But this is vain boasting.

Of what use are former deeds, when time draws to an end ?" "I once met a man that had boated on the river he names," observed the eldest son, speaking in a low tone of voice, like one who distrusted his knowledge, and deemed it prudent to assume a becoming diffidence in the presence of a man who had seen so much: "from his tell, it must be a considerable stream, and deep enough for a keel-boat, from top to bottom." "It is a wide and deep water-course, and many sightly towns are there growing on its banks," returned the trapper; "and yet it is but a brook to the waters of the endless river." "I call nothing a stream that a man can travel round," exclaimed the ill-looking associate of the emigrant: "a real river must be crossed; not headed, like a bear in a county hunt."[*] [*] There is a practice, in the new countries, to assemble the men of a large district, sometimes of an entire county, to exterminate the beasts of prey.

They form themselves into a circle of several miles in extent, and gradually draw nearer, killing all before them.

The allusion is to this custom, in which the hunted beast is turned from one to another.
"Have you been far towards the sun-down, friend ?" interrupted the emigrant, as if he desired to keep his rough companion as much as possible out of the discourse.

"I find it is a wide tract of clearing, this, into which I have fallen." "You may travel weeks, and you will see it the same.