BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE. 415 



capitalists, they expected to raise sufficient money to 

 build the road. I advocated the grant in good faith, 

 believing their declarations that in this way the road 

 could be built, and thus this vast region, with its iron 

 mines and timber and lands, be laid open to market. 

 But somebody was certainly very much deceived, and 

 I am afraid it will be a long time before the moose 

 or the wild deer of this wilderness will be startled by 

 the sound of the locomotive-whistle. 



The stream at the head of this pond was so shallow 

 that in some places we could hardly float our boats, but 

 by dint of pushing and pulling, we got on, and finally 

 emerged into Blue Mountain Lake. The view that 

 opened on us was wild and beautiful. The waters of 

 this elevated lake are as clear and limpid as those of 

 Lake George, allowing the eye to penetrate to an asto- 

 nishing depth. Before us, the lake stretched like a broad 

 river, straight up to Blue Mountain at its head, from 

 which it derives its name, and whose round top rises so 

 high in the heavens that it always is draped in a 

 blue vapor, or rather bathed in a perfectly transparent 

 blue atmosphere. Its forest-covered side comes in an 

 unbroken slope to the water's edge, and it seems to be 

 reverently kneeling in the beautiful lake. At the right, 



