This old log-house she said had been built, she heard the Indians
say, by a French Canadian trapper, who used to visit the lake some years
ago; he was on friendly terms with the chiefs, who allowed him many
privileges, and he bought their furs, and took them down the lake, through
the river Trent, to some station-house on the great lake. They found they
should have time enough to land and deposit their nuts and grapes and
paddle to Long Island before sunset. Upon the western part of this fine
island they had several times landed and passed some hours, exploring its
shores; but Indiana told them, to reach the old log-house they must enter
the low swampy bay to the east, at an opening which she called Indian Cove.
To do this required some skill in the management of the canoe, which was
rather over-loaded for so light a vessel; and the trees grew so close and
thick that they had some difficulty in pushing their way through them
without injuring its frail sides. These trees or bushes were chiefly black
elder, high-bush cranberries, dogwood, willows, and, as they proceeded
further, and there was ground of a more solid nature, cedar, poplar, swamp
oak, and soft maple, with silver birch and wild cherries.
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