theme of the hunter's praise, and which now made us feel as if we had all
been drinking some exhilarating gas. The depths of this unexplored forest
were a place to delight the heart of a botanist. There was a rich
undergrowth of plants, and numerous gay-colored flowers in brilliant
bloom. We reached the outlet at length, where some freshly-barked willows
that lay in the water showed that beaver had been recently at work.

There were some small brown squirrels jumping about in the pines, and a
couple of large mallard ducks swimming about in the stream.

The hills on this southern end were low, and the lake looked like a mimic
sea, as the waves broke on the sandy beach in the force of a strong
breeze. There was a pretty open spot, with fine grass for our mules; and
we made our noon halt on the beach, under the shade of some large
hemlocks. We resumed our journey after a halt of about an hour, making our
way up the ridge on the western side of the lake. In search of smoother
ground, we rode a little inland; and, passing through groves of aspen,
soon found ourselves again among the pines. Emerging from these, we struck
the summit of the ridge above the upper end of the lake.

We had reached a very elevated point, and in the valley below, and among
the hills, were a number of lakes of different levels; some two or three
hundred feet above others, with which they communicated by foaming
torrents. Even to our great height the roar of the cataracts came up, and
we could see them leaping down in lines of snowy foam. From this scene of
busy waters, we turned abruptly into the stillness of a forest, where we
rode among the open bolls of the pines, over a lawn of verdant grass,
having strikingly the air of cultivated grounds. This led us, after a
time, among masses of rock which had no vegetable earth but in hollows and
crevices though still the pine forest continued. Towards evening we