ey now
reach up the base of the furthest hills in the valley?"

"Yis, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, stopping from disturbing his auburn
locks any further with his fingers and now all eagerness again, as if
only just then beginning to comprehend what the other was driving at.

"All right, then," continued Mr Meldrum, "so far, so good! Now, to-
day, I went prospecting up to the top of the cliff here, and I see that
the waters of the swollen tarn are united in the extreme distance--to
the left there on the map--with a river, or some other lake, which comes
round that further hill. Hence, this very width of fifteen miles which
we have to cross may be but half of it land and half water, so that,
really, in that case, we should have only to haul the boat, or boats,
over the intervening bits of _terra firma_ in passing from sea to sea."

"I guess, mister," said Mr Lathrope, "you mean what the lumber men on
the Susquehanna and Red River call `making a portage,' hey?"

"I don't quite follow you," observed Mr Meldrum.

"Why, when they come across a rapid in the river, they jest tote up
their canoes and carry 'em along the bank, or through the forest
sometimes, till they gits to whar the stream runs free agin, when they
floats 'em and sails along as slick as you please!"

"Exactly," said Mr Meldrum, "you have just hit what I wished to
describe. Well, friends, whether we have to carry the boat a short
distance or a long one, we shall have to cross this isthmus; and, the
sooner we commence making our preparations, the better."

"You sid only a boat, sorr; aren't ye going to take the pair ov 'em?"
asked Mr McCarthy.

"No," replied the other, "one will be about as much as we shall be able
to manage, and the smaller of the two at that."

"Be jabers!" exclaimed the first-mate in surprise; "and how, thin, will
you carry the lot ov us?"

"When we have to cross land," said Mr Meldrum, "of course we'll have to
walk, and can go in a body or not, just as we please; but when we have
to take to the water again, why the boat will have to do it in so many
trips--taking over a certain number first and returning for a fresh
load, until all shall be taken over; and repeating the process from
stage to stage."

"It kinder strikes me, mister," said Mr Lathrope, reflectively, "that
you'll find that thar jolly-boat a heap bigger and a pile heavier than
them birch-bark canoes of the lumber men and Injuns I was a talkin'
about; and yet, they're