Seizing the paddle in both hands, he impelled the canoe slowly and cautiously towards the high land on the starboard beam. Gradually as he approached, the ground rose out of the water, and when he had got in shore he could dimly make out a round acclivity sloping gradually upwards five or six canoes' lengths high. He thrust the paddle down in the water as far as it would go. It stuck, and required force to bring it up again. When he got it up he felt the blade. That was all right now--mud. With a few dexterous strokes of his paddle he shot the canoe forward, steered her behind a little promontory, and then drove her head ashore. He walked forward, and with his paddle felt the bottom of the river. Mud, and a hand's breadth of water. He went aft, and thrust down his paddle. Mud and an arm's depth of water. Good! The water would fall away and leave the canoe high and dry. It would be daylight soon. When the sun arose he should look round and see this place. He was tired, worn out. He would lie down and sleep awhile. He bent over the bundle, and said,-- 'All is well. We have reached land! Courage! We shall go ashore in the morning. It is near day. I will lie down and sleep till dawn.' A low moan was the only reply. The man threw himself on the bottom of the canoe and drew skins over him. The sun had risen above the horizon when he awoke. Dull clouds hung overhead. The sun was hidden. Gradually the river became illumined. The man sat up and looked around him. In front lay a vast stretch of marshes, with here and there a low hummock rising a few feet above the yellow water. To the west of the land, on which the canoe had taken the ground, appeared an opening. To the east all was morass and dreary swamp and water. Above him rose the gentle hill, clad from the margin of the river to the summit with lofty leafless trees, beneath which brambles and underwood lay bare and ragged, and under all a thin carpet of moss-like grass. The water had now fallen away from the boat, and she lay high and dry upon a bank of soft dark mud. The man felt this mud with his paddle, ascertained it was firm enough to support his weight, stepped out on it, and ascended the slope. When he reached the summit he looked round and found himself on a small island, standing in a swampy plain, with a broad river, the one he had come up the night before, on the southern shore, and a small stream on the western side.