Ragged Lake. 33 



frigliten tlieir fathers from their jDropriety, but to our 

 credit it will be told, that we left them unharmed, save 

 by the terrors of our transient presence. We returned 

 to our shantee, and fell asleep under the lullaby of 

 nature's midnight serenade. 



The next day we coasted the lake, to explore its 

 hundred quiet and secluded nooks. We found that 

 in the little bays, at the heads of which the mountain 

 streams emptied their cold waters, the speckled trout 

 congregated, while in the deep water, off the bold 

 rocky bluffs, the lake-trout most abounded. We 

 dined near the north end of the lake ; our table and 

 our seat was a venerable moss-covered boulder, be- 

 neath which a cold spring bubbled up, and above 

 which, great maples spread their leafy branches like a 

 canopy over us ; protected by a '' smudge" from the 

 black fly and musquitoes, we took our siesta^ such as 

 weary limbs and a hearty meal can alone give zest to. 

 After luxuriating thus for a couple of hours, we 

 paddled back along the opposite shore, towards our 

 shantee, to spend the night. On our way we encoun- 

 tered numerous broods of the wood-duck, whose 

 wings were as yet unfledged, but which, under the 



guardian care of the mother, skimmed away from us, 



2* 



