56 Field and Forest Rambles. 



uprights, when, to his utter astonishment, a female figure 

 appeared in the gloom before the fire. 



" Come now, Sabates," said I, "you did not see her closely!" 



"I seed her," replied Sabates, u as clear as I see you! 

 And what do you think?" he continued, "when I returned 

 to my people, who live on the banks of the Schoodic Lakes, 

 I found a squaw, one of my near relatives, had died on that 

 very night!" 



It is, however, scarcely fair to be hard on the heathen, when 

 at the same time we find the white race indulging in similar 

 if not more extravagant delusions. Thus, when I retorted to 

 his narrative with a smile of incredulity, Sabates asked if "I 

 had heard of the Monster of Utopia," which lake, as the crow 

 flies, was not ten miles distant. We have already seen the 

 archaeological interest attached to the district, and in the 

 sequel I will revert to its waters in connection with the brook 

 trout ; in the meantime I shall relate briefly a supernatural 

 wonder connected with this beautiful forest loch. 



During midsummer, 1867, some lumbermen employed at a 

 saw mill situate at the north end of the lake observed on one 

 occasion that the waters, usually remarkably placid, were sud- 

 denly disturbed by the splashing of some object, which certain 

 individuals asserted was fully ten feet in breadth and about 

 thirty in length. The most reliable of the witnesses informed 

 me that, although he saw the water furiously disturbed in a 

 circumscribed area of the above dimensions, he did not observe 

 any object ; and this I believe is the most correct statement. 

 The entire phenomenon did not last above a minute, when the 

 surface became smooth like the rest of the lake, which was 

 remarkably tranquil at the time. During the two following 

 days the same appearances were alleged to have been seen 

 by other observers in different parts of the lake ; and so posi- 

 tive were the residents that some monstrous animal was the 

 cause, that they set large hooks baited with salt fish and 

 pork, and which I found attached to logs in various situations- 



