og jock's lake. . 



reverent love to its wooded shrines and placid lakes and 

 chano-eful streams, alid sends them forth again rich m the 

 goodVftsit holds in store 'for the forest-loving in heart. 

 But a Wastino' curse has rested upon every profane attempt 

 to hew down the temples and erect in their stead the 

 granary The law-not of New York but of N ature-has 

 set apart this wilderness irrevocably to purposes which find 

 little recognition in the marts of trade and the necessities of 

 a teeming population struggling for subsistence. 



So that this road had, by disuse, pretty much grown over 

 again, and was now little better, they told us, than -acorn- 

 fortable squirrel track." We found afterwards that the 

 squirrel who had travelled that track must have possessed 

 a very sound constitution. 



Afte'r a dinner of bread and milk we set forth,-we five and 

 our two guides walking in light-weight costume, and 

 Wilkinson bringing up the rear with his wagon and two cat- 

 like horses. They had nobly spent their lives in trying to 

 civilize this region and in doing so had learned to clamber 

 over l)Oulders like a goat and to climb a sharp acclivity like 

 a hod-carrier up a ladder. I didn't observe that they had 

 claws, but how they otherwise could so well climb and 

 descend and cling, I could not well conceive. The unedu- 

 cated horse would have been utterly helpless in their place. 

 -Is n't this glorious, boys!" said Thompson, as we left 

 the little clearing and, after walking a little way up the 

 river bank along a cow-path, plunged into the forest. 

 -Glorious! " responded a chorus of four voices. 

 -That very wet rain has at least cleared the air, and 



