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 look oyer 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, but 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 hve 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/(3eZ 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 



