CHAPTER XVI. 



ROUND POND THE PILE DRIVER A THEORY FOR SPIRITUALISTS. 



WE put up out tents the next evening, on a bold bluff 

 near the outlet of Round Pond, a picturesque and plea- 

 sant sheet of water, some eight or ten miles in circum- 

 ference. It lay there still and waveless, in that calm sum- 

 mer evening, as glassy and smooth as if no breeze had 

 ever stirred its surface. All around it were old forests, 

 old hills and rocks, and away off in the distance were the 

 tall peaks of the Adirondacks, standing up grim, solemn, 

 and shadowy in the distance. These peaks are seen from 

 almost every direction. They tower so far above the sur- 

 rounding highlands, that they seem always to be peering 

 over the intervening ranges, as if holding an everlasting 

 watch over the broad wilderness beneath them. This lake 

 is probably more than a thousand feet above the Rackett, 

 and the river falls that distance principally at the two 

 rapids around which our boats were carried. The rest 

 of the way it is a deep, sluggish stream, so that the descent 



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