its slightly serpentine course between the wood and the
prairie. There was at the period of which we treat, a
small deep bay formed by two adjacent and densely wooded
points of land, in the cool shades of which the pike,
the black bass, and the pickerel loved to lie in the heat
of summer, and where, in early spring, though in less
numbers, they were wont to congregate. This was the
customary fishing spot of the garrison--six men and a
non-commissioned officer, repairing there almost daily,
with their ample store of lines and spears, as much,
although not avowedly, for their own amusement, as for
the supply of the officer's table. What remained, after
a certain division among these, became the property of
the captors, who, after appropriating to themselves what
was necessary for their next day's meal, distributed the
rest among the non-commissioned, and men of the company.
As the season advanced, and the fish became more plenty,
there was little limitation of quantity, for the freight,
nightly brought home, and taken with the line and spear
alone, was sufficient to afford every one abundance. In
truth, even in the depth of winter, there was little
privation endured by the garrison--the fat venison brought
in and sold for the veriest trifle by the Indians--the
luscious and ample prairie hen, chiefly shot by the
officers, and the fish we have named, leaving no necessity
for consumption of the salt food with which it was but
indifferently stored.

On the day on which our narrative has commenced, the
usual fishing party had ascended the river at an early