and he was not sorry that the approach of
the canoe to the southeastern curve of the lake gave a new direction to
his ideas. They were now, indeed, quite near the place that March had
pointed out for the position of the outlet, and both began to look for
it with, a curiosity that was increased by the expectation of the ark.

It may strike the reader as a little singular, that the place where a
stream of any size passed through banks that had an elevation of some
twenty feet, should be a matter of doubt with men who could not now have
been more than two hundred yards distant from the precise spot. It will
be recollected, however, that the trees and bushes here, as elsewhere,
fairly overhung the water, making such a fringe to the lake, as to
conceal any little variations from its general outline.

"I've not been down at this end of the lake these two summers," said
Hurry, standing up in the canoe, the better to look about him. "Ay,
there's the rock, showing its chin above the water, and I know that the
river begins in its neighborhood."

The men now plied the paddles again, and they were presently within a
few yards of the rock, floating towards it, though their efforts were
suspended. This rock was not large, being merely some five or six feet
high, only half of which elevation rose above the lake. The incessant
washing of the water for centuries had so rounded its summit, that it
resembled a large beehive in shape, its form being more than usually
regular and even. Hurry remarked, as they floated slowly past, that this
rock was well known to all the Indians in that part of the country, and
that they were in the practice of using it as a mark to designate the
place of meeting, when separated by their hunts and marches.

"And here is the river, Deerslayer," he continued, "though so shut in
by trees and bushes as to look more like an and-bush, than the outlet of
such a sheet as the Glimmerglass."

Hurry had not badly described the place, which did truly seem to be a
stream lying in ambush. The high banks might have been a hundred feet
asunder; but, on the western side, a small bit of low land extended so
far forward as to diminish the breadth of the stream to half that width.

As the bushes hung in the water beneath, and pines that had the stature
of church-steeples rose in tall columns above, all inclining towards the
light, until their branches intermingled, the eye, at a little distance,
could not easily detect any