THE DENIZENS OF THE FOREST. 193 



rising with a gentle slope from the water, covered with scat- 

 tering Norway pines, and a dense undergrowth of low 

 bushes ; others are covered with tall spruce, fir, and hem- 

 locks, standing up in stately and solemn grandeur, their 

 arms lovingly intertwined, through the everlasting verdure of' 

 which the sun never shines ; and others still are gigantic rocks, 

 rising up out of the deep water, all treeless and shrubless, 

 remaining always in brown and barren desolation, on which 

 the eagle and osprey devour their prey, and the flocks of 

 gulls that frequent the lake 'light to rest from their almost 

 ceaseless flight. Civilization has not as yet marred in any- 

 thing this beautiful sheet of water ; even the lumberman has 

 not forced his way to the majestic old pines that tower in 

 stately grandeur above the forest trees of a lesser growth ; 

 not a foot of land has been cleared within thirty miles of it. 

 The old woods stand around it just as God placed them, in 

 all their pristinDsolemnity, stately and motionless ; the wild 

 things that roamed among them in the day of old, are there 

 still, and the same species of birds that sported in their 

 branches thousands of years ago, are there still. We heard 

 the howl of the wolf at night ; we heard the scream of the 

 panther ; we saw the tracks of the .moose, and where he 

 had fed on the pastures along the shore ; we saw the foot- 

 prints of a huge bear in the sand en the beach, and the 

 deer-paths were like those that lead to a sheep-fold. It was 

 a pleasant thing to row along the shore, into the bays, 

 around the islands, and into the creeks that came in from 

 other little lakes deeper in the wilderness. The banks are 



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