416 THE ADIRONDACK. 



the mountains make a straight shore, but to the left it 

 seems all scalloped up. As you advance, however, you 

 find that this irregular line is formed by the points of 

 numberless islands, which open in endless bewildering 

 vistas. Before you are aware, you are in a perfect 

 labyrinth — there is no lake, no mainland — nothing but 

 winding water-ways, laving shores of pure white sand. 

 Indeed, the whole bottom of the lake is of white sand, 

 which flashes up from the clear depths like a floor of 

 marble. 



Lying on this elevated plateau, it is unlike any other 

 sheet of water in this whole region, not only in its trans- 

 parent clearness and its bottom and island shores of 

 white sand, but in the peculiar manner in which it is 

 divided. One half is without an island of any kind, 

 presenting a smooth expanse of water, while the other 

 half cannot be seen from the islands that crowd it. 

 They seem to have been shaken down upon the water 

 like particles from a sieve. This appears the more 

 strange from the high mountains that surround it, and 

 that ought to give deep water and bold shores. I longed to 

 ascend Blue Mountain, for I knew that a wondrous pros- 

 pect must be visible from its top, but the drenching of 

 the night before, the toils of the morning, and the cold 



