302 
THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
on^ entering the tall woods on the other side, and emerging, 
as I understand, about a mile farther, into the stage road 
from Compton to Hatley. We penetrated a few rods into 
the Brule, to see if there were any clearing, but could per- 
ceive no change in the ugly, dead, half-burnt spruce ; and, 
therefore, returned. This singular piece of ground contains 
some thousands of acres, and is said to owe its origin to the 
beavers, which were formerly numerous, damming up the 
streams, which, overflowing and spreading over the flat lands, 
killed the growing timber. It is a resort of wolves, bears, 
and other wild animals, though we perceived no sign of life 
in the stillness which pervaded the solitude ; nor indeed in 
the whole journey, with the exception of one or two little 
birds, which were not near enough to be identified ; and a 
few insignificant insects, in the forest. — Having satisfied our 
curiosity, we began to return as we came, until we arrived 
at the bridge, when, instead of retracing the course of the 
stream, we crossed the bridge, and continued to pursue the 
road, which for some distance led us through towering spruces 
and hemlocks^ as before. On a sudden the character of the 
woods changed : we found the sides lined with young maple, 
birch, beech, &c. which met overhead at the height of about 
twelve feet, forming a very perfect and regular continued 
Gothic arch, or rather a long series of arches. This long 
green avenue was the most pleasant part of our walk ; and 
the more so, as it was quite unexpected. We presently 
opened into a large field, which had been just mown ; and 
here we were rather laughably bewildered : the place was a 
terra incognita ; we had never before seen it, nor could we 
recognise any object, so as to guess at our whereabouts.'* 
There appeared to be no outlet through the woods by which 
the field was environed : — in one part was the skeleton of 
an old log- house, without a roof; and a portion of the field 
was planted with potatoes. We at length saw a path through 
