CHAP. xiv. DESOLATION OF THE COUNTRY. 221 



higher than that on which we were perched, obstructed 

 our view towards the north. Towards the east all was 

 beautiful and serene ; a succession of lovely lakes studded 

 with islands filled a valley whose outlet we had passed the 

 day before. Bare rocks rising out of a vast forest were 

 the other elements of the picture towards the east ; but 

 north and as far as we could see north-west, and behind us 

 towards the south-west, there lay an awful scene of deso- 

 lation, far surpassing any we had seen before. We looked 

 upon a burnt country, where the dead standing trees still 

 wore the marks of fire, or were bleached by years of lifeless 

 exposure. We saw myriads of boulders strewed over the 

 hills and mountains, without a green moss or a grey 

 lichen to show that life had ever been there. This, then, 

 was the beginning of the burnt country which the Indians 

 had told us lay near the Height of Land --the great 

 table land of the Labrador Peninsula. 



Michel had told us that it took them a whole day to pass 

 through as they descended a month ago, when the rivers 

 were full from the melting snow. It would take us three 

 days to pass it travelling against the current with the 

 water diminishing every day. One fact we noticed with 

 delight. On that vast gloomy expanse there were nume- 

 rous little islands of forest which had escaped the fire, little 

 green oases in a black desert ; something that might lead 

 us to picture in our minds' eye the aspect of the country 

 before the fire swept over it and destroyed its summer 

 beauty. In descending the hill we took another direction 

 through the really luxuriant forest : the birch and spruce 

 were intermixed with larch, and trees of a size which 

 would have done no discredit to the soil and climate of 



