342 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



which is always cold as ice, however warm the weather 

 may be as scarcely more than a couple of miles arc 

 before us, we may just as well hurry on. The walk 

 now leaves the river and becomes much more hilly and 

 enclosed ; one time crossing a deep boggy ravine, the 

 next, threading its erratic course along the summit of 

 some stony hill-side. The timber here is very beau- 

 tiful, much superior to what we have formerly met, 

 and the graceful, silver birch prevails a tree than 

 which no prettier or more beautiful exists. Although 

 the road, in some places, must be quite half a mile 

 from the water, still the deep rumbling of the nume- 

 rous rapids is distinctly audible the neighbouring por- 

 tion of the Androscogan River being wild and broken 

 in the extreme. 



We have scarcely ever threaded this part of our 

 journey without seeing ruffed grouse, and frequently 

 Canada grouse, one of the most beautiful of the in- 

 digenous birds, and resembling more closely than any 

 of the American family the red grouse of Scotland ; 

 the deep scarlet iris, the rich, dark chestnut colouring 

 of both are similar; but they are totally opposed to one 

 another in habits of life, the one preferring the open, 

 heather-covered mountain slopes wild as a hawk, 

 unless when engaged with family cares the other, 

 thoughtless and careless of danger, and never seen 

 away from the densest retreats of the woods. So tame 

 are the Canada grouse that, during my residence in 

 Maine, I knew one of the hotel proprietor's sons to 

 catch an old cock-bird, by slipping a noose, attached to 

 the end of a stick, over its head. But our promenade 

 is near an end. The woods appear less dense as we 

 advance, and soon the flag, that floats over the shanty 



