ST. EEGIS LAKE. 109 



ing there, so silent and alone. "We had travelled 

 some twelve miles that day, over a country rough, 

 and toilsome at best, but rendered doubly so, by the 

 tangled brush, the fallen trees, gullies, and broken 

 rocks, and boulders, which lay in our way. We 

 erected a shantee, and supped heartily on partridge 

 and trout. "We retired early that night, and, despite 

 the sharp sting of musquitos, and their ceaseless 

 trumpeting, slept soundly and calmly till dawn. 



Here again, my guide had, in former years, con- 

 structed a canoe, which we found, where he had hid it 

 the previous year, and having caulked, we launched 

 it on the still surface of the waters. The St. Eegis 

 may be four or five miles in length, by a half a mile 

 or more in width, bending around the bluff end of a 

 hill, somewhat in the shape, though less curved than 

 a horse-shoe. On the opposite shore the land is more 

 level, and the shallows reach far out into the lake. 

 On these shallows, a profusion of grasses and lilies, 

 and water weeds grow, forming rich pastures for the 

 deer, and a secure hiding place for the many broods 

 of wild ducks, that we saw sporting round their care- 

 ful mother, as she watched with sleepless vigilance 

 over them. 



