232 HILLS AND LAKES. 



to wander away off north to the St. Lawrence, to 

 starve in the woods in the winter, and be eat up by 

 the black fly in the summei, when they'd fare so much 

 better at home. It's agin nater that they should do 

 so. It's true I've hearn tell of their paths over the 

 Alleghany Mountains, and that in airly times they 

 were found in Ohio, and may be in western New 

 York ; but I never believed myself they came so far 

 east and north as this State ; and there's no tradition 

 of their havin' done so among the Ingens. Besides, 

 their horns don't resemble the horns of the stag at 

 all. Them wild cows and bulls, Squire, warn't buffalo, 

 and accordin' to my notion, they couldn't have been 

 moose, either. What they were is more than I know ; 

 I've studied and thought about it a great deal, but it 

 don't do no good. 



" It must be true, for the missionary writes like an 

 honest man, who feared God, and wouldn't lie about 

 what he saw. Besides, he don't tell any long yarn 

 about it, nor any cock-and-bull story, but simply 

 states the fact, and leaves it. It's a -wonderful pity he 

 warn't thinkin' less of the sinners, and more of the 

 things he saw on that first journey, among the wilds 

 of the New "World, for it might well be called new 



