hung upon its surface and concealed its wooded shores on either side.
All feeling of dread, and doubt, and danger was lost for the time in
one rapturous glow of admiration at the scene so unexpected and so
beautiful as that which they now gazed upon from the elevation they
had gained. From this ridge they looked down the lake, and the eye
could take in an extent of many miles, with its verdant wooded
islands, which stole into view one by one as the rays of the morning
sun drew up the moving curtain of mist that enveloped them; and soon
both northern and southern shores became distinctly visible, with all
their bays, and capes, and swelling oak and pine crowned hills.

And now arose the question, "Where are we? What lake is this? Can it
be the Ontario, or is it the Rice Lake? Can yonder shores be those of
the Americans, or are they the hunting-grounds of the dreaded
Indians?" Hector remembered having often heard his father say that the
Ontario was like an inland sea, and the opposite shores not visible
unless in some remarkable state of the atmosphere, when they had been
occasionally discerned by the naked eye; while here they could
distinctly see objects on the other side, the peculiar growth of the
trees, and even flights of wild fowl winging their way among the rice
and low bushes on its margin. The breadth of the lake from shore to
shore could not, they thought, exceed three or four miles; while its
length, in an easterly direction, seemed far greater,--beyond what
the eye could take in. [Footnote: The length of the Rice Lake, from
its head-waters near Black's Landing to the mouth of the Trent, is
said to be twenty-five miles; its breadth, from north to south, varies
from three to six.]

They now quitted the lofty ridge, and bent their steps towards the
lake. Wearied with their walk, they seated themselves beneath the