CHAPTER VII. 



THE SWAN THE HERON THE FALCON. 



IN 1844, at the merry time of Twelfth-Night 

 festivities, I was at Louisville, staying with 

 a friend who had offered me the most cordial 

 hospitality, when one of his sons, a skilful 

 hunter and an intrepid amateur of sport (in the fullest 

 meaning of the word), proposed that I should accompany 

 him on an excursion which he meditated along the bank 

 of the Ohio, to the point where that mighty river pours 

 its waters into the still mightier Mississippi. 



As soon as our preparations were completed, we set 

 out in a keel-boat ; that is, a kind of shallop, with a small 

 steerage cabin, and a rudder formed of a slender trunk, 

 serving, like a fish's tail, to direct its progress. Two 



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