ADIRONDAC. 8 1 



race, which presided over a cluster of yellow birches, 

 on the side of the mountain. 



About noon we came out upon a long shallow sheet 

 of water which the guide called Bloody-Moose Pond, 

 from a tradition that a moose had been slaughtered 

 there many years before. Looking out over the silent 

 and lonely scene, his eye was the first to detect an ob- 

 ject apparently feeding upon lily-pads, which our will- 

 ing fancies readily shaped into a deer. As we were 

 eagerly waiting some movement to confirm this impres- 

 sion, it lifted up its head, and lo ! a great blue heron. 

 Seeing us approach, it spread its long wings and flew 

 solemnly across to a dead tree on the other side of the 

 lake, enhancing, rather than relieving the loneliness 

 and desolation that brooded over the scene. As we 

 proceeded it flew from tree to tree in advance of us, 

 apparently loth to be disturbed in its ancient and soli- 

 tary domain. In the margin of the pond we found the 

 pitcher-plant growing, and here and there in the sand 

 the closed gentian lifted up its blue head. 



In traversing the shores of this wild, desolate lake, I 

 was conscious of a slight thrill of expectation, as if 

 some secret of Nature might here be revealed, or some 

 rare and unheard-of game disturbed. There is ever a 

 lurking suspicion that the beginning of things is in some 

 way associated with water, and one may notice that in 

 his private walks he is led by a curious attraction to 

 fetch all the springs and ponds in his route, as if by 

 them was the place for wonders and miracles to happen. 

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