198 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



The day wore on as I mused. The sun passed 

 the meridian line, and soon the shadows of the pines 

 and hills began to stretch their cone-like forma- 

 tions out toward the east. As I gazed upon the 

 landscape, with a hundred mountains within sM'eep 

 of my eye, at whose feet lake after lake lay in peace- 

 ful repose, and between which numberless streams 

 flowed, gleaming amid the forests of pine and fir 

 as threads of silver woven into a robe of Lincoln- 

 green, I thought of the words of Isaiah : " I will 

 open rivers in high places, and fountains in the 

 midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness 

 a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." 

 " The beast of the field shall honor me, and the owls, 

 because I give waters in the wilderness and ri'S'ers 

 in the desert." And I said to myself, " Surely He 

 sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run 

 among the hills.' " About three o'clock in the after- 

 noon, as I sat looking out upon the lake, a heavy 

 jar shook the earth, and simultaneously the air vi- 

 brated with the sound of thunder. Turning my 

 eyes toward the west, I perceived a whitish mist 

 gathering along the mountains, while a few ragged 

 scuds came racing i\]i from beliind it, and I knew 

 that in the valleys westward columns of storm 

 were moving to the onset. 



Amid this mountainous region tempests give 

 brief warning of their approach. Walled in as 

 tb^se lakes are by mountains, behind which the 



