University of Virginia Library

1. CHAPTER I.

Towards the close of a warm and genial
spring day, early in the month of March,
182—, a boat containing a single person
might have been seen gliding up a darkly
flowing river, that would through the bosom
of a majestic forest. The banks of the river
were full with the melted snow-water of
the mountains, and carried down upon the
turbid tide, swam vast cakes of ice, which
the ascending boatman had to exert no little
skill and activity to avoid.

The scenery around him was very good;
and its sublimity was not a little enhanced
by the wild march of the swollen river with
its acres of crushing ice-fields, which coming
in collision one with another, made the
dark woods echo and re-echo again, as if
scores of forest trees were falling at once.

The shores, which were a third of a mile
apart, rose perpendicularly from the water
on his left, towering skyward six hundred
feet, a wall of smooth rock crested with
oaks, and the beach, while on his right
stretched away to distant uplands a league
off, a forest of unbroken continuity, and at
this season leafless; but here and there
were visible in its wide extent, a group of
pines, whose deep, almost black green, contrasted
strangely with the naked limbs of
the surrounding wood, and with the carpet
of spotless snow that still lay upon the
ground. The absence of foliage, enabled
the voyager to penetrate, with his eye,
far into the vistas of the wood, which in
summer would have been concealed by its
foliage; and as his his gaze listlessly traversed
them, he could disern deer browsing on
the lichens and moss, covering the fallen
logs and growing upon trunks of the upright
trees, and here and there track the
prowling path of the black bear and gray
wolf as they passed to and fro through the
forest in search of prey. The distant uplands,
in which the wood lost itself, were
glowing in the golden sun-light, while the
level plain itself lay in the shadows of twilight.

Behind the boatman, the river was
visible for more than three miles, when it
was shut out from view by closing cliffs,
that seemed to bound it and enclose it as if
it were a lake; but shooting away sharply
to the left, it swept through the gorge, and
emerged by and by into the bosom of a
luxuriant valley.

The view up the stream directly ahead of
the voyager in the canoe,was very limited, as
a conical mountain of firs, its top white
with new fallen snow, rose directly in the
river's course. To all appearance the sheet
of water terminated at its base, so completely
was it land-looked; but the practised eye
of the person in the boat, was able to detect
an opening in the seemingly impassable barrier,
imperceptible to less experienced eyes.
The sunbeams were reflected from the
snowy top of keplin, as the conical hill was
termed, in the rosiest tints, while the deep
blue sky, which it seemed to sustain upon its
summit,rivalled an amethyst in its clear transparency.
The river caught upon its bosom
the rose-tints of the snow, the azure of the
sky and the green of the pines and mingling
them like colors in a crucible, lent a new
and unexpected beauty to the scene.

The gaze of the boatman rested upon
these beautiful features of earth and sky for
an instant, and he ceased involuntary in his
toil with the paddle to enjoy them. His
fine eyes became animated with pleasure as
one aspect of beauty after another opened
upon them, and his countenance, though
sun-burned and swart, betrayed eloquently
the emotion of a mind that loved to contemplate
nature, and of a heart that felt its holier
and deeper influences.

The boat in which he was ascending the
river, was one of the frailest character ever
launched upon water. It was known as a
`flyer,' and used chiefly for fishing upon the
river. In lightness and frailty it surpassed
the fragile birchen canoe of the Indian, of
which it was an imitation. But instead of
being a frame of hoops covered with sheets
of birch bark firmly sewed together with
strong grass, it was a shell hollowed from a
tree, made sharp and curving at both ends,
and shaven so thin that it would yield and
spring in any portion of it to the pressure of
the palm of the hand. The tree out of
which it was carved was cedar, as being the
lightest as well as the most elastic of woods.

The `flyer' in which the person was
ascending the river, was made, if possible,
thinner than others of its class, for light
almost came through the side towards the
sun, and its shape was more elegant, it being
curved gracefully upward at the stern, which,
as he sat near the bow, remained raised full
four feet above the water, like the head of a
swan.

Unlike other boats, the seat of the boatman
in the flyer was forward within four
feet of the bow. Here upon a small thwart,
unattached, laid across from side to side, he
placed himself with his paddle in his
hand, taking care to balance his weight with
the utmost exactness; for any inequality in
the equilibrium of his body would overset the
delicate shell. The whole weight being in
the forward part of the boat, the stern of
course was greatly elevated, being full three-fifths
of its length out of the water, while
the bow was depressed and almost level with
the surface. In the stern was fixed a long
paddle or rudder, that entered the water two
or more feet, and being kept rigidly in its
place, it served to keep the stem of the boat
in a right line, otherwise acted upon by the
current or wind, it would have had a tendency
to revolve around the occupant who would
be at its pivot.

Such was the character of the skiff in
which was embarked the person who has
attracted our attention, moving along amid
the solitary scenery we have described.
We will now devote a few lines to a description
of his appearance and costume.

It was quite a young man, not being over
three-and-twenty years old, and dressed in a
coarse woollen hunting frock of grey and

brown mixed, the common attire of the hardy
woodsman and raftsman of the Susquehannah.
The frock descended to his knees,
covering a pair of equally coarse jean trowsers,
over which were drawn as high as the
knee, leather leggins. His shirt was wollen,
with a blue and red stripe, and a black
handkerchief, was loosely knotted about his
neck, the long ends carelessly thrust into the
breast of his hunting frock, which at the
waist was bound by a red knitted sash. Over
his shoulder was passed a leathern strap,
well-worn, to which hung at his left hip, a
powder horn, neatly carved with many woodland
devices, and notched with `the deaths
of deer' fallen by his rifle. This weapon
lay in the bottom of the flyer, carefully
wrapped across the lock to keep it dry, in
an old deer-skin case; and by its side was a
fox-skin pouch with the hairy side out, which
contained ball, flints, and various other matters
usually to be found in a woodsman's
bag, and some strong waters! There was
by its side, also, a sort of square knapsack;
but what it contained did not appear, as it
was closely tied up.

The form and stature of the young man
were manly, his air free and fearless, his
face very handsome, yet dark, the mouth
and chin being singularly well shaped. He
wore upon his head a winter cap of bear's
skin, which was pushed back from his forehead,
displaying the noble and intellectual
outline of his temples and brow.

The sun, as we have said, was near its
setting, and hidden by the towering cliffs on
the western bank, cast half the river in
dark shadows. Along the shore in this
overhanging shadow, the boat of the young
man glided like the spirit of the waters.
The silence around him was broken away
by the crashing grating sound of the cakes
of ice as they ruboed together their thick
blue edges, crushing them into ridges of
snow.

With extraordinary skill the young man
plied his gracefully shaped paddle, now dart
ing his skiff like a swallow on the wing, to
the right, now flying to the left to escape
and pass between the rushing masses that
each instant threatened to overwhelm him
and his frail bark. Being seated so far forward
in the bows, he was able entirely to
command the movements of his boat, at one
time dexteriously curving his paddle quite
around the bow, at another making a rapid
half circle with it to the right, and now as
quickly crossing it again to the left; or presenting
the blade of his paddle full in front
to the current, he would instantly check,
when necessary, his upward progress.

While, for a moment, forgetting his ceaseless
vigilance, he suffered his attention to be
drawn to the gorgeous and extraordinary
beauty of the sunlight upon the hills and
on the river, he was startled at beholding
directly before him a vast field of ice which
was to close at hand for him to hope, by any
activity that he might exert, in redeeming
his momentary negligence, to be enabled
safely to pass it. A glance showed to his
keen observation, that he must either retract
and fly before it, or strike it and spring
upon it. The latter course he at once resolved
to take, and ceasing to paddle, he rose
up and waited till the cake reached him,
when at a single bound he launched upon
its hard surface. It was firm and massive,
and he quickly drew his flyer after him out
of the water, ere it should be overrun.
As he cast his eye over the field of ice, he
saw that it was several acres in extent, covering
nearly the whole width of the river,
and moving majestically upon its current.

(See Engraving.)

Without delaying, or showing any indecision,
he immediately unfastened the red
sash at his waist, attached it to the bow of
his boat, and began to move rapidly up the
stream on the ice. The flyer was so light
and the surface over which it was drawn
so smooth, that he went forward with it at

great speed, thus making faster progress
past the receding shores, than he had hitherto
achieved while in his boat; and this too,
although the ice was drifting downward with
the current at the rate of four miles an hour.
As he bounded over the crystaline surface,
his fine figure and athletic grace were admirably
displayed in action. He soon came
to a crevice in the solid field, which he
cleared at a bound, though it was twelve
feet across, and drawing his boat through
the black wild looking vortex, he again went
forward. Before him about a hundred yards,
he saw that the ice had piled itself at one
place many feet in height, presenting so rugged
a wall that he hesitated to proceed, and
glanced to the right and then to the left to
see if it could not be flanked; but perceiving
that it extended the whole breadth of
the huge fragment he was floating upon, he
pressed forward to surmount it, trusting to
find a level space beyond. He reached the
spot where the ice broken in vast masses, by
some obstruction in the river, had overleaped
itself, and was piled up to a great height,
some of the pieces as broad as a church-roof,
standing on edge in nearly upwright positions,
majestic walls of a dull blue color,
menacing destruction to whosoever should
be so daring as to approach them.

There was no time for the young man to
falter and delay as the whole weighty mass
over which he was moving, bore him swiftly
along down the stream, thus rendering abortive
the exertions he had previously been
making to ascend it so far. He therefore
pressed rapidly forward, hoping to find some
opening between the barrier of fragments,
by which to pass through. But as he came
close to it, he was about to despair of making
any further progress, as he beheld the
whole wild and savage pile all at once shaken
as the lower stratum upon which it was
sustained, grounded upon some shallow part
of the river. For an instant it heaved and
toppled this way and that, like a vast ruin
uplifted by an earthquake's throe, and one
mass forty feet square, glittering like glass,
was forced out and fairly shot upwards beyond
the rest, till nearly its whole bulk was
visible. It then reeled and pitched forward
upon the level space where the young man
had been arrested by this superb and yet
terrible sight, and was broken into two
huge pieces; the shock and weight shivering
at the same time the ice upon which it
came thundering down for the space of
twenty rods around. The boatman found
himself left upon a detached portion; while
the waves rushing up between the interstices
threatened to engulf him. With great
presence of mind he availed himself of advantages
his quick eye instantly took cognizance
of, and succeeded in reaching with
his boat dragging after him, the more solid
portion. He then advanced swiftly onward,
as if the danger he had just escaped, was
not of importance enough to give a thought to,
in order to pass the barrier by the gap which
the fallen fragment had left exposed, ere it
should be reclosed.

But he had hardly well got through it, the
ice as he walked heaving and murmuring
beneath his feet as it slowly subsided to its
former repose, ere he stood as still as if he
had suddenly become a statue, and transfixed
his gaze upon a niche in the wall of
ice on his left, where was crouched a huge
iron-colored wolf. The animal showed his
teeth with a savage snarl and shot from
his eyes a fierce light. He lay so near the
path which the young man had to take, unless
he would turn aside and climb over an
inclined and dangerous fragment with his
boat, which he looked as if he did not care
to do, in order to avoid a wolf, that it seemed
absolutely necessary for him to give him battle,
before he could proceed.

For an instant the two remained in the
very attitudes in which they had first discovered
the presence of each other; the wolf
couching and ready to spring at the least
sign of timidity! the man with his body
thrown a little forward, his right hand grasping

his paddle in the attitude of levelling a
blow, and his eyes bent upon the brute
sternly and boldly, and not without an expression
of that fearless contempt with which
the true American woodsman regards the
cowardly and blood-thirsty wolf.

Slowly, and almost imperceptibly, the
young man moved his feet backward along
the ice to gain his rifle which lay in the bottom
of his flyer, at the same time slowly
and steadily drawing the boat towards him.
All the while he never took his eye from the
fiery red gaze of his monstrous antagonist.

`From the appearance of this fellow, he
is half famished!' muttered the young man
within his teeth, `and no doubt he will do
his best to make a meal off of me, and I
must do my best to defeat his benevolent intentions.
If I can only get my hand on
my rifle, the business is settled. He looks
impatient, and is whetting his fangs for a
spring! I must spring too!'

The huge animal uttered a sudden growl,
snarled like a demon, and opening his jaws
clamped them together once or twice with
the most wicked voraciousness; and then
slowly raised his fore-shoulders, preparatory
to a leap, while the light in his eyes became
concentrated into a bright fiery point.

The young man by a backward bound,
grasped his rifle, at the same time to embarrass
the wolf in his spring, flinging the
paddle at his head. It struck him on the
shoulder, and passed off without any effect
other than hasting the crisis, for the next
instant the brute was in the air, but instead
of lighting upon the breast of his proposed
victim, he met the muzzle of the rifle,
and receiving its contents in his heart, fell
dead at the feet of his conqueror.