CHAP. xiv. APPROACH TO THE BURNT COUNTRY. 225 



often observed the caution with which the Nasquapee 

 put out the fire before we left any camp ground ; and 

 those who have ever had an opportunity of witnessing 

 scenes similar to some which met our eyes, will readily 

 understand the fear they have of fire spreading and de- 

 stroying their hunting-grounds. 



Leaving the Burnt Portage on July 1, we descended 

 eighteen feet, and came into a lake in the burnt country. 

 What desolation ! what dreadful ruin all around ! Not 

 . ruin from fire only, but ruin exposed by fire. 



Close on the banks of the lakes and their connecting 

 rivers lies the burnt country. Sand conceals the rocks 

 beneath and hides what lies below from view ; but as- 

 cending a slight eminence away from the immediate 

 banks of the river, the true character of the country 

 becomes apparent. Conceive marching for miles over 

 charcoal, the burnt remains and ashes of moss once two 

 feet deep ; imagine your steps arrested by blackened 

 trees, or dead trees with bark fallen off, and the trunks 

 bleached white, in singular contrast to the black ground. 

 Suppose that you pass through this level waste and reach 

 the foot of a hill, a hill of boulders or erratics, all water- 

 worn and smooth, without moss or lichen on them, and 

 piled two and three deep, and, for aught you know, twenty 

 deep. You peer between the interstices of the first layer, 

 and see the second layer ; and sometimes through spaces 

 between the boulders of the second layer, and find a 

 third layer visible. The well-worn masses of all sizes, 

 from one foot t.o twenty feet in diameter, and from one 

 ton to ten thousand tons in weight, are washed clean. 

 Mosses, ever green and bright, once covered them, 

 VOL. I. Q 



