ADIRONDAC. 91 



the water near the shore, but on reaching the point 

 found only the marks of a musquash. 



Pressing on through the forest, after many advent- 

 ures with the pine-knots, we reached, about the mid- 

 dle of the afternoon, our destination, Nate's Pond, 

 a pretty sheet of water, lying like a silver mirror in 

 the lap of the mountain, about a mile long and half a 

 mile wide, surrounded by- dark forests of balsam, 

 hemlock, and pine, and, like the one we had just 

 passed, a very picture of unbroken solitude. 



It is not in the woods alone to give one this im- 

 pression of utter loneliness. In the woods are 

 sounds and voices, and a dumb kind of companion- 

 ship ; one is little more than a walking tree himself ; 

 but come upon one of these mountain-lakes, and the 

 wildness stands revealed and meets you face to face. 

 Water is thus facile and adaptive, that it makes the wild 

 more wild, while it enhances culture and art. 



The end of the pond which we approached was 

 quite shoal, the stones rising above the surface as in a 

 summer-brook, and everywhere showing marks of the 

 noble game we were in quest of foot-prints, dung, 

 and cropped and uprooted lily-pads. After resting 

 for a half hour, and replenishing our game-pouches 

 at the expense of the most respectable frogs of the 

 locality, we filed on through the soft, resinous pine- 

 woods, intending to camp near the other end of the 

 k ake, where, the guide assured us, we should find a 

 hunter's cabin ready built. A half-hour's march 

 Bought us to the locality, and a most delightful one 



