view. Indeed so very striking was the resemblance between the water
and the land, that, however much the geologist might sneer at so
simple a theory, it would have been difficult for a poet not to have
felt, that the formation of the one had been produced by the subsiding
dominion of the other. Here and there a tall tree rose out of the
bottoms, stretching its naked branches abroad, like some solitary
vessel; and, to strengthen the delusion, far in the distance, appeared
two or three rounded thickets, looming in the misty horizon like
islands resting on the waters. It is unnecessary to warn the practised
reader, that the sameness of the surface, and the low stands of the
spectators, exaggerated the distances; but, as swell appeared after
swell, and island succeeded island, there was a disheartening
assurance that long, and seemingly interminable, tracts of territory
must be passed, before the wishes of the humblest agriculturist could
be realised.

Still, the leader of the emigrants steadily pursued his way, with no
other guide than the sun, turning his back resolutely on the abodes of
civilisation, and plunging, at each step, more deeply if not
irretrievably, into the haunts of the barbarous and savage occupants
of the country. As the day drew nigher to a close, however, his mind,
which was, perhaps, incapable of maturing any connected system of
forethought, beyond that which related to the interests of the present
moment, became, in some slight degree, troubled with the care of
providing for the wants of the hours of darkness.

On reaching the crest of a swell that was a little higher than the
usual elevations, he lingered a minute, and cast a half curious eye,
on either hand, in quest of those well known signs, which might
indicate a place, where the three grand requisites of water, fuel and