352 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



we saw a young bear, and the last time one of our party 

 came in such close contact with an old lady bruin as to 

 be frightened almost to death, if it is admissible to judga 

 from his appearance rather than from his description. 



Having progressed a little over half the distance, a pretty 

 fishing-shanty, the property of a Bostonian, most oppor- 

 tunely offers itself as a resting-place, while the panorama 

 from its porch fairly earns the eulogy of sublimity. Above, 

 below, and in front seethes the precipitous river, white with 

 foam, while in the distance the placid surface of a miniature 

 lake, unpoetically dubbed " the Pond," recalls to memory 

 the stories of our childhood, in which naiads and nymphs, 

 with the enchanting Lurline for their sovereign, prominently 

 figure. 



The Pond, at some seasons, affords splendid sport, 

 especially at the entrance and exit of the river, which flows 

 through it, but it cannot be fished except from a boat, 

 which can be brought down, if desired, from the dam 

 above, no easy task to be performed, but frequently 

 accomplished by the expert lumbermen, who appear equally 

 at home in handling the axe or shooting rapids in their 

 flat-bottomed punts. 



Having rested sufficiently to recruit, and probably imbibe 

 a small glass of something stimulating, diluted with water 

 that trickles from a neighbouring spring which is always 

 cold as ice, however warm the weather may be as scarcely 

 more than a couple of miles are before us, we may just as 

 well hurry on. The walk now leaves the river and becomes 

 much more hilly and enclosed ; one time crossing a deep 

 boggy ravine, the next, threading its erratic course along 



