Among the Thousand Islands. 



577 



HEAD OF CRF.EK AND IRON SPRINC 



with many abrupt turns, leads to within 

 a few paces of it. On either side of the 



open water of its channel is an almost tropical tangle and pro- 

 fusion of vegetation ; water-lilies, white as driven snow, with 

 hearts of gold, reposing on their glossy, cool green pads ; yellow- 

 docks, arrowheads with purple clusters of tiny flowers, giant bul- 

 rushes, cat-tails and ferns, — all in a bewildering tangle of verdure, 

 at times almost impassable. A rude wooden bridge spans it at one 

 place, so close to the water that the boatman is obliged to bend 

 nearly double in passing under it. Here one may occasionally see 

 a chubby urchin angling in the glassy water for small pickerel or 

 rock bass. The bottom of the creek is matted, and in some places 

 fairly choked, with an exuberance of water-grasses of all descriptions. 

 Perhaps one of the best and easiest ways of becoming thoroughly 

 acquainted with the various views, some of them extremely beautiful, 

 that the islands present, is by means of a little steam-yacht 

 which runs in daily trips around Wells Island. Starting from 

 Alexandria Bay, she steams up the river among the group of islands 

 lying there, past cottages and camping-tents nestling among the 

 cool green shadows of the trees; past shallow lily-padded bays, 

 at whose edge stands, sentinel-like, an ancient log-cabin or dilapi- 

 dated barn ; past a camp-meeting ground at the upper extremity of 

 37 



