commences as soon as the rapid melting of the snow and ice has so
swollen the small streams as to give them power to force and carry the
huge pieces of timber, until, at the confluence of the streams, the
water becomes wide enough to enable them to form it into rafts, on which
raft a hut is built and furnished with the necessaries for subsistence.
The gang who have been employed in bringing it so far lay themselves
upon it, and allow it to float down the stream, until the breeze wafts
them to their destination. These are the scenes of the spring, when all
life seems awakening. The tree-buds are bursting their cerements--the
waters are dancing in light and song--and the woods, before all still,
now echo a few wild notes of melody. The blue wing of the halycon goes
dazzlingly past, and tells us his own bright days are come; and the
"_whip-poor-will_" brings his lay so close, that the ear is startled
with the human sound on the soft damp air. The scene is changed when
Sirius is triumphant, telling us of the tropics, and that we live in
rather an inexplicable climate. Beneath his burning influence I have
glided down this creek when no sound was heard on earth or air save the
ripples of the paddle as it rose or fell at the will of the child-like
form which guided the fragile bark. The dwellers on the margin of these
fair waters are as much at home upon them as on land, and the children
in particular are as amphibious as the musk rats which people its banks,
and which scent the air somewhat heavily with what, in a fainter degree,
would be thought perfume. One can hardly recall these dog-star days at
that later season when the pearly moon and brilliant stars shine down
from the deep blue sky on the crusted snows; when fairy crystals are
reflecting their cold bright beams on the glistening ice, while the
sleigh flies merrily along, "with bell and bridle ringing," on the same
path we held in summer with the light canoe; when the breath congeals in
a sheet of ice around the face, and the clearness of the atmosphere
makes respiration difficult. To tell us that we are in the same latitude