On this hint Dirck and I drew out our compasses, and the three were placed on a log, at the side of which we had come to our halt. The result showed that the three 'little devils' agreed most accurately, and that we were marching exactly south-east, instead of north-west! Guert looked, on that occasion, very much as he did when he rose from the snow, after the hand-sled had upset with us. There was no resisting the truth; we had got turned completely round, without knowing it. The fact that the sun was so near the zenith, probably contributed to our mistake; but, any one who has tried the experiment, will soon ascertain how easy it is for him to lose his direction, beneath the obscurity and amid the inequalities of a virgin forest. Guert gave it up, like a man as he was, and the Indian again passed in front, without the slightest manifestation of triumph or discontent. It required nothing less than a thunderbolt to disturb the composure of that Onondago! From that moment our progress was as swift as it had been previously to the halt; while our course was seemingly as unerring as the flight of the pigeon. Susquesus did not steer exactly north-west, as before, however, but he inclined more northerly. At length, it was just as the sun approached the summits of the western mountains, an opening appeared in our front, beneath the arches of the woods, and we knew that a lake was near us, and that we were on the summit of high land, though at what precise elevation could not yet be told. Our route had lain across hills, and through valleys, and along small streams; though, as I afterwards ascertained, the Hudson did not run far enough north to intercept our march; or rather, by a sudden turn to the west, it left our course clear. Had we inclined westwardly ourselves, we might have almost done that which Col. Follock had once laughingly recommended to my mother, in order to avoid the dangers of the Powles Hook Ferry, gone round the river. A clearing now showed itself a little on our right; and thither the Indian held his way. This clearing was not the result of the labours of man, but was the fruit of one of those forest accidents that sometimes let in the light of the sun upon the mysteries of the woods. This clearing was on the bald cap of a rocky mountain, where Indians had doubtless often encamped; the vestiges of their fires proving that the winds had been assisted by the sister element, in clearing away the few stunted trees that had once grown in the fissures of the rocks. As it was, there might have been an open space of some two or three acres, that was now as naked as if it had never known any vegetation more ambitious than the bush of the whortleberry or the honeysuckle. Delicious water was spouting from a higher ridge of the rocks, that led away northerly, forming the summit of an extensive range in that direction. At this spring Susquesus stooped to drink; then he announced that our day's work was done.