144 FUNEREAL SCENERY. 







the distance ; no gorges or spreading valleys ; no sloping 

 hillsides, giving back the sunlight, or along which gigantic 

 shadows of the drifting clouds float. All around it are fir, 

 and tamarac, and spruce of a stinted and slender growth, 

 dead at the top, and with lichens and moss hanging down 

 in sad and draggled festoons from their desolate branches. 

 It is, in truth, a gloomy place, typical of desolation, which it 

 is well to see once, but which no one will desire to visit 

 a second time. We noticed on the sandy beach tracks of the 

 wolf, the panther, the moose, and in one place the huge 

 track of a bear. He must have been of monstrous growth, 

 judging by the impression of his great feet and claws in the 

 sand. But we saw none of these animals, and so gloomy is 

 the place, so sepulchral, such an air of desolation all around, 

 that it brings over the mind a strong feeling of sadness and 

 gloom, and we resolved not to tarry beyond the next morn- 

 ing, even for the chance of taking a moose, a panther, or a 

 bear. 



We pitched our tent, as I said, a little way back from the 

 lake, near a cold spring, that came boiling up through the 

 white sand in a little basin, eight feet wide, the bottom of 

 which, like that on the bank of Tupper's Lake, was all in 

 commotion, boiling and bubbling, as the water forced its way 

 up through it. I was in the forward boat as we approached 

 the lake, and was surprised to see the number of deer feed- 

 ing upon the lily pads in the shallow water, and the wild 

 grass that grew along the shore. Some stood midside in 

 the water, some with only the line of their backs and heads 



