The country remained thoroughly wild, and he soon had proof of it.

Another deer, this time obviously started up by himself, sprang from the canebrake and darted away in the woods.

He noted tracks of bear and resolved some day when the war was over to come there hunting.
His course led him again from firm ground into a region of marshes and lagoons, which he crossed with difficulty, arriving about an hour before noon at a considerable river, one that would require swimming unless he found a ford somewhere near.

He was very weary from the journey through the marsh and, sitting on a log, he scraped from his clothes a portion of the mud they had accumulated on the way.
He was a good swimmer, but he had his arms and ammunition to keep dry, and he did not wish to trust himself afloat on the deep current.

Wading would be far better, and, when his strength was restored, he walked up the bank in search of a shallower place.
He came soon to a point, where the cliff was rather high, although it was clothed in dense forest here as elsewhere, and when he reached the crest he heard a sound like the swishing of waters.