222 AV AUTUMN. 



even the crickets creaked in the same key, and 

 the farmers' dogs were equally inquisitive. For 

 more than a mile I am not sure that I saw a 

 bird of any kind. In this respect we are surely 

 better off at home. This absence of novelty was 

 a little disappointing, but I had no right to ex- 

 pect it. Canada has been longer settled than 

 New Jersey, and doubtless many a field we 

 passed was cleared years before the forest was 

 felled along the Delaware. 



However this may be, the outlook soon 

 changed for the better, and reaching the upper 

 terrace, or ancient shore, the broad and beau- 

 tiful expanse of Lake Ontario lay before us. 

 From the upper to the lower terrace was but a 

 step, and then, on the very edge of a precipit- 

 ous cliff, I looked over to see the waves dashing 

 at its foot, and carrying the loose sand and clay 

 steadily into the lake. Clear as crystal and 

 brightly blue the waters as they struck the 

 shore; roily and heavy laden with the sand as 

 they receded. It is little wonder that the cliff is 

 rapidly yielding; there is nothing to protect it 

 even from the gentle ripples of a summer sea. 

 Yet wherever spared for a short season vegeta- 

 tion came to the rescue, and the yellow-white 

 cliff was dotted with blooming clusters of tansy, 

 golden-rod, eupatorium, and mullein yellow and 

 white, that were too like the background to be 



