Tales_ are in their natural order:
_Deerslayer_, _The Last of the Mohicans_, _The Pathfinder_, _The
Pioneers_ and _The Prairie_. This selection is taken from _The Last of
the Mohicans_.

[79-2] Munro is the father of two young ladies who have been captured
and carried away by the Indians. With his companions he is now following
the trail of the captors, and this canoe race is but one of many
adventures through which they pass before they finally rescue the women.

[79-3] Duncan Heyward is a British officer who was with the young ladies
when they were captured.

[81-4] Uncas is the son of the last chief of the Mohicans, a fine Indian
who sides with the Americans, and is, as his tribe has always been, a
bitter enemy of the Huron Indians.

[82-5] The beauties of Lake George are well known to every American
tourist. In the height of the mountains which surround it, and in
artificial accessories, it is inferior to the finest of the Swiss and
Italian lakes, while in outline and purity of water it is fully their
equal, and in the number and disposition of its isles and islets much
superior to them altogether. There are said to be some hundreds of
islands in a sheet of water less than thirty miles long. The narrows,
which connect what may be called, in truth two lakes, are crowded with
islands, to such a degree as to leave passages between them frequently
of only a few feet in width. The lake itself varies in breadth from one
to three miles.

[83-6] Chingachgook, the father of Uncas, is the chief of the Delaware
or Mohican Indians.

[86-7] _Kill Deer_, his favorite rifle, has a particularly long barrel,
much longer than the rifle used by the soldiers. Hawkeye's appearance is
described in another place as follows: "The frame of the white man,
judging by such parts as were not concealed by his clothes, was like
that of one who had known hardships and exertion from his earliest
youth. His person, though muscular, was rather attenuated than full; but
every nerve and muscle appeared strung and indurated by unremitted
exposure and toil. He wore a hunting-shirt of forest green, fringed with
faded yellow, and a summer cap of skins which had been shorn of their
fur. He also bore a knife in a girdle of wampum, like that which
confined the scanty garments of the Indian, but no tomahawk. His
moccasins were ornamented after the gay fashion of the natives, while
the only part of his under-dress which appeared below the hunting-frock,