38 THE ADIRONDACK. 



tain, and down the bank, with a bound and a groan, 

 and splash into the water. 



The heavy rains about the first of July, had so 

 swollen the stream near which I am located, that all 

 thoughts of fishing for several days were abandoned, 

 and the log drivers had it entirely to themselves. So, 

 strolling through the forest, I soon heard the continuous 

 roar that rose up through the leafy solitudes, and in a 

 few moments stood on a shelving rock, and saw the 

 dark, swift stream before me, as it issued from the 

 cavernous green foliage above, and disappeared with- 

 out a struggle in the same green abyss below. I 

 stood for a long time lost in thought. How much 

 like life was that current in its breathless haste — how 

 like it, too, in its mysterious appearance and depar- 

 ture ! It shot on my sight without a token of its birth 

 place, and vanished without leaving a sign whither it 

 had gone. So comes and goes this mysterious life of 

 ours — this fearful time-stream, sweeping so noiselessly 

 and steadily forward. And there, where that bubble 

 dances and swims, now floating calmly though swiftly 

 along the surface, and now caught in an eddy, and 

 whirled in endless gyrations round, and now buffeted 

 back by the hard rock against whose side it was cast, is 



