THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. 269 



detachment to "shove off." It consisted of two com- 

 panies of the 60th Eifles, a detachment of Royal 

 Engineers and of Eoyal Artillery, with two 7-pounder 

 guns, all under command of Colonel Feilden of the 

 60th. 



The wind had died away completely, leaving the 

 surface of the lake calm as a mirror, wherein was 

 reflected only the mist of the approaching evening. 

 There was no hum of birds or insects from the woods 

 which fringed its shores, no swallows rippled its 

 smoothness in their hunt after an evening meal. 

 Except at this little spot, where we were all bustle 

 and excitement, the scene had the stillness of death 

 about it, which in the distance seemed all the more 

 deathlike from the contrast between it and the noise 

 immediately around us. This absence of animal or 

 even insect life in the Jforth American woods is one 

 of their most striking characteristics. 



It was a pretty sight to see this little flotilla of 

 boats row off over the lake whilst it still glowed 

 with the golden tinges of the sun's last rays. It 

 called to mind many an account read in early youth 

 of very similar scenes, when freebooting Norsemen 

 weighed anchor and shook out their sails in some 

 secluded inlet bent upon adventure. Except that we 

 had rifled guns and cannon, our equipment and our 

 arrangements for overcoming the obstacles of nature 

 were of a most primitive description. It seemed 

 curious that a military expedition should be fitted 



