"If we had a vessel to carry some of it in to light us on our way, we
should be saved much trouble," remarked the trapper.

"Perhaps we shall find something," said Sidney; "let us not despair,
but look around."

"I think we had better spend no more time," said Jane; "I long to be
going on. We can make light enough to guide us with sticks."

"The pale-faced maiden speaks well," said the chief; "let us proceed,
and save ourselves while we can. The venison will not last long, and we
must find an outlet or die."

"I think so likewise," said Edward. "Come, uncle, let us be moving."

"Very well; but we must beware of the gulf by our dim light, or we
shall all be in it in a twinkling," said the trapper, as he prepared
his torch.

Again they were moving on. Sometimes the cavern presented a low, narrow
defile, with hardly ten feet of rock to pass on; then it again widened
and grew lofty, until they could not make out its size by the rays of
their lights, which illumined out a few feet around them. After
proceeding about a mile further, they came to an abrupt halt, for a
barrier was in their track. The gulf extended across the cave from side
to side, and so wide that they could not see the opposite shore. Here
was a barrier, indeed, which they knew not how to overcome. They could
all swim, for that is an accomplishment that our borderers, of either
sex, never fail of acquiring. But they had great objections to plunging
into water of an unknown extent or depth.

"I will explore it," said the chief, throwing off his moccasins and
tunic; and with a torch in one hand, he let himself down with the
other, and then moved cautiously out into the unknown lake.

The chief was an adept in swimming, and made good headway with the only
hand at liberty. After swimming about twenty rods, his feet touched a
pebbly bed, and in a moment more he was in shallow water enough to
obtain footing; and wading a little further on, he came to land.
Astonished beyond measure, he looked around, and at a little distance
saw what looked as though large masses of rock had been cut away--the
bottom of which was about two feet higher than the ground; and in the
centre of this slight elevation, stood a single tripod, like the one
they had seen in the niche that they had passed. This was also filled
with the singular liquid that burned; and on the chief's touching it
with his torch, the cavern around was illumined in an instant.[5] A
shout of exultation bu