood watching his movements. "I ought, by rights," said John, "to have waited for my two dogs, who could not have been far off, but the cretur looked so sassy, standing tliere, that though I had not a bullet to spare, I could not help letting into him with my rifle." John missed his aim, and the animal gave a spring, as he was in the act of firing, and turned instantly upon him before he could reload his piece.