he actually contemplated the
desperate effort of going round the river in order to escape the hazard of
crossing it. It may not be necessary to dwell on the incredible ingenuity with
which terror will at any time, prop a tottering argument. The worthy Obed had
gone over the whole subject with commendable diligence, and had just arrived at
the consoling conclusion that there was nearly as much glory in discerning the
hidden sources of so considerable a stream, as in adding a plant, or an insect,
to the lists of the learned, when the Pawnee reach'd the shore for the second
time. The old man took his seat with the utmost deliberation in the vessel of
skin (so soon as it had been duly arranged for his reception) and having
carefully disposed of Hector, between his legs he beckoned to his companion to
occupy the third place.
    The naturalist plac'd a foot in the frail vessel, as an elephant will try a
bridge, or a horse is often seen to make a similar experiment before he will
trust the whole of his corporeal treasure on the dreaded flat, and then
withdrew, just as the old man believed he was about to seat himself.
    »Venerable venator,« he said, mournfully, »this is a most unscientific bark!
there is an inward monitor which bids me distrust its security!«
    »Anan!« said the old man, who was pinching the ears of the hound, as a
father would play with the same members in a favorite child.
    »I incline not to this irregular mode of experimenting on fluids. The vessel
has neither form, nor proportions.«
    »It is not as handsomely turned as I have seen a canoe in birchen bark, but
comfort may be taken in a wigwam as well as in a Palace.«
    »It is impossible that any vessel constructed on principles so repugnant to
science can be safe. This tub, venerable hunter, will never reach the opposite
shore in safety!«
    »You are a witness of what it has done.«
    »Ay; but it was an anomaly in prosperity. If exceptions were to be taken as
rules, in the government of things, the human race would speedily be plunged in
the abysses of ignorance. Venerable trapper, this expedient in which you would
repose your safety is, in the annals of regular inventions, what a lusus naturæ
may be termed in the lists of Natural History - a monster.«
    How much longer Doctor Battius might have felt disposed to prolong the
discourse it is difficult to say, for in addition to the powerful personal
considerations which induced him to