CHAPTER V 

 THE LOST LAKES 



Fall many a glorious morning have I seen 

 Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, 



Kissing with golden face the meadows green, 

 Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy. 



SONNET xxxm. 



THE third morning was indeed a glorious one, with 

 ice in the buckets and ice along the margins of the 

 streams. The sharp, cold tinge in the air gave an 

 added spur to the appetite. Breakfast being over, 

 Henry started with me to visit a couple of small lakes, 

 the farthest of which, he said, was two miles off. Here 

 in olden times many moose had their feeding grounds. 

 The team was to leave us and go on ahead, while the 

 saddle horse was to be left securely tethered to a tree 

 until our return. 



The road to the lakes, which will hereafter be called 

 the *' Lost Lakes," followed a rushing, tumbling stream 

 for a mile and then it turned abruptly to the left, and, 

 as Henry said, went up to the top of the mountain, 

 where the first of the lakes was found, the other one 

 being at the top of still another mountain. Many of 

 the lakes in this Miramichi country have this peculiarity 

 of being at the top of a mountain rather than at its 

 base, as I have very good reason to know. 



