lake, and close to its margin, is the farm of Mr.
McDonnell, thus forming an exception to the general rule. His residence
is an excessively pretty cottage, commanding a grand panoramic view.
Here we stopped to pay a visit to the energetic old Highlander and his
family, and to enjoy his hospitalities. If he is to be taken as a
specimen of the salubrity of the climate, I never saw so healthy a
place. He came here as a lad to push his fortunes, with nothing but a
good axe and a stout heart. He has left fifty summers far behind him; he
looks the embodiment of health, and he carries his six feet two inches
in a way that might well excite the envy of a model drill-sergeant; and
when he took my hand to welcome me, I felt all my little bones
scrunching under his iron grasp, as if they were so many bits of pith.

I could not help contrasting the heartiness of his welcome with the two
stiff fingers which in highly-civilized life are so often proffered
either from pride or indifference; and though he did very nearly make me
cry "Enough!" I would a thousand times rather suffer and enjoy his
hearty grasp than the cold formality of conventional humbug. The hardy
old pioneer has realized a very comfortable independence, and he told me
his only neighbours were a band of his countrymen at the back of the
hill, who speak Gaelic exclusively and scarce know a word of English.
They mostly came out with "The Macnab," but from time to time they are
refreshed by arrivals from the Old Country.

Having a long day's work before us, we were enabled to make but a short
stay, so, bidding him and his family a sincere good-bye and good speed,
we renewed our journey. We soon came in sight of the black stumpy
monuments of one of the most disastrous conflagrations which ever
victimized a forest. Some idea may be formed of the ravages of the
"devouring element," from the simple fact that it all but totally
consumed every stick of timber covering a space of forty-five miles by
twenty-five; and the value of what was thus destroyed may be partially
estimated, when it is considered that one good raft of timber is worth
from three to five thousand pounds. These rafts, which are seen dotted
about the lake in every direction, have a very pretty effect, with their
little distinguishing flags floating in the breeze, some from the top of
a pole, some from the top of the little shanty in which their hardy
navigators live; and a dreary, fatiguing, and dangerous caree