234 THE CEDAR FOREST. 



crisply as we trod it beneath our feet. It was the only 

 sound we could hear ; for nature was hushed in an im- 

 pressive tranquillity. Not a cloud obscured the horizon ; 

 the wind had completely subsided, and the pine branches, 

 covered with thick snow, remained as motionless as a 

 theatrical decoration. Spite of the intensity of the cold, 

 we experienced no disagreeable sensations ; the air sur- 

 rounding us was pure and light as that which one breathes 

 on the mountain -tops. 



Every trace of the path had disappeared under the 

 snow; but the Indians, our guides, recognized the road 

 by the trees and the variations of the soil. They con- 

 ducted us in the first place to the foot of an ancient cedar, 

 flourishing on the border of a wood, above whose green 

 tops it rose more than one hundred and fifty feet. 



Before us extended the wilderness, wild and gloomy, 

 which prevails to the extreme limits of the Arctic Pole ; 

 and it was not without a certain emotion that we pene- 

 trated into this venerable forest of great cedars scattered at 

 wide intervals, under whose sweeping branches we made 

 our way with all the skill we could command. 



At length we reached the base of a hill, and halted to 

 take breath. Our Indians prepared the spot by beating 

 down the snow until it was thoroughly hard ; then they 

 heaped up some branches to serve for seats, and went in 

 quest of a spring, which they found close at hand, bubbling 

 with a fresh and deliciously transparent water. Thanks 

 to the silence, we could easily distinguish the murmur of 

 the brook, which flowed slowly under the snow, only re- 

 vealing itself to the eye here and there, when some obstacle 

 in the soil had caused the snow to crumble, and the 

 water-course to descend the slope in a microscopic cascade. 



