•56 THE ADIRONDACK. 



are the mountains that enclose this placid sheet of 

 water. Crossing a strip of forest, we next struck the 

 Opalescent River, so called from the opals found in its 

 bed. The forest here is almost impassible ; and so, for 

 five miles, we kept the bed of the stream, chasing it 

 backward to its source. The channel is one mass of 

 rocks; and hence, our march was a constant leap 

 from one to another, requiring a correct eye, and a 

 steady foot, to keep the balance. Thus, zigzaging 

 over the bed of this turbulent stream, we flitted 

 backward and forward, like flies over the surface of 



a river, till, at length, I heard a shout. S ^th had 



missed his footing, and slipping from a rock, gone 

 plump into a deep pool. Gathering himself up, he 

 laughed louder than the loudest, and pushed on. 



Suddenly Cheney stopped and listened ; for the 

 deep bay of his hound in the distance, rang through 

 the forest. " He has stopped something," he ex- 

 claimed ; "hark, how fierce he is. I shouldn't won- 

 der if it was a moose ; for a coio moose, with her calf, 

 will stop and fight a dog this time a year. If it is a 

 moose, it would be worth while to go back." But I 

 was after Mount Tahawus, and could ill afford to lin- 

 ger on the way, although soon after we heard the low- 



