NARRATIVE. 101 



grass, and a few stunted spruces. The almost perfect regularity of 

 these terraces, rising one above the other like one side of a gigantic 

 amphitheatre, is very striking even at a distance, and the effect is 

 increased by the absence of trees, giving the appearance of a 

 clearing. 



As the day had grown very hot we refreshed ourselves, after our 

 scramble up these steep sandy slopes, by a bath in the icy water of 

 the lake, and had to wade out several hundred yards from the 

 shore before getting out of our depth. On the smooth sand of the 

 beach were tracks of a lynx that had evidently been prowling there 

 since the wind fell this morning. 



As we pulled out of the bay a boat was entering it at the other 

 side. It proved to belong to some government surveyors who were 

 marking out mining locations, for which it seems there is still an 

 active demand. They were established at the mouth of Black River, 

 where we also encamped this evening. 



This place strikingly resembles the mouths of the Crapauds and 

 Chienne Rivers. A broad beach of white sand, about a mile long, 

 is cut through at the west by the stream. The entrance is narrow, 

 with a bar across it on which is five feet of water. Inside there is 

 a wide expansion, across which projects from east to west (the course 

 of the river being south,) a sand-spit in the shape of a half-crescent, 

 with a broad base and tapering to a point. The rapids within sight 

 from the beach. 



Aug. 8cZ. Rain. Held up early in the forenoon, and we started 

 off up the river to see some falls about two miles above. One of 

 the surveyors was kind enough to accompany us as guide, but the 

 woods were so thick, and the ground so rough along the bank, that 

 we kept off to some distance, where it was more open, hoping to 

 strike the river higher up. But after half an hour's hard work, hear- 

 ing the noise of rapids and coming down to the stream again, we 

 found ourselves precisely where we started from. We resolved 

 next time to keep near the river. Here we had to scramble over 

 rocks covered with black lichens, ( G-yropliora^) and make our way 

 through dense spruce thickets, but whenever we strayed away from 

 it we came to open desert tracts. At length we struck the river 

 again, and came out at about the middle of a sand bank sloping un- 



