tain, about a mile long and half a mile wide, surrounded by
dark forests of balsam, hemlock, and pine, and, like the one we had
just passed, a very picture of unbroken solitude.

It is not in the woods alone to give one this impression of utter
loneliness. In the woods are sounds and voices, and a dumb kind of
companionship; one is little more than a walking tree himself; but
come upon one of these mountain lakes, and the wildness stands
revealed and meets you face to face. Water is thus facile and
adaptive, that makes the wild more wild, while it enhances culture and
art.

The end of the pond which we approached was quite shoal, the stones
rising above the surface as in a summer brook, and everywhere showing
marks of the noble game we were in quest of,--footprints, dung, and
cropped and uprooted lily pads. After resting for a half hour, and
replenishing our game-pouches at the expense of the most respectable
frogs of the locality, we filed on through the soft, resinous
pine-woods, intending to camp near the other end of the lake, where,
the guide assured us, we should find a hunter's cabin ready built. A
half-hour's march brought us to the locality, and a most delightful
one it was,--so hospitable and inviting that all the kindly and
beneficent influences of the woods must have abided there. In a slight
depression in the woods, about one hundred yards from the lake, though
hidden from it for a hunter's reasons, surrounded by a heavy growth of
birch, hemlock, and pine, with a lining of balsam and fir, the rude
cabin welcomed us. It was of the approved style, three sides inclosed,
with a roof of bark and a bed of boughs, and a rock in front that
afforded a permanent backlog to all fires. A faint voice of running
water was head near by, and, following the sound, a delicious spring
rivulet was disclosed, hidden by the moss and debris as by a new fall
of snow, but here and there rising in little well-like openings, as if
for our special convenience. On smooth places on the log I noticed
female names inscribed in a female hand; and the guide told us of an
English lady, an artist, who had traversed this region with a single
guide, making sketches.

Our packs unslung and the kettle over, our first move was to ascertain
in what state of preservation a certain dug-out might be, which the
guide averred, he had left moored in the vicinity the summer
before,--for upon this hypothetical dug-out our hopes of venison
rested. After