the proud grace of a swan. On its ermined floor reposes a single
feathery paddle of satin-wood; but no oarsmen or attendant is to be
seen. The guest is bidden to be of good cheer--that the fates will take
care of him. The larger vessel disappears, and he is left alone in the
canoe, which lies apparently motionless in the middle of the lake.
While he considers what course to pursue, however, he becomes aware of a
gentle movement in the fairy bark. It slowly swings itself around until
its prow points toward the sun. It advances with a gentle but gradually
accelerated velocity, while the slight ripples it creates seem to break
about the ivory side in divinest melody-seem to offer the only possible
explanation of the soothing yet melancholy music for whose unseen origin
the bewildered voyager looks around him in vain.

The canoe steadily proceeds, and the rocky gate of the vista is
approached, so that its depths can be more distinctly seen. To the
right arise a chain of lofty hills rudely and luxuriantly wooded. It is
observed, however, that the trait of exquisite cleanness where the bank
dips into the water, still prevails. There is not one token of the usual
river debris. To the left the character of the scene is softer and more
obviously artificial. Here the bank slopes upward from the stream in
a very gentle ascent, forming a broad sward of grass of a texture
resembling nothing so much as velvet, and of a brilliancy of green which
would bear comparison with the tint of the purest emerald. This plateau
varies in width from ten to three hundred yards; reaching from the
river-bank to a wall, fifty feet high, which extends, in an infinity of
curves, but following the general direction of the river, until lost in
the distance to the westward. This wall is of one continuous rock, and
has been formed by cutting perpendicularly the once rugged precipice of
the stream's southern bank, but no trace of the labor has been suffered
to remain. The chiselled stone has the hue of ages, and is profusely
overhung and overspread with the ivy, the coral honeysuckle, the
eglantine, and the clematis. The uniformity of the top and bottom lines
of the wall is fully relieved by occasional trees of gigantic height,
growing singly or in small groups, both along the plateau and in the
domain behind the wall, but in close proximity to it; so that frequent
limbs (of the black walnut especially) reach over and dip their pendent
extremities into the wa