86 RISEN B Y PERSE VERANCE, 



of these spots far surpass in rural beauty any other that my 

 eyes ever beheld, the creeks abounding towards their sources 

 in waterfalls of endless variety, as well in form as in magnitude, 

 and always teeming with Ssh; while waterfowl enliven their 

 surface, and wild pigeons, of the gayest plumage, flutter, in 

 thousands upon thousands, amongst the branches of the 

 beautiful trees, which, sometimes for miles together, form an 

 arch over the creeks. 



' I, in one of my rambles in the woods, in which I took 

 great delight^ came to a spot at a very short distance from 

 the source of one of these creeks. Here was everything to 

 delight the eye, and especially of one like me, who seems to 

 have been born to love rural life, and trees and plants of all 

 sorts. Here was about two hundred acres of natural meadow, 

 interspersed with patches of maple trees, in various forms and 

 of various extent ; the creek came down in cascades, for any 

 one of which many a nobleman in England would, if he could 

 transfer it, give a good slice of his fertile estate ; and, in the 

 creek, at the foot of the cascades, there were, in the season, 

 salmon the finest in the world, and so abundant and so 

 easily taken as to be used for manuring the land. 



' If Nature, in her very best humour, had made a spot for 

 the express purpose of captivating me, she could not have 

 exceeded the efforts which she had here made. But I found 

 something here besides these rude works of nature ; I found 

 something in the fashioning of which man had had some- 

 thing to do. I found a large and well-built log dwelling-house, 

 standing (in the month of September) on the edge of a very 

 good field of Indian corn, by the side of which there was a 

 piece of buckwheat just then mowed. I found a homestead, 

 and some very pretty cows. I found all the things by which an 



