Still-Paddling 65 
thrill at sight of the very magnitude of his 
victim. 
This lake being long and narrow like a 
pickerel, a mere trough in the hills cut by an 
ancient glacier, the heavy rainfalls may easily 
raise the level several feet in a protracted 
storm. Lilies must keep afloat, and to do 
this their stems must elongate inch by inch 
as the lake rises. The water falling quite 
as rapidly as it rises, the stems must be short- 
ened again, which is done by curling them. 
When at length the flowers have been fer- 
tilised and their mission is performed, the 
stems then curl for the last time and slowly 
draw them under the water. Aquatic plants 
lay down every season upon the floor of the 
lake a considerable amount of vegetable mat- 
ter, while at the same time their stems 
serve to check and to deposit the silt brought 
down by the current. Shallow places are 
thus yearly growing shallower and slowly 
resolving themselves into swamps. As it 
was in the beginning, the land is emerging 
from the waters. Of the thousand and one 
lakes in the wilderness, all the shallow ponds 
are destined to become mountain meadows, 
as a thousand have done before them. Let 
the precipitation decrease and the evapora- 
5 
