rlooked a beautiful plain below, in the centre of which a vast lake
stretched away over many miles, and lay nestled in that wilderness like
a gem in a setting of emerald. This lake was studded with numerous
islands which were heavily timbered, and formed a beautiful scene.
Taking a circuitous route so as to reach the lake in safety, they
encamped on its banks as the last rays of the setting sun were
reflected in golden gushes from its placid bosom and nestling isles. As
they gazed on the enchanting scene before them, it seemed as if nature
had reserved all her beauties for this chosen spot, denying to the vast
desert they had traversed fertility enough to make it inhabitable.

On the opposite side of the lake arose precipitous ridges, varying in
height from five hundred to a thousand feet, covered with the
balsam-pine, whose dark stately green, formed a magnificent contrast
with the graceful foliage of the aspen, which bordered the lake. A
curious phenomenon here attracted their attention. Beneath the
transparent waters of the lake were distinctly visible, trees of
enormous proportions, standing erect, with the leaves and branches
entire, looking as though they had grown there, or been sunken in their
watery bed. Making themselves a raft of dry wood, they explored every
part of the lake, and found beneath them in the water the same
forest-like appearance, and they concluded that the lake had once been
unobstructed, and that there had been an immense land-slide which had
precipitated itself from the ridge over which they had entered the
valley into the lake; part of the wood drifting on the surface, had
formed itself into the little isles, while the rest had become
submerged, and still rested at a great depth beneath the waters that
closed placidly over its topmost branches.

Innumerable fowl filled the branches of the trees in these isles, while
countless numbers of them were sporting in the water, undisturbed by
the intrusion of our wanderers. Evidently they had never seen man
before, and had yet to learn he would prey on their numbers to sustain
life. Here they also found the salmon trout, grown to great size, so
large that one was enough for a supper for the whole party. There were
also great quantities of tender grass which, growing undisturbed in a
constant shade, was as tender, and which the horses cropped with as
much avidity, as the grasses of early spring, although now the
mid-summer, with scorching sun, was u