Page:Pioneersorsource02cooprich.djvu/80

 Leather-stocking darting into the thronging hosts that were rushing beneath her, where it would seem that a blow could not go amiss; and where, as her father had already said, the prize that would be obtained was worthy of the notice of any epicure. But Natty had his peculiar habits; and, it would seem, his peculiar tastes also. His tall stature, and his erect posture, enabled him to see much further than those who, from motives of safety, were seated in the bottom of the canoe; and he turned his head warily, in every direction, frequently bending his body forward, and straining his vision, as if desirous of penetrating the darkness in the water, that surrounded their boundary of light. At length his anxious scrutiny was rewarded with success, and, waving his spear from the shore, he said, in a cautious tone—

"Send her outside the bass, John; I see a laker there, that has run out of the school. It's sildom one finds such a creater in the shallow waters, where a spear can touch it."

Mohegan gave a wave of assent with his hand, and in the next instant the canoe was without the "run of the bass," and in water of nearly twenty feet in depth. A few additional knots were laid on the grating;, and the light from the fire made to reach the bottom. Elizabeth then saw a fish of unusual size, floating above the small pieces of logs and sticks that were lying on the bottom. The animal was only distinguishable, at that distance, by a slight, but almost imperceptible motion of its fins and tail. The curiosity excited by this unusual exposure of the secrets of the lake, seemed to be mutual between the heiress of the land and the lord of these waters, for the "salmon-trout" soon announced his interest by raising his head and body, for a few degrees above a