THE SCHOODICS. 107 



sails away, his counterpart drops into distance afar down out 

 of sight. Anon a leaf falls on the surface and spins: should 

 an inquisitive perch happen to come up from the bottom, 

 face towards us, to look at it, behold ! his two eyes expand 

 into full moons, and his open mouth threatens to engulf 

 canoe and, all. There is our paddle-blade, thirty inches long, 

 regulation length ; thrust it into the water point down, and 

 directly it will reach out to the shore thirty yards away ! 

 And if we but lopk over the sides of the canoe, there we 

 shall find ourselves instantly reproduced ; and although we 

 know that no other human beings are on the lake or in the 

 lake, yet here are creatures like ourselves, bat of a new crea- 

 tion creatures with every lineament photographically de- 

 ' fined, which the slightest zephyr will annihilate. What of 

 a breath omnipotent that could in like fashion annihilate a 

 world? 



A strange new life is this we live in our birch canoe, float- 

 ing gently, drifting listlessly, beguiled by pleasant fancies 

 a phantom existence, aimless and without purpose ! Oh ! 

 this is ecstacy unalloyed ! care broods not here. 



But just beyond the plane of this calm repose is a tumult 

 of fierce moods. Here is a field for action ! Bestir yourself 

 and/eeZ the ecstasy of latent nerve-power roused. Man was 

 made for noble efforts and deeds of high emprise. Would 

 he experience the keenest exhilaration of which sense is 

 capable would he enjoy the dangers he dares, and feel the 

 buoyancy of the bark on which he floats let him take his 

 place in the canoe, and with each nerve tautened to fullest 

 tension and every faculty alert and active, run the rapids 

 that form the outlet of the lake ! Here are rocks projecting, 

 precipices over-hanging, fir-trees clinging to perpendicular 

 heights, huge boulders piled in mid-stream, walls contracting 

 into gorges and ravines ; and through its tortuous channel 

 the river chafes and roars, piling its crested waves in a tur- 

 bulence of foam, leaping cascades, and shivering itself in 

 showers of spray. Upon the tide of its impetuous career a 



