386 PEAIRIE AND FOREST. 



soft and undefinable, that the beholder wonders if he can- 

 not see into another planet. Such, in truth, is the St. 

 Lawrence amid the thousand islands on a fine day towards 

 the end of September. Where under the sun can such a 

 scene be looked upon ? I search my memory in vain for 

 its counterpart; and although the inland seas of Japan, 

 the broad and placid waters of the Hudson at the High- 

 lands, the palm- clad islands of the Indian Archipelago, 

 the azure seas and skies of the Mediterranean rise before 

 me, beautiful and perfect as they are, they cannot compare 

 with the giant river of Canada and its surrounding land- 

 scape, because it is without a fault perfection verified. 



Strong and enduring are the thews of our boatmen, 

 tough but pliant the ash oars, and although each stroke 

 they are bent like hoops, still our progress over the 

 rippling, glancing, eddying water is slow. But delay 

 matters not here, in fact it is rather pleasing, for it affords 

 the spectator time to gaze, aye, inhale the manifold beau- 

 ties that surround him. Look to the left at that feathery 

 birch : how playfully and daintily its long, graceful, floating 

 limbs tap, tap, tap, upon the rapid's surface. Another 

 rival in attractiveness grows close by ; it is the wood grape 

 with its long tendrils floating in every breath of air, but 

 treacherously longing to lay hold of the tree that now she 

 only fans with her passing touch. And the red maple and 

 yellow maple and scarlet sumach crowd together, rivals 

 for the palm of precedence in gaudiness of hues ; while 

 behind them, in calm dignity, towers the giant pine, 

 looking down with unbending dignity upon its minor sur- 

 rounding brethren ; the motion of these Canadian waters 



