the country was a wilderness of horrible morasses,
where the alligators basked unmolested. For months Finn found himself a
prisoner at Lost Prairie, the spot being surrounded with impenetrable
swamps, where the lightest foot would have sunk many fathoms below the
surface. As to crossing the river, it was out of the question, as it
was more than half a mile broad, and Finn was no swimmer; even now, no
human being or animal can cross it at this particular spot, for so
powerful are the eddies, that, unless a pilot is well acquainted with
the passage, a boat will be capsized in the whirlpools. Human life can
be sustained upon very little, for Finn managed to live for months upon
a marshy ground six miles in extent, partially covered with prickly
pears, sour grapes, and mushrooms. Birds he would occasionally kill
with sticks; several times he surprised tortoises coming on shore to
deposit their eggs, and once, when much pressed by hunger, he gave
battle to a huge alligator. Fire he had none; his clothes had long been
in rags; his beard had grown to a great length, and his nails were sharp
as the claws of a wild beast. At last there was a flood in the river,
and above the raft Finn perceived two immense pine trees afloat in the
middle of the stream. Impelled by the force of the current, they cut
through the raft, where the timber was rotten, and then grounded.

This was a chance which Finn lost no time in profiting by; out of the
fibrous substance of the prickly pear, he soon manufactured sufficient
rope to lash the two trees together, with great labour got them afloat,
and was carried down the stream with the speed of an arrow. He
succeeded in landing many miles below, on the eastern bank, but he was
so bruised, that for many days he was unable to move.

One day a report was spread in the neighbourhood of Port Gibson, that a
strange monster, of the ourang-outang species, had penetrated the
cane-brakes upon the western banks of the Mississippi. Some negroes
declared to have seen him tearing down a brown bear; an Arkansas hunter
had sent to Philadelphia an exaggerated account of this recently
discovered animal, and the members of the academies had written to him
to catch the animal, if possible, alive, no matter at what expense. A
hunting expedition was consequently formed, hundreds of dogs were let
loose in the cane-brakes, and the chase began.

The hunters were assembled, waiting till the strange animal should br