Song Birds and Water Fowl 
water’s glassy plain, magnificent embodiments 
of profoundest peace; the pale stars, one by one, 
begin to glisten in their mild serenity; and si- 
lence, like a heavenly mantle spread by hands 
invisible, wraps all the scene in the prolonged 
repose of dreamless night. 
However beautiful a spot may be, it always 
gains an added charm, a sort of personality, by 
historic association—the subtlest element of at- 
tractiveness, which kindles nobler sentiments 
than merely sensuous landscape beauty ever can 
inspire. In such historic interest few spots in 
all our country are richer than Lake George. Its 
banks and waters silently commemorate many 
a striking scene in the Revolutionary War. 
As an anonymous writer has well expressed it, 
<< The imaginative mind can easily reanimate the 
Lake with the splendid armies of Abercrombie, 
Amherst, and Montcalm, numbering from nine 
to sixteen thousand men each, and sailing in 
boats and bateaux, marshalled in beautiful array, 
with all the pomp and circumstance of war. 
How peaceful it appears to-day, at the head of 
the Lake, around the ruins of Fort George, and 
the grass-grown site of Fort William Henry. 
Yet here, through long and bloody wars, the 
Cross of St. George waved defiance to the 
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