RAQUETTE LAKE. 213 



not SO much distinguished for its sublimity as its 

 beauty. Unlike the lakes of Switzerland, those of 

 northern New York, making an extensive chain from 

 the Saranac waters to the Moose River Lakes, are not 

 surrounded by summits of perpetual snow, nor by- 

 naked rocks towering one above another in fragmen- 

 tary peaks and disordered masses, but, for the most 

 part, especially the south-western, are surrounded by 

 gently-receding shores, swelling into moderate ridges, 

 and bounding the view with a clear and beautiful 

 outline of green hills — with here and there a conical 

 mountain-top elevated in the distance. Nor do we, 

 about the Raquette, discover any Alpine glaciers glit- 

 tering in the sun, or huge masses of ice thundering 

 down from their heights to the valleys below, but the 

 country is made up of a broad plateau^ elegantly 

 varied upon its surface, and clothed by a rich and 

 luxurious forest, and excelling all the others in the 

 beauty of its situation, as well as in the fertility of 

 its soil. 



"As we take a more particular view of this lake, and 

 the objects of interest in its immediate vicinity, we 

 are at first struck with the crystal purity of its 

 waters, and the irregularity of its form. Its waters 



