a low fabric,
resembling the castle in construction, though made of materials so light
as barely to be bullet-proof. As the sides of the scow were a little
higher than usual, and the interior of the cabin had no more elevation
than was necessary for comfort, this unusual addition had neither a very
clumsy nor a very obtrusive appearance. It was, in short, little more
than a modern canal-boat, though more rudely constructed, of greater
breadth than common, and bearing about it the signs of the wilderness,
in its bark-covered posts and roof. The scow, however, had been put
together with some skill, being comparatively light, for its strength,
and sufficiently manageable. The cabin was divided into two apartments,
one of which served for a parlor, and the sleeping-room of the father,
and the other was appropriated to the uses of the daughters. A very
simple arrangement sufficed for the kitchen, which was in one end of
the scow, and removed from the cabin, standing in the open air; the ark
being altogether a summer habitation.

The "and-bush," as Hurry in his ignorance of English termed it, is quite
as easily explained. In many parts of the lake and river, where the
banks were steep and high, the smaller trees and larger bushes, as has
been already mentioned, fairly overhung the stream, their branches not
unfrequently dipping into the water. In some instances they grew out
in nearly horizontal lines, for thirty or forty feet. The water being
uniformly deepest near the shores, where the banks were highest and the
nearest to a perpendicular, Hutter had found no difficulty in letting
the ark drop under one of these covers, where it had been anchored
with a view to conceal its position; security requiring some such
precautions, in his view of the case. Once beneath the trees and bushes,
a few stones fastened to the ends of the branches had caused them to
bend sufficiently to dip into the river; and a few severed bushes,
properly disposed, did the rest. The reader has seen that this cover was
so complete as to deceive two men accustomed to the woods, and who were
actually in search of those it concealed; a circumstance that will be
easily understood by those who are familiar with the matted and wild
luxuriance of a virgin American forest, more especially in a rich soil.
The discovery of the ark produced very different effects on our two
adventurers.

As soon as the canoe could be got round to the proper opening, Hurry
leaped o