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THE FAMILY MAGAZINE.

tremendously severe; but, according to the observations of Capt. P. P. King, lightning and thunder are seldom known.

The heavy condensation presented in a thunder cloud, is often spoken of in a manner which implies that the cloud possesses some mechanical or other energy by means of which the violent, wind is sent forth; but nothing can be more unreal than such a supposition. The cloud may indeed be the means of electric development, and furnishes also the watery deposition for the hail or rain, but all the particles of the cloud are passively inert, like those of a common fog or mist, and the violent winds and disturbing forces which may be present, may have operated to produce the cloud, but do not, in any important sense, result from its action.

(Concluded in our next.)

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insinuates itself between the naked stalks, and there, being full of knots and rather disjointed, (so that the fibres can easily get between them,) the two parts are so closely and admirably woven together, that they are enabled to impede, for the most part, the transcussion of the air; and though they are so exceedingly small that the thickness of one of the stalks does not amount to a five hundredth part of an inch, yet they compose so strong a texture that, notwithstanding the exceedingly quick and violent beating of them in the air, they hold firmly together.

The contrivance and contexture of these feathers evince an admirable providence of Nature; for they are such that, though by any external injury the parts of which they are composed may be disjointed, so as that the leaves and stalks shall not touch each other, and consequently several of these rents would impede the bird's flying; yet, for the most part, they of themselves readily rejoin and reconnect themselves, and are easily, by the bird's stroking the THE MECHANISM OF A FEATHER. feather or drawing it through his bill, all of them EVEN in this comparatively humble object we settled and woven into their former and natural pohave cause to contemplate the display of Omnis-sition; for there is such an infinite quantity of small cience and divine perfection with the utmost admiration.

The outward surface of the quill and and stem of a wing-feather in any bird who is accustomed to fly, is of a very hard, stiff, and horny substance, and filled with a pith which, on examination by the microscope, appears to be formed of a congeries of small bubbles, the films of which seem to be of the same substance with that of the quill. As for the make and contexture of the down itself, they are, indeed, admirable, and are not, perhaps, to be surpassed in any body in the known world: for there is hardly a large feather in the wing of a bird which does not contain nearly a million of distinct parts, every one of which is shaped in the most exquisite form, and adapted to a particular design.

On the examination of a middle sized goose-quill, it may be perceived, even by the naked eye, that its main stem contains about three hundred longer and more downy branches upon one side, and as many on the other, of more stiff, but somewhat shorter branchings. Many of these branchings, on being viewed through an ordinary microscope, are found to comprise nearly twelve hundred leaves or filaments, and as many stalks, if they may be so denominated, on the back of which each of the leaves or branchings seem to be divided into sixteen or eighteen small joints, from whence emanate small long fibres, each proportionably shaped according to its position, (those in the under side of the joint being much longer than those directly opposite to them in the upper,) and many of them terminated with small crooks, much resembling those small crooks which are visible to the eye in the seed buttons of burdocks. The stalks likewise on the other side are divided into as many small knotted joints, but without any appearance of strings or crooks, each of them about the middle being divided into two parts by a kind of fork, one prong of which is longer than the other.

The stems of the downy branches are so arranged, that the leaves or hairy stalks of the one side lie at top, or are incumbent on the stalks of the other, and also cross each other, by which means every one of these little hooked fibres of the leaved stalk

fibres in the under side of the leaves, and most of them have such little crooks at their ends, that they readily catch and hold the stalks they touch.

From this instance in the formation of the feathers in birds, we may observe that provident Nature, if not in all, at least in many things which come under our investigation, performs her operations with the greatest uniformity.

LINES ON THE WICKEDNESS OF THE NORTHWEST WIND.

YE temperance societies,

Who drunkenness eschew,
Please to indict the north-west wind
For making people blue !

Go forth, like David, armed with slings,
Against the tyrant foe,

That hates your cause, and will not let
Your darling liquor flow.

Its very name is given that drink
Of which ye are detesters;
Tars call their devil's horns' of grog,

If strong, "good stiff nor'-westers;"
And from the self-same fact, no doubt,
When they're with drink half blind,
It's quite a common thing to say,
They're "three sheets in the wind."

Nor is this all. I heard it once,
As I did kneel to pray,
Profanely whistling round a church,
Upon a Sabbath day!

Ah! while this "chartered libertine"
Pursues his frosty frolicks,
Vain is your puritanick whine-

Cold throats can't go hydraulics.

But if ye wish mankind to drink

Nought else but Adam's ale,
And think that rum their souls will place
Outside of Mercy's pale,

I'll tell you what 't were best to do-
Yea, by the beard of Graham!
Fine 'em whenever they get blue,

And when they do n't, why pay 'em!
I've done. This short and simple song
Let none misunderstand;

I swear by all that 's water-proof,
I'm with you, throat and hand!
By rich and poor, by large and small,
I'm held a temperance trump,
And always doff my beaver, when
I chance to pass a pump.

Knickerbocker.

USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

Cream Cake. A quart of cream; four eggs; sifted flour sufficient for a thick batter; a small teaspoonful of pearlash or sal-eratus; a spoonful of salt; beat four eggs very light, and stir them by degrees (a little at a time) into a quart of cream; add, gradually, enough of sifted flour to make a thick batter; put in the salt; dissolve the pearlash in as much vinegar as will cover it, and stir it into the mixture. Bake it in muffin-rings. Send the cakes to the table quite hot; pull them open, and butter them.

For these cakes, sour cream is better than sweet. The pearlash will remove the acidity, and the batter will be improved in lightness.

Milk Pound Cake.-A pound of sifted flour; half a pound of butter; half a pound of white sugar; five eggs; a small tea-spoonful of sal-eratus or pearlash dissolved in half a pint of milk; sour milk is best-a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon, finely powdered; stir together the butter and sugar; beat the eggs till very light, and then stir them into the butter and sugar in turn with the sifted flour; add the spice; lastly stir in, gradually, the milk in which the pearlash has been melted. Put the mixture into a buttered tin pan, and bake it in a moderate oven. If you prefer baking it as small cakes in little tins, you must have half a pound and two ounces of butter.

slakened with hot water, in a small tub or piggin and covered to keep in the steam; it then should be passed in a fluid form, through a fine seive, to obtain the flour of the lime; it must be put on with a painter's brush; two coats are best for outside work.

First. To make a fluid for the roof, and other parts of wooden houses, to render them incombustible, and coating for brick, tile, stone-work, and rough cast, to render them impervious to the water, and give them a durable and handsome appearance. The proportion is each recipe five gallons. Slake your lime as before directed, say six quarts into which put one quart of clean rock-salt for each gallon of water, to be entirely dissolved by boiling and skimming clean; then add to the five gallons one pound of alum, half a pound of copperas, and three-fourths of a pound of potash, the last to be gradually added; four quarts of fine sand or hardwood ashes must also be added, and colouring-matter may be mixed in such quantity as to give it the requisite shade. It will look better than paint, and be as lasting as slate. It must be put on hot. Old shingles must be first cleaned with a stiff broom, when this may be applied. It will stop the small leaks, prevent moss from growing, render them incombustible, and last many years.

Second. To make brilliant stucco white-wash for buildings, inside and out. Take clean lumps of well burnt stone lime; slake the same as before; add one quarter pound of whitening or burnt alum pulverized, one pound of loaf or other sugar, three pints of rice flour, made into a very thin and wellboiled paste, starch, or jelly, and one pound of clean glue, dissolved in the same manner as cabinetmakers do. This may be applied cold when in doors, but warm outside. It will be more brilliant than plaster-of-paris, and retains its brilliancy for many years, say from fifteen to one hundred. It is superiour, nothing equal. The east end of the president's house, in Washington, is washed with it.

White Cup Cake.-The cups in which most of the ingredients are measured, must be of half pint size. Four cups of sifted flour; three cups of powdered white sugar; one cup of fresh butter; one cup of milk; four eggs; one glass of white wine, or a glass of rose-water; a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, powdered cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace; a salt-spoonful of pearlash, melted in the milk. Having prepared the spice, and sifted the flour, stir to- and two ounces of aquafortis, mixed together. Wash To Clean Alabaster.-A pint of cold rain-water, gether the butter and sugar till very light, and set it the alabaster in this liquid, with a brush, for five away to cool. Beat the eggs till quite thick, and minutes. Then rinse it in clean water, wipe it, and then stir them into the butter and sugar alternately set it for two or three hours in the sun to dry. No with the flour. Then add gradually the spice and the liquor, and lastly the pearlash and milk, a little at a time. Stir very hard. Bake it in little tins, which must be well buttered.

Ginger Syrup.-Take one pound of race ginger, beat it into small pieces in a mortar. Lay them in a pan, cover them with water, and let them soak all night. Next day take the ginger with the water in which it has soaked, put it into a preserving-kettle, with two gallons of water, and boil it down to seven pints. Let it settle, and then strain it through muslin. Put one pound of loaf sugar to each pint of the liquor. After the sugar has melted in the liquor, return it to the kettle, and boil it one hour more, skimming it well. When cold, bottle it for use.

soap should be used, it discolours the alabaster.

Flowers. Most flowers begin to droop and fade, after being kept twenty-four hours in water; a few may be revived by substituting fresh water, but all (the most fugacious, such as the poppy, excepted) may be completely restored by the use of hot water. For this purpose, place the flowers in scalding water, deep enough to cover about one-third of the length of the stem; by the time the water has become cold, the flowers will have become erect and fresh; then cut off the coddled or parboiled end of the stems, and put them into cold water.

To make Plate look like new..-Take of unslaked lime and alum, a pound each; of aqua-vitæ and vinegar, each a pint; and of beer-grounds, two quarts; boil the plate in these, and they will set a

Incombustil'e Wash and Stucco White-wash.-
The basis for both is lime, which must first be beautiful gloss upon it.

MISCELLANY.

Depth of the Sea.-The depth of the sea is supposed to extend to four or five miles, as there are mountains of that height on dry land; but until we can find the means of measuring so deep a descent, this must be mere conjecture. Our soundings have not yet been found practicable to the extent of two miles. Dr. Young intimates the mean depth of the Atlantick Ocean to be about three miles, and that of the Pacifick, four miles. But the European seas are less profound. Lyell informs us that the greatest depth of the Adriatick, between Dalmatia and the mouths of the Po, is twenty-two fathoms. The Mediterranean varies very much. Between Gibraltar and Ceuta, Captain Smith sounded nine hundred and fifty fathoms, (one thousand nine hundred yards) to a gravelly bottom. Saússure, at Nice, to two thousand feet. In the narrowest parts of the straits of Gibraltar, where they are nine miles broad, the depth varies from one hundred and sixty to five hundred fathoms, (from three hundred and twenty to one thousand yards.) La Place infers that the depth of the sea is inconsiderable. Its mean depth is of the same order as the mean heights of continents and isles above its level, whose height does not exceed one thousand metres, (one thousand and ninetythree yards.) But as high mountains are spread over some parts of the continent, so there may be great cavities in the bottom of the sea. Captain Parry, in 57° N. lat., 24° W. long., about one hundred leagues from land, found no bottom, with a line of one mile and two hundred and eighty yards, which was a quarter of a mile deeper than was reached by Lord Mulgrave; but Mr. Scoresby, in 76° N. lat., 4° W. long., got a line down of one thousand two hundred fathoms, or one mile and six hundred and forty yards, without finding a bottom. Mr. Fairholme remarks, that this is probably the greatest depth of sounding ever attempted.

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Subsistence.-How little and how simple a diet would have supported human existence in comfort and activity, we see from this passage: A Laplander will go thirty miles through swamps and rocks, take a draught of milk, sleep in his wet clothes, and rise the next morning as fresh as when he began his journey. The high state of health and spirits of the Laplanders may be ascribed to their total absence of mental anxiety, to their few. and simple wants, and to their hardy habits.

Ash-Tree. The living principle of vegetation exerts itself with singular force and apparent judgement, in searching for its nutrition when the ordinary sources and supply of it fail. Dr. Walker mentioned to Sir J. Smith, that an ash-tree which grew from a seed on a wall, stopped its growth for awhile, having exhausted the nutriment there; but sent a

root down the wall until it reached the ground, and as soon as this was established in the soil, the tree resumed its vegetation, and became of large size.

"Hobson's Choice."-This is one of the most common proverbial expressions in the English language.

Thomas Hobson was a carrier at Cambridge. He died the first of January, 1630; and Milton, who was a student at the university of that place of him, en fresco, was also set up at the Bull, in wrote a whimsical epitaph to his memory. A figure Bishopsgate street, which was the inn he frequented when in London, and which, with an appropriate inscription, might have been seen within these few years. To his employment as a carrier, he added the business of supplying the students with horses; and having made it an unalterable rule that every horse should have an equal portion of rest and labour, he would never let one out of its turn; and hence arose the saying of "Hobson's choice”—

"this or none."

Hatching. All birds enjoy the perception or sagacity, that their eggs in hatching should have a proper degree of heat, and the alternate movement of them for that purpose displays both a right reasoning, and acting rightly on it. While sitting, most birds are in the habit of changing the position of the eggs from the centre to the circumference, and vice versa, that all of them may receive an equal share of warmth.

ex

Sea-weed.-Every vegetable production is ceeded in size by the prodigious frons of macrocystis pyrifera. This appears to be the sea-weed reported by navigators to be from five hundred to one thousand five hundred feet in length, yet its stem is not thicker than the finger, and the upper branches as slender as the common packthread.

Whig of the 22d ult., gives the following account of Expansion of Water by Cold.-The Cincinnatti the expansive power of congealed water, as exhibited in that city:-" An immensely large iron anvil, in the iron foundry of Harkness Voorhees & Co., weighing between three and four tons, and measuring three feet in diameter, had been lying by the door of the furnace, exposed to the atmosphere. The anvil was perfectly solid with the exception of a very small crack or crevice in the centre of one of the sides, about five inches long, and about four inches in depth, which from the rain had become filled with water. The quantity of water which the crevice contained could not have exceeded halt a gill. In the course of the night of the twentieth instant, this water became frozen, and, extraordinary as it may appear, its expansion completely severed in two parts the immense mass of solid iron, and so great was its expansive power, that when the separation took place, a large log of wood which lay on the top of the anvil, was thrown to a distance of several feet. Had the crevice been filled with powder, and the powder ignited, the effect would not have been a thousandth part as great."

Planting. All trees, and some flowers, may be planted by slips or branches.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Athens. its Rise and Fall; with Views of the Literature, Philosophy, and Social Life of the Athenian People. By EDWARD LYTTON BULWER, ESQ., Author of "Pelham," "the Disowned," &c. In two volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1837.

sible to the general reader; and as efforts are making to impose
this absurdity upon the publick, the present exposition has been
undertaken, with a hope that the good people in this country
may be induced to place a just estimate upon the Hahnemanick
It is dedicated to all people of common sense, and
system."
it may be had of the booksellers generally

"To vindicate (remarks Mr. Bulwer, in the first section of Athens) the memory of the Athenian people, without disguising the errours of Athenian institutions; and, in narrating alike the triumphs and the reverses the grandeur and the decay of the most eminent of ancient states, to record the causes of her imperishable influence on mankind, not alone in political changes, or the fortunes of fluctuating war, but in the arts, the letters, and the social habits, which are equal elements in the history of a people ;—this is the object that I set before me ;-not unrec-by Hovey & Co., Cornhill. onciled to the toil of years, if, serving to divest of some party errours, and to diffuse through a wider circle such knowledge as is yet bequeathed to us of a time and land, fertile in august and of the Progress of Discovery in the Pacifick Ocean, from examples and in solemn warnings consecrated by undying the Voyage of Magellan, to the Death of Cook. New York.

The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and all Useful Discoveries, and Improvements in Rural Affairs. An extremely valuable work upon the different subjects of which it treats; it will be found useful to all amateurs of flowers and flower gardens. It not only indicates what is desirable in horticulture, but points out the mode of accomplishing it. It is published in monthly numbers of forty pages each, at three dollars per annum, and is issued in New York, by Israel Post, 88 Bowery, and in Boston,

names and memorable deeds."

An Historical Account of the Circumnavigation of the Globe,

to its worth.

In the two volumes before us, Mr. Bulwer combines an elab- Harper & Brothers. A very interesting and valuable book, orate view of the literature of Athens, (which contributes more presenting in a continued narrative the progress of maritime disthan her warlike deeds, to render her illustrious,) with a com-coveries, and the advance of geographical knowledge. This plete and impartial account of her political transactions. These volume forms the eighty-third number of Harper's Family Litwo volumes bring the reader in one branch of the subject to the brary; it is embellished with several engravings which add much supreme administration of Pericles; in the literary portion to a critical analysis of the tragedies of Sophocles. Mr. Bulwer Bayle's Elementary Treatise on Anatomy. Translated from proposes in two after volumes, to close the records of Athens at that period when, with the accession of Augustus, the annals of the fourth edition of the French. By A. SIDNEY Doane, A. M., New York: Harper & Broththe world are merged into the chronicle of Roman history. In M. D. In one volume, 18 mo. "The chief merits of this treatise," as expressed in the these latter volumes it is his intention to complete the history of ers. 66 are, great accuracy and conciseness of the Athenian drama-to include a survey of the Athenian phi- translator's preface, losophy-to describe the manners, habits, and social life of the description, with a happy arrangement of the subject;” and we people, and to conclude the whole with such a review of the may add, that it contains more really useful matter, in the same facts and events narrated as may constitute, perhaps, an unpre-space, and is sold at a much cheaper rate, than any anatomical judiced and intelligible explanation of the causes of the rise and fall of Athens. The style of Athens is extremely pleasing, and the notes are deeply imbued with the classick lore of the author.

work with which we are acquainted. Bayle's Anatomy is particularly adaped to the lecture-room and anatomical theatre, beside being valuable as a reference for the practitioner. It is suf ficient recommendation to the American profession to say, that this treatise has passed through four editions in Paris, and that it is now translated by Dr. Doane. This is the tenth French work that has received the honour of an English dress from the same hand, seven of which have been issued from the press of Harper and Brothers, and two are yet in the process of publication. In addition to these, Dr. Doane has edited “Good's Study

Crichton, by the author of "Rookwood." In two volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers. This novel from the pen of WILLIAM HARRIS ANSWORTH, ESQ., is decidedly one of the most entertaining which has been published for many a day. The author taking for his hero, the "admirable Crichton," whose short but splendid career, forms one of the most brilliant pages of of Medicine," to which he has appended many useful notes, and history, has produced a book of uncommon interest and power. In fact only make a beginning and the reader will find it im- has also contribited liberally to some of the medical periodicals. possible to lay the book aside, before he has finished it. We commend it to our readers.

The Anatomy of a Humbug, of the Genus Germanicus, Species Homœopathia. New York, 1837. A very clever expose of the new doctrine which certain interested pretenders are endeavsuring to palm off upon the publick, as a wonderful all-curing system of medical practice. A greater imposition was never attempted upon the credulous American; and we say to our readers, beware of homoeopathic doctors as you would of so many rattlesnakes.

The books translated by Dr. Doane are, Meckel's Anatomy, in octavo ; Blandin's Topographical Anatomy, in one volume, octavo, with a quarto volume of plates; Dupuytren's Lectures on Surgery, one volume, octavo; Scoutetten on Cholera, one volume, octavo; A Table of Arteries of the Human Body, from Chaussier; Maygrier's Midwifery, illustrated with eighty-two plates, in one volume, octavo; A Compilation of Surgery, with two hundred and eighty illustrations, contained in fifty-two plates, one volume, octavo. The works in press are, "Anatomy Illustrated," compiled from the works of eminent French writers, and a "Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Surgery," by L. C. Roche, and L. L. Sanson. Dr. Doane has thus performed a greater amount of labour in medical literature than any man in this country; and in placing the above named books in the hands of the profession, he has not only laid his brethren under weighty obligations to him, but has proved him

The author of this pamphlet exhibits a full acquaintance with his subject and treats of it in a manner partly serious and partly jocose. In his preface he remarks, "The disciples of Hahneman have issued multitudes of pamphlets, setting forth, in their own way, their own doctrines. There has been no full state-self a benefactor to his race. ment of the doctrine of homopathy made that has been acces

Knickerbooker.

THE FAMILY MAGAZINE.

A TALE OF WESTERN CHIVALRY.

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below him in the shade of a willow, and was talking in a low deep tone to another warriour, who seemed THE frontispiece of the present number represents a mere pigmy by his side. Adam cautiously drew one of those scenes which were formerly so frequent back, and cocked his gun. The mark was fair-the in spots which are now densely populated, one of distance did not exceed twenty feet, and his aim was those brave actions in which the hardy pioneers of unerring. Raising his rifle slowly and cautiously, the west, those gallant fellows who fought their way he took a steady aim at Big Foot's breast, and drew inch by inch against the native redmen of the forest, the trigger. His gun flashed. Both Indians sprung were so frequently engaged. to their feet with a deep interjection of surprise, and for a single second all three stared upon each other. This inactivity, however, was soon over. Adam was too much hampered by the bushes to retreat, and setting his life upon a cast of the die, he sprung over the bush which had sheltered him, and summoning all his powers, leaped boldly down the precipice and alighted upon the breast of Big Foot with a shock which bore him to the earth. At the moment of contact, Adam had also thrown his right arm around the neck of the smaller Indian, so that all three came to the earth together."

The memories of these actions are fast passing away. Would that they might be perpetually recorded. That Americans might always have before them a record of the perils and sufferings of their fathers. The following account of the desperate struggle of Adam Poe is from M'Clung's interesting sketches:-*

"About the middle of July, 1782, seven Wyandotts crossed the Ohio a few miles above Wheeling, and committed great depredations upon the southern shore, killing an old man whom they found alone in his cabin, and spreading terrour throughout the neigh- "At that moment a sharp firing was heard among bourhood. Within a few hours after their retreat, the bushes above, announcing that the other parties eight men assembled from different parts of the small were engaged, but the trio below were too busy to settlement and pursued the enemy with great expedi-attend to any thing but themselves. Big Foot was tion. Among the most active and efficient of the party were two brothers, Adam and Andrew Poe. Adam was particularly popular. In strength, action and hardihood, he had no equal-being finely formed and inured to all the perils of the woods."

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for an instant stunned by the violence of the shock, and Adam was enabled to keep them both down. But the exertion necessary for that purpose was so great, that he had no leisure to use his knife. Big Foot quickly recovered, and without attempting to They had not followed the trail far, before they rise, wrapped his long arms around Adam's body, became satisfied that the depredators were conducted and pressed him to his breast with the crushing force by Big Foot, a renowned chief of the Wyandott tribe, of a Boa Constrictor! Adam, as we have already who derived his name from the immense size of his remarked, was a powerful man, and had seldom enfeet. His height considerably exceeded six feet, countered his equal, but never had he yet felt an and his strength was represented as Herculean. He embrace like that of Big Foot. He instantly relaxed had also five brothers, but little inferior to himself in his hold of the small Indian, who sprung to his feet. size and courage, and as they generally went in com- Big Foot then ordered him to run for his tomahawk pany, they were the terrour of the whole country. which lay within ten steps, and kill the white man, Adam Poe was overjoyed at the idea of measuring while he held him in his arms. Adam, seeing his his strength with that of so celebrated a chief, and danger, struggled manfully to extricate himself from urged the pursuit with a keenness which quickly the folds of the giant, but in vain. The lesser Indian brought him into the vicinity of the enemy. For the approached with his uplifted tomahawk, but Adam last few miles, the trail had led them up the southern watched him closely, and as he was about to strike, bank of the Ohio, where the footprints in the sand gave him a kick so sudden and violent, as to knock were deep and obvious, but when within a few hun- the tomahawk from his hand, and send him staggerdred yards of the point at which the whites as well ing back into the water. Big Foot uttered an exclaas the Indians were in the habit of crossing, it sud- mation in a tone of deep contempt at the failure of denly diverged from the stream, and stretched along his companion, and raising his voice to its highest a rocky ridge, forming an obtuse angle with its former pitch, thundered out several words in the Indian direction. Here Adam halted for a moment, and tongue, which Adam could not understand, but supdirected his brother and the other young men to fol-posed to be a direction for a second attack. The low the trail with proper caution, while he himself lesser Indian now again approached, carefully shunstill adhered to the river path, which led through ning Adam's heels, and making many motions with clusters of willows directly to the point where he his tomahawk, in order to deceive him as to the point supposed the enemy to lie. Having examined the where the blow would fall. This lasted for several priming of his gun, he crept cautiously through the seconds, until a thundering exclamation from Big bushes, until he had a view of the point of embarca- Foot, compelled his companion to strike. Such was tion. Here lay two canoes, empty and apparently Adam's dexterity and vigilance, however, that he deserted. Being satisfied, however, that the Indians managed to receive the tomahawk in a glancing direcwere close at hand, he relaxed nothing of his vigi- tion upon his left wrist, wounding him deeply but lance, and quickly gained a jutting cliff, which hung not disabling him. He now made a sudden and desimmediately over the canoes. Hearing a low mur-perate effort to free himself from the arms of the mur below, he peered cautiously over, and beheld the object of his search. The gigantick Big Foot, lay

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giant and succeeded. Instantly snatching up a rifle (for the Indian could not venture to shoot for fear of hurting his companion) he shot the lesser Indian through the body. But scarcely had he done so collar and the other upon his hip, pitched him ten when Big Foot arose, and placing one hand upon his

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