am.

The vessel in which Cap and his niece had embarked for their long and
adventurous journey was one of the canoes of bark which the Indians are
in the habit of constructing, and which, by their exceeding lightness
and the ease with which they are propelled, are admirably adapted to a
navigation in which shoals, flood-wood, and other similar obstructions
so often occur. The two men who composed its original crew had several
times carried it, when emptied of its luggage, many hundred yards; and
it would not have exceeded the strength of a single man to lift its
weight. Still it was long, and, for a canoe, wide; a want of steadiness
being its principal defect in the eyes of the uninitiated. A few hours
practice, however, in a great measure remedied this evil, and both Mabel
and her uncle had learned so far to humor its movements, that they now
maintained their places with perfect composure; nor did the additional
weight of the three guides tax its power in any particular degree, the
breath of the rounded bottom allowing the necessary quantity of water
to be displaced without bringing the gunwale very sensibly nearer to the
surface of the stream. Its workmanship was neat; the timbers were small,
and secured by thongs; and the whole fabric, though it was so slight to
the eye, was probably capable of conveying double the number of persons
which it now contained.

Cap was seated on a low thwart, in the centre of the canoe; the Big
Serpent knelt near him. Arrowhead and his wife occupied places forward
of both, the former having relinquished his post aft. Mabel was half
reclining behind her uncle, while the Pathfinder and Eau-douce stood
erect, the one in the bow, and the other in the stern, each using a
paddle, with a long, steady, noiseless sweep. The conversation was
carried on in low tones, all the party beginning to feel the necessity
of prudence, as they drew nearer to the outskirts of the fort, and had
no longer the cover of the woods.

The Oswego, just at that place, was a deep dark stream of no great
width, its still, gloomy-looking current winding its way among
overhanging trees, which, in particular spots, almost shut out the light
of the heavens. Here and there some half-fallen giant of the forest lay
nearly across its surface, rendering care necessary to avoid the limbs;
and most of the distance, the lower branches and leaves of the trees
of smaller growth were laved by its waters. The picture so beautifully
d