A FAIRY CASCADE. '27 I 



farther I advanced the more plainly I saw that the 

 cariboo had slackened his course, and had several times 

 fallen to the ground. My self-love was engaged in 

 bringing down my cariboo before Mr. Howard and Monai 

 rejoined me : I flew over the snow, until I was arrested 

 on the bank of a torrent of fresh water where the frost 

 had taken no hold. There I lost all trace of the cariboo ; 

 but Jack's paws pointed out the road I was to follow, 

 and soon I heard distinctly the gallant dog's repeated 

 barking. 



The current, as I advanced, became more rapid, and 

 its waters, pent up between two elevated rocks, suddenly 

 disappeared in an abyss, forming a cascade one hundred 

 feet in height. Beyond the seething caldron of this pic- 

 turesque fall the stream had frozen hard ; along its banks 

 the water, flung up in spray, was transformed into beds 

 of ice, and at the extremity of the pine branches which 

 flourished on the rocks glittered icy stalactites of the most 

 fantastic aspect. Beneath the cascade the water leaped 

 on high in a sheaf of foam, forming a dense mist, which, as 

 soon as it fell back on the liquid surface, was immediately 

 metamorphosed into little drops. The rays of the sun 

 piercing the obscurity, gave to each detail of this marvel 

 of nature a sparkling golden tint. Moreover, the ice 

 surrounding the cascade was so transparent that the eye 

 could perceive the golden sand at the bottom of the water, 

 and detect the rapidity of the current. 



Ten feet above the semicircle formed by the cascade, 

 on an isolated rock which rose in the middle of the waters, 

 the cariboo whom I had wounded had sought refuge. 

 The current around him swirled so impetuously, that, if 

 his foot had slipped, he would have been carried away 



