172 FOKEST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



at length liglitens, and the gleam of water ahead brings 

 us to the Tobiaduc lakes, where a couple of ruffed grouse, 

 shot en route, were cooked d la spatch-cock, and we 

 dined on a service of birch-bark dishes. 



" Late in the afternoon, our canoes, leaving the lakes, 

 entered the Tobiaduc brook, a picturesque stream similar 

 to the sixteen-mile brook before mentioned. The lovely 

 scenery of these forest streams must be seen to be fully 

 appreciated. The foliage in spots is almost tropical ; 

 wild vines and creepers crowd the water s edge, with 

 towering clumps of royal fern (Osmunda regalis) ; airy 

 groves of birches with stems of purest white are suc- 

 ceeded by fir-woods, under which the graceful moose- 

 wood and swamp maple brighten the gloom as their 

 broad leaves catch the sunlight ; the pigeon berry 

 (Cornus canadensis) bedizens the moss with its well- 

 contrasting clumps of scarlet berries ; and great boulders 

 of grey rock, circled over with concentric lichens, moss 

 covered, and their crannies filled with poUypods and 

 oak-fern, overhang the water in stern and solitary gran- 

 deur. Every rock projecting from the stream is seized 

 upon by moss, whence grow a few ferns or seedling 

 maples ; and the play of the sunlight as it breaks 

 through the arched foliage above and lights up these 

 little groups produces most exquisite efiects. This is the 

 home of the beaver and the kingfisher. The ferns and 

 grasses on the banks are trodden down by the former 

 in its paths, and the latter flits from bush to bush with 

 loud rattling screams as the canoe invades its piscatorial 

 domains. 



" At length there was an obstruction in the stream over 

 which the waters fell evenly. It was a beaver-dam — a 



