62 



THE ADIRONDACK. 



for more than three hundred miles in circumference — 

 ridges and slopes of green, broken only by lakes that 

 dared just to peep into view from their deep hiding- 

 places— one vast wilderness seamed here and there by 

 a river whose surface you could not see, but whose 

 course you could follow by the black winding gap 

 through the tops of the trees. Still there was beauty 

 as well as grandeur in the scene. Lake Champlain, 

 with its islands spread away as far as the eye could 

 follow towards the Canadas, while the distant Green 

 Mountains rolled their granite summits along the 

 eastern horizon, with Burlington curtained in smoke 

 at their feet. To the north-west gleamed out here and 

 there the lakes of the Saranac River, and farther to 

 the west, those along the Raquette ; nearer by, Lake 

 Sanford, Placid Lake, Lake Colden, Lake Henderson, 

 shone in quiet beauty amid the solitude. Nearly 

 lliirty lakes in all were visible — some dark as polished 

 jet beneath the shadow of girdling mountains ; others 

 flashing out upon the limitless landscape, like smiles 

 to relieve the gloom of the great solitude. Through- 

 out the wide extent but three clearings were visible — 

 all was as Nature made it. My head swam in the 

 wondrous vision: and I seemed lifted up above the 



