rades that they broke out into laughter, and so all fell again
to their tasks, in sheer light-heartedness forgetting the superstitions
of their class.

Thus at length the party took ship again, and in time made the head of
the great bay within whose arms they had been for some time encamped.
They won up over the sullen rapids of the river which came into the bay,
toiling sometimes waist-deep at the _cordelle_, yet complaining not at
all. So in time they came out on the wide expanse of the shallow lake of
the Winnebagoes, which body of water they crossed directly, coming into
the quiet channel of the stream which fell in upon its western shore. Up
this stream in turn steadily they passed, amid a panorama filled with
constant change. Sometimes the gentle river bent away in long curves,
with hardly a ripple upon its placid surface, save where now and again
some startled fish sprang into the air in fright or sport, or in the
rush upon its prey. Then the stream would lead away into vast seas of
marsh lands, waving in illimitable reaches of rushes, or fringed with
the unspeakably beautiful green of the graceful wild rice plant.

In these wide levels now and again the channel divided, or lost itself
in little _cul de sacs_, from which the paddlers were obliged to retrace
their way. All about them rose myriads of birds and wild fowl, which
made their nests among these marshes, and the babbling chatter of the
rail, the high-keyed calling of the coot, or the clamoring of the
home-building mallard assailed their ears hour after hour as they passed
on between the leafy shores. Then, again, the channel would sweep to one
side of the marsh, and give view to wide vistas of high and rolling
lands, dotted with groves of hardwood, with here and there a swamp of
cedar or of tamarack. Little herds of elk and droves of deer fed on the
grass-covered slopes, as fat, as sleek and fearless of mankind as though
they dwelt domesticated in some noble park.

It was a land obviously but little known, even to the most adventurous,
and as chance would have it, they met not even a wandering party of the
native tribes. Clearly now the little boat was climbing, climbing slowly
and gently, yet surely, upward from the level of the great Lake
Michiganon. In time the little river broadened and flattened out into
wide, shallow expanses, the waters known as the Lakes of the Foxes; and
beyond that it became yet more shallow and uncertain, winding among
quakin