es through
the uninhabited forests of America.

Our first day was propitious, being warm and clear; and we travelled a
good distance ere the rapidly thickening shades of evening obliged us to
put ashore for the night. The place on which we encamped was a flat
rock which lay close to the river's bank, and behind it the thick forest
formed a screen from the north wind. It looked gloomy enough on
landing; but, ere long, a huge fire was kindled on the rock, our two
snow-white tents pitched, and supper in course of preparation, so that
things soon began to wear a gayer aspect. Supper was spread in Mr
Bain's tent by one of the men, whom we appointed to the office of cook
and waiter. And when we were seated on our blankets and cloaks upon the
ground, and Mr Bain had stared placidly at the fire for five minutes,
and then at his wife (who presided at the _board)_ for ten, we began to
feel quite jolly, and gazed with infinite satisfaction at the men, who
ate their supper out of the same kettle, in the warm light of the
camp-fire. Our first bed was typical of the voyage, being hard and
rough, but withal much more comfortable than many others we slept upon
afterwards; and we were all soon as sound asleep upon the rock in the
forest as if we had been in feather-beds at home.

The beds on which a traveller in this country sleeps are various and
strange. Sometimes he reposes on a pile of branches of the pine-tree;
sometimes on soft downy moss; occasionally on a pebbly beach or a flat
rock; and not unfrequently on rough gravel and sand. Of these the moss
bed is the most agreeable, and the sandy one the worst.

Early on the following morning, long before daylight, we were roused
from our slumbers to re-embark; and now our journey may be said to have
commenced in earnest. Slowly and silently we stepped into the canoe,
and sat down in our allotted places, while the men advanced in silence,
and paddled up the quiet river in a very melancholy sort of mood. The
rising sun, however, dissipated these gloomy feelings; and after
breakfast, which we took on a small island near the head of Jack River,
we revived at once, and started with a cheering song, in which all
joined. Soon after, we rounded a point of the river, and Lake Winnipeg,
calm and clear as crystal, glittering in the beams of the morning sun,
lay stretched out before us to the distant and scarcely perceptible
horizon. Every pleasure has its alloy, and the glorious calm,