apparently much amused with our proceedings, and nothing
seemed further from their thoughts than stealing. Just as we paddled
from the bank, one of our men threw them a handful of tobacco, for which
there was a great scramble, and their noisy voices died away in the
distance as we rounded an abrupt point of rocks, and floated out upon
the glorious expanse of Lac du Bois, or, as it is more frequently
called, the Lake of the Woods.

There is nothing, I think, better calculated to awaken the more solemn
feelings of our nature (unless, indeed, it be the thrilling tones of
sacred music) than these noble lakes, studded with innumerable islets,
suddenly bursting on the traveller's view as he emerges from the sombre
forest-rivers of the American wilderness. The clear unruffled water,
stretching out to the horizon--here, embracing the heavy and luxuriant
foliage of a hundred wooded isles, or reflecting the wood-clad mountains
on its margin, clothed in all the variegated hues of autumn; and there,
glittering with dazzling brilliancy in the bright rays of the evening
sun, or rippling among the reeds and rushes of some shallow bay, where
hundreds of wild-fowl chatter, as they feed, with varied cry, rendering
more apparent, rather than disturbing, the solemn stillness of the
scene: all tends to "raise the soul from nature up to nature's God," and
reminds one of the beautiful passage of Scripture, "O Lord, how manifold
are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of
thy riches." At the same time, when one considers how very few of the
human race cast even a passing glance on the beauties of nature around,
one cannot but be impressed with the truth of the lines--

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

At night we encamped at the furthest extremity of the lake, on a very
exposed spot, whence we looked out upon the starlit scene, while our
supper was spread before us in the warm light of the fire, which blazed
and crackled as the men heaped log after log upon it, sending up clouds
of bright sparks into the sky.

Next morning we commenced the ascent of Lac la Pluie River. This is
decidedly the most beautiful river we had yet traversed--not only on
account of the luxuriant foliage of every hue with which its noble banks
are covered, but chiefly from the resemblance it bears in many places to
the scenery of England, recalling to mind the grassy lawns and