In these cases we allude only to the giants
of the forest, pines of a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet in
height, for of the smaller growth, very many inclined so far as to
steep their lower branches in the water. In the position in which
the Ark had now got, the castle was concealed from view by the
projection of a point, as indeed was the northern extremity of the
lake itself. A respectable mountain, forest clad, and rounded,
like all the rest, limited the view in that direction, stretching
immediately across the whole of the fair scene, with the exception
of a deep bay that passed the western end, lengthening the basin,
for more than a mile.
The manner in which the water flowed out of the lake, beneath the
leafy arches of the trees that lined the sides of the stream, has
already been mentioned, and it has also been said that the rock,
which was a favorite place of rendezvous throughout all that region,
and where Deerslayer now expected to meet his friend, stood near this
outlet, and at no great distance from the shore. It was a large,
isolated stone that rested on the bottom of the lake, apparently
left there when the waters tore away the earth from around it,
in forcing for themselves a passage down the river, and which had
obtained its shape from the action of the elements, during the
slow progress of centuries.
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