on the lake shore: and, although time and the axe of the
pioneer had in some degree changed its features, still
there was no trace of that blended natural scenery that
so pleasingly diversified the vicinity of the sister
fort. Here and there, along the imperfect clearing, and
amid the dark and thickly studded stumps of the felled
trees, which in themselves were sufficient to give the
most lugubrious character to the scene, rose the rude
log cabin of the settler; but, beyond this, cultivation
appeared to have lost her power in proportion with the
difficulties she had to encounter. Even the two Indian
villages, L'Arbre-Croche and Chabouiga, situate about a
mile from the fort, with which they formed nearly an
equilateral triangle, were hid from the view of the
garrison by the dark dense forest, in the heart of which
they were embedded.

Lake ward the view was scarcely less monotonous; but it
was not, as in the rear, that monotony which is never
occasionally broken in upon by some occurrence of interest.
If the eye gazed long and anxiously for the white sail
of the well known armed vessel, charged at stated intervals
with letters and tidings of those whom time, and distance,
and danger, far from estranging, rendered more dear to
the memory, and bound more closely to the heart, it was
sure of being rewarded at last; and then there was no
picture on which it could love to linger so well as that
of the silver waves bearing that valued vessel in safety
to its wonted anchorage in the offing. Moreover, the
light swift bark canoes of the natives often danced