158 



THE SPORTSMAN'S PARADISE; 



familiar point in the woods ; but everything was strange, 

 forest, lakes, mountains, and hills all refused to grant the 

 assistance he desired. The anxiety of mind which he felt 

 when he first discovered . that he was lost had steadily 

 increased, every hour adding to his sufferings, until he 

 finally found himself plunged into the most intense mental 

 agony. He now realized that he was a stranger in a 

 strange land, a wanderer in a wilderness so large that 

 it was possible for him to spend several months in wander- 

 ing without ever coming in contact with a single human 

 being. About an hour before sunset he reached a large 

 lake, or at least one much larger than any he had seen 

 during the day, after leaving the one on which we were 

 encamped. This lake, he thinks, was about two miles in 

 length and about one mile in width. He shot a duck, and 

 then concluded to camp for the night on the shore of this 

 lake. He saw a high cliff at a point on the shore, having 

 a perpendicular rock wall rising more than one hundred 

 and fifty feet above the surface of the lake, and he deter- 

 mined to climb up to this high point and take one more 

 view of terra firma ; then, if nothing better offered, he 

 would spend the night there. The cliff, or promontory, 

 which we have mentioned, possessed but one rocky, per- 

 pendicular wall ; the other sides were steep slopes covered 

 with heavy forest-trees, while there occasionally cropped 

 out a rocky stratum or ledge. These slopes were chiefly 

 covered with a heavy growth of birch and maple, although 

 there were to be seen, near the summit, several large 

 white-pine trees. The photographer had reached the lake- 

 shore about one hundred rods from the southern base of 



