Lake George 



Lilies of France. Here forts and palisades 

 went up, opposing trenches were dug, and 

 mines sprung. But now all sign of bloodshed 

 and strife has passed away, and the hapless vic- 

 tims are forever at rest." Beneath the waters, 

 too, at different points, the relics of those warring 

 times can still be seen — the sunken wrecks of 

 many a transport ship and gun-boat, the very 

 uncertainty of whose precise history only serves 

 to deepen the impression, as one looks down 

 through the peculiarly clear water upon the 

 buried hulks quietly reposing for almost a hun- 

 dred and fifty years. 



Civilization consists largely in the multipli- 

 cation of our wants; and the numerous small re- 

 sorts scattered along these shores can be heartily 

 recommended to anyone wishing to shuffle off, 

 for a season, this artificial commodity or em- 

 barrassment. A few weeks' residence in such 

 a region is more convincing than all verbal 

 argument, that man really wants but little here 

 below. It is an instinct in our nature to de- 

 sire to do whatever is being done around us ; 

 and probably this accounts for the fact that, 

 after being here a little while, amid forests, 

 grass, fruits, and grains, one awakes to the fact 

 that he has himself also begun to vegetate. 

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