and dressed in full costume; the latter executed with
such singular fidelity of feature, that although the
speaking figures sprung not from the experienced and
classic chisel of the sculptor but from the rude scalping
knife of the savage, the very tribe to which they belonged
could be discovered at a glance by the European who was
conversant with the features of each: then there were
handsomely ornamented vessels made of the birch bark,
and filled with the delicate sugars which the natives
extract from the maple tree in early spring; these of
all sizes, even to the most tiny that could well be
imagined, were valuable rather as exquisite specimens of
the neatness with which those slight vessels could be
put together, sewn as they were merely with strips of
the same bark, than from any intrinsic value they possessed.
Covered over with fantastic figures, done either in paint,
or in quill work artfully interwoven into the fibres of
the bark, they presented, in their smooth and polished
surface, strong evidence of the address of the savages
in their preparation of this most useful and abundant
produce of the country. Interspersed with these, too,
were numerous stands filled with stuffed birds, some of
which combined in themselves every variety and shade of
dazzling plumage; and numerous rude cases contained the
rarest specimens of the American butterfly, most of which
were of sizes and tints that are no where equalled in
Europe. One solitary table alone was appropriated to
whatever wore a transatlantic character in this wild and
museum-like apartment. On this lay a Spanish guitar, a
few pieces of old music, a collection of English and