instinctive readiness, and certainly with the noiseless movements
of an aquatic bird.

Deerslayer had got nearly in a line between the camp and the ark
before he caught a glimpse of the fire. This came upon him suddenly,
and a little unexpectedly, at first causing an alarm, lest he had
incautiously ventured within the circle of light it cast. But
perceiving at a second glance that he was certainly safe from
detection, so long as the Indians kept near the centre of the
illumination, he brought the canoe to a state of rest in the most
favourable position he could find, and commenced his observations.

We have written much, but in vain, concerning this extraordinary
being, if the reader requires now to be told, that, untutored as
he was in the learning of the world, and simple as he ever showed
himself to be in all matters touching the subtleties of conventional
taste, he was a man of strong, native, poetical feeling. He loved
the woods for their freshness, their sublime solitudes, their
vastness, and the impress that they everywhere bore of the divine
hand of their creator. He seldom moved through them, without
pausing to dwell on some peculiar beauty that gave him pleasure,
though seldom attempting to investigate the causes; and never did
a day pass without his communing in spirit, and this, too, without
the aid of forms or language, with the infinite source of all he
saw, felt, and beheld. Thus constituted, in a moral sense, and of
a steadiness that no danger could appall, or any crisis disturb,
it is not surprising that the hunter felt a pleasure at looking
on the scene he now beheld, that momentarily caused him to forget
the object of his visit. This will more fully appear when we
describe it.