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search of food. The small game which they catched, and the roots of trees were their provisions. The trees were likewise their beds, or rather their cradles, for they slept soundly in them either sitting or riding on some branch, suffering themselves to be rocked by the winds, and exposed to the inclemency of the weather, without any other precaution, than securing themselves with one hand, and using the other by way of a pillow.
The largest rivers did not stop their journey by day or by night, for they always crossed them without any dread. Sometimes they entered for the sake of drinking, which they performed by dipping in their chin up to the mouth, and sucking the water like horses. But they most frequently entered the rivers to catch the fish they saw at the bottom, which they brought on shore, to open, skin and eat them.
Having hinted to Mademoiselle le Blanc, the difficulty I had to believe it possible for her to make her way out of a deep river, in the way she mentioned, without the assistance of her hands and breath; she assured me, that without such assistance she always mounted to the surface, a very little breath being
