Twice that day, misled by
following the track of the deer, had they returned to the same spot,--a
deep and lovely glen, which had once been a water-course, but now a green
and shady valley. This they named the Valley of the Rock, from a remarkable
block of red granite that occupied a central position in the narrow defile;
and here they prepared to pass the second night on the Plains. A few boughs
cut down and interlaced with the shrubs round a small space cleared with
Hector's axe, formed shelter, and leaves and grass, strewed on the ground,
formed a bed, though not so smooth, perhaps, as the bark and cedar-boughs
that the Indians spread within their summer wigwams for carpets and
couches, or the fresh heather that the Highlanders gather on the wild
Scottish hills.
While Hector and Louis were preparing the sleeping-chamber, Catharine
busied herself in preparing the partridge for their supper. Having
collected some thin peelings from the ragged bark of a birch-tree, that
grew on the side of the steep bank to which she gave the appropriate name
of the "Birken shaw," she dried it in her bosom, and then beat it fine
upon a big stone, till it resembled the finest white paper.
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