The "and-bush," as Hurry in his ignorance of English termed it, is
quite as easily explained. In many parts of the lake and river,
where the banks were steep and high, the smaller trees and larger
bushes, as has been already mentioned, fairly overhung the stream,
their branches not unfrequently dipping into the water. In some
instances they grew out in nearly horizontal lines, for thirty or
forty feet. The water being uniformly deepest near the shores,
where the banks were highest and the nearest to a perpendicular,
Hutter had found no difficulty in letting the ark drop under one
of these covers, where it had been anchored with a view to conceal
its position; security requiring some such precautions, in his
view of the case. Once beneath the trees and bushes, a few stones
fastened to the ends of the branches had caused them to bend
sufficiently to dip into the river; and a few severed bushes,
properly disposed, did the rest. The reader has seen that this
cover was so complete as to deceive two men accustomed to the woods,
and who were actually in search of those it concealed; a circumstance
that will be easily understood by those who are familiar with
the matted and wild luxuriance of a virgin American forest, more
especially in a rich soil.
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