of this apartment, which had, in some degree, been
made the sanctum of its present occupants. Here was to be seen the
scaly carcass of some huge serpent, extending its now harmless length
from the ceiling to the floor--there an alligator, stuffed after the
same fashion; and in various directions the skins of the beaver, the
marten, the otter, and an infinitude of others of that genus, filled up
spaces that were left unsupplied by the more ingenious specimens of
Indian art. Head-dresses tastefully wrought in the shape of the
crowning bays of the ancients, and composed of the gorgeous feathers of
the most splendid of the forest birds--bows and quivers handsomely, and
even elegantly ornamented with that most tasteful of Indian
decorations, the stained quill of the porcupine; war clubs of massive
iron wood, their handles covered with stained horsehair and feathers
curiously mingled together--machecotis, hunting coats, mocassins, and
leggings, all worked in porcupine quill, and fancifully
arranged,--these, with many others, had been called into requisition to
bedeck and relieve the otherwise rude and naked walls of the apartment.

Nor did the walls alone reflect back the picture of savage ingenuity,
for on the various tables, the rude polish of which was hid from view
by the simple covering of green baize, which moreover constituted the
garniture of the windows, were to be seen other products of their art.
Here stood upon an elevated stand a model of a bark canoe, filled with
its complement of paddlers carved in wood and dressed in full costume;
the latter executed with such singular fidelity of feature, that
although the speaking figures sprung not from the experienced and
classic chisel of the sculptor but from the rude scalping knife of the
savage, the very tribe to which they belonged could be discovered at a
glance by the European who was conversant with the features of each:
then there were handsomely ornamented vessels made of the birch bark,
and filled with the delicate sugars which the natives extract from the
maple tree in early spring; these of all sizes, even to the most tiny
that could well be imagined, were valuable rather as exquisite
specimens of the neatness with which those slight vessels could be put
together, sewn as they were merely with strips of the same bark, than
from any intrinsic value they possessed. Covered over with fantastic
figures, done either in paint, or in quill work artfully interwoven
in