hem swimming across the mouths of the various creeks or rivers which
they passed in their progress. They were, however, too much engaged in
admiring the lonely magnificence of the surrounding scenery to interrupt
the playful gambols of the deer by endeavoring to wound them, which they
did only when their necessities compelled.

Thus they paddled onward for several days without perceiving anything that
might lead them to suppose they were approaching the spot to which the old
Indian had alluded, when one hazy morning, having proceeded many miles
before the sun had power to dispel the thick mists, they were delighted at
seeing themselves, as the air at noon cleared, about to enter a large
river, which flowed rapidly into the lake.

As this in some measure coincided with the first part of what had been
related to them, they determined on entering it; but after paddling up it
for some time the current grew so strong that they were compelled to
disembark and continue their journey by land on the edge of the high
precipitous bank.

The wind, softly blowing, rustled among the trees, but sometimes they
fancied that a distant rumbling could be distinguished.

Having followed the course of the stream along the edge of the cliff for
some distance, Price proposed that one of them should ascend a tree and
follow the course of the river upward with his eye, and try if he could
discover whence the sound that reached them arose.

Maiook, therefore, told one of his Indians to climb up a lofty pine which
grew apart from the rest, and he had hardly ascended half-way when,
uttering a cry of astonishment, he hastened to the ground and told his
comrades that he had seen immense clouds of spray rising far above the
trees, but he could not perceive from what cause they arose.

The Cataract at Last!

Encouraged by this report, after refreshing themselves (being much wearied
by their toilsome march), they hastened along the edge of the cliffs,
while the rushing sound that had been gradually increasing was every
instant becoming more and more tremendous, and the velocity of the stream
made them imagine that they were in the vicinity of a furious rapid, when,
on advancing from the thick bushes, they suddenly found themselves on a
bare ledge of rock which overhung an immense chasm into which two streams
and a mighty river were tumbling with a noise that drowned all their
exclamations of surprise, and which was louder than the voice of the o