occiduus_), so much dreaded and abhorred, yet without reason, might be
observed sitting idly in the mouth of its burrow, or feeding on the
wild fruits and marshy plants that constitute its food.--_Gosse's
Naturalist's Sojourn_.




A SCENE IN NEW ENGLAND.


I leave Boston sometimes in the evening by rail, get thirty miles off,
then strike away into byways, ramble for an hour or two, and get back
to the rail. I was out yesterday, and nothing can equal the colour of
the foliage: if it was painted, it would look like fancy. In the
course of my stroll, I came upon a lake entirely surrounded with
forest, and containing, as I was informed, about four square miles of
water, studded with islands varying in size from one to twenty acres.
I would describe a point of view which enchanted me. I was on one side
of the lake, where it is about half a mile in width: about half-way
across, for the foreground of my picture, is a small island, about two
acres, covered with trees, looking as if they grew out of the lake,
with a central one of at least eighty feet high, and of the purest
orange colour. The opposite shore is of a crescent shape, with the
forest rising like an amphitheatre behind, glowing with every
imaginable colour, from the intense crimson to the pale pink, and
looking exactly like an enormous flower-garden stretching away to the
distance, and the colour so strongly reflected in the water, that it
is difficult to tell the reality from the reflection. At home in
England, I would have gone far to see such scenes; but they are here