his companion to occupy the third
place.

The naturalist placed a foot in the frail vessel, as an elephant will
try a bridge, or a horse is often seen to make a similar experiment,
before he will trust the whole of his corporeal treasure on the dreaded
flat, and then withdrew, just as the old man believed he was about to
seat himself.

"Venerable venator," he said, mournfully, "this is a most unscientific
bark. There is an inward monitor which bids me distrust its security!"

"Anan?" said the old man, who was pinching the ears of the hound, as a
father would play with the same member in a favourite child.

"I incline not to this irregular mode of experimenting on fluids. The
vessel has neither form, nor proportions."

"It is not as handsomely turned as I have seen a canoe in birchen bark,
but comfort may be taken in a wigwam as well as in a palace."

"It is impossible that any vessel constructed on principles so repugnant
to science can be safe. This tub, venerable hunter, will never reach the
opposite shore in safety."

"You are a witness of what it has done."

"Ay; but it was an anomaly in prosperity. If exceptions were to be taken
as rules, in the government of things, the human race would speedily be
plunged in the abysses of ignorance. Venerable trapper, this expedient,
in which you would repose your safety, is, in the annals of regular
inventions, what a lusus naturae may be termed in the lists of natural
history--a monster!"

How much longer Doctor Battius might have felt disposed to prolong
the discourse, it is difficult to say, for in addition to the powerful
personal considerations, which induced him to procrastinate an
experiment which was certainly not without its dangers, the pride of
reason was beginning to sustain him in the discussion. But, fortunately
for the credit of the old man's forbearance, when the naturalist reached
the word, with which he terminated his last speech, a sound arose in
the air that seemed a sort of supernatural echo to the idea itself. The
young Pawnee, who had awaited the termination of the incomprehensible
discussion, with grave and characteristic patience, raised his head, and
listened to the unknown cry, like a stag, whose mysterious faculties had
detected the footsteps of the distant hounds in the gale. The trapper
and the Doctor were not, however, entirely so uninstructed as to the
nature of the extraordinary sounds. The latter recognised in them the
well-known voi