like all the rest, limited the view in that direction,
stretching immediately across the whole of the fair scene,[1] with the
exception of a deep bay that passed its western end, lengthening the
basin for more than a mile. The manner in which the water flowed out
of the lake, beneath the leafy arches of the trees that lined the sides
of the stream, has already been mentioned, and it has also been said
that the rock, which was a favorite place of rendezvous throughout all
that region, and where Deerslayer now expected to meet his friend,
stood near this outlet and no great distance from the shore. It was a
large isolated stone that rested on the bottom of the lake, apparently
left there when the waters tore away the earth from around it, in
forcing for themselves a passage down the river, and which had obtained
its shape from the action of the elements during the slow progress of
centuries. The height of this rock could scarcely equal six feet, and,
as has been said, its shape was not unlike that which is usually given
to bee-hives or to a hay-cock. The latter, indeed, gives the best
idea, not only of its form, but of its dimensions. It stood, and still
stands, for we are writing of real scenes, within fifty feet of the
bank, and in water that was only two feet in depth, though there were
seasons in which its rounded apex, if such a term can properly be used,
was covered by the lake. Many of the trees stretched so far forward as
almost to blend the rock with the shore, when seen from a little
distance; and one tall pine in particular overhung it in a way to form
a noble and appropriate canopy to a seat that had held many a forest
chieftain, during the long succession of ages in which America and all
it contained existed apart in mysterious solitude, a world by itself,
equally without a familiar history and without an origin that the
annals of man can catch.

When distant some two or three hundred feet from the shore Deerslayer
took in his sail, and he dropped his grapnel as soon as he found the
ark had drifted in a line that was directly to windward of the rock.
The motion of the scow was then checked, when it was brought head to
wind by the action of the breeze. As soon as this was done Deerslayer
"paid out line," and suffered the vessel to "set down" upon the rock as
fast as the light air would force it to leeward. Floating entirely on
the surface, this was soon affected, and the young man checked the
drift wh