m a Statue in the Capitol at Washington.]

II.

BEARERS OF THE CALUMET.

Moving down the Mississippi, league after league, the explorers noted
first of all its solitude. Wigwam smoke could not be seen on either
shore. Silence, save the breathing of the river as it rolled on its
course, seemed to surround and threaten them with ambush. Still, day
after day, the sweet and awful presence of the wilderness was their only
company. Once Pierre Porteret dropped his paddle with a yell which was
tossed about by echoing islands. A thing with a tiger's forehead and a
wildcat's whiskered snout, holding ears and entire gray and black head
above the water, swam for the boat. But it dived and disappeared; and
the other voyageurs felt safe in laughing at him. Not long after,
Jacques bellowed aloud as he saw a living tree glide under the canoe,
jarring it from end to end. The voyageurs soon learned to know the huge
sluggish catfish. They also caught plenty of sturgeon or shovel fish
when they cast in their nets.

The river descended from its hilly cradle to a country of level
distances. The explorers, seeing nothing of men, gave more attention to
birds and animals. Wild turkeys with burnished necks and breasts tempted
the hunters. The stag uttered far off his whistling call of defiance to
other stags. And they began to see a shaggy ox, humped, with an enormous
head and short black horns, and a mane hanging over low-set wicked eyes.
Its body was covered with curly rough hair. They learned afterwards from
Indians to call these savage cattle pisikious, or buffaloes. Herds of
many hundreds grazed together, or, startled, galloped away, like thunder
rolling along the ground.

The explorers kindled very little fire on shore to cook their meals,
and they no longer made a camp, but after eating, pushed out and
anchored, sleeping in their canoes. Every night a sentinel was set to
guard against surprise. By the 25th of June they had passed through
sixty leagues of solitude. The whole American continent was thinly
settled by native tribes, many in name indeed, but of scant numbers.
The most dreaded savages in the New World were the Iroquois or Five
Nations, living south of Lake Ontario. Yet they were never able to
muster more than about twenty-two hundred fighting men.

The canoes were skirting the western bank, driven by the current, when
one voyageur called to another:

"My scalp for the sight of an Indian!"

"Halt!" the forward