fall, which glittered in the sun's bright rays like a
cascade of molten silver. The divers trees and shrubs, both on the
islets and on the mainland, presented in some places the rich cultivated
appearance of the plantations on a well-tended domain; but, in other
places, the fallen timber, the rank tangled vegetation, and the
beautiful wild flowers showed that man's hand had not yet destroyed the
wild beauty of the virgin wilderness. The sky above was bright and
blue, with a few thin feathery clouds resting motionless upon its vast
concave, and the air was so still that even the tremulous aspen leaves
were but slightly agitated, while the rest of the forest's drapery hung
perfectly motionless.

Complete silence would have reigned but for the mellow sound of the
distant fall and the sweet, plaintive cries of innumerable wildfowl that
flew hither and thither, or revelled in the security of their sedgy
homes. Flocks of wild geese passed in constant succession overhead, in
the form of acute angles, giving a few trumpet notes now and then, as if
to advertise their passage to the far north to the dwellers in the world
below. Bustling teal rose in groups of dozens or half-dozens as the red
canoe broke upon their astonished gaze, and sent them, with whistling
wings, up or down the river. A solitary northern diver put up his long
neck here and there to gaze for an instant inquisitively, and then sank,
as if for ever, into the calm water, to reappear long after in some
totally new and unexpected quarter. A napping duck or two, being
wellnigh run over by the canoe, took wing with a tremendous splutter and
a perfectly idiotical compound of a quack and a roar, while numerous
flocks of plover, which had evidently meant to lie still among the
sedges and hide while the canoe passed, sprang into the air at the
unwonted hullabaloo, and made off, with diverse shriek and whistle, as
fast as their wings could carry them. Besides these noisy denizens of
the wilderness, there were seen, in various places, cranes, and crows,
and magpies, and black terns, and turkey-buzzards, all of which were
more or less garrulous in expressing surprise at the unexpected
appearance of the trappers in their wild domain. And, just as the canoe
drew near to the place at the foot of the fall where they meant to land
and make the portage, a little cabri, or prong-horned antelope, leaped
out of the woods, intending, doubtless, to drink, caught sight of the
i