oaks and pines;
while in the deep ravines on either side grew trees of the largest
growth, the heads of which lay on a level with their path. Wild cliffy
banks, beset with huge boulders of red and grey granite and water-worn
limestone, showed that it had once formed the boundary of the lake,
though now it was almost a quarter of a mile in its rear. Springs of
pure water were in abundance, trickling down the steep rugged sides of
this wooded glen. The children wandered onwards, delighted with the wild
picturesque path they had chosen, sometimes resting on a huge block of
moss-covered stone, or on the twisted roots of some ancient grey old oak
or pine, while they gazed with curiosity and interest on the lonely but
lovely landscape before them. Across the lake, the dark forest shut all
else from their view, rising in gradual far-off slopes, till it reached
the utmost boundary of sight. Much the children marvelled what country
it might be that lay in the dim, blue, hazy distance,--to them, indeed,
a _terra incognita_--a land of mystery; but neither of her companions
laughed when Catharine gravely suggested the probability of this unknown
shore to the northward being her father's beloved Highlands. Let not
youthful and more learned reader smile at the ignorance of the Canadian
girl; she knew nothing of maps, and globes, and hemispheres,--her only
book of study had been the Holy Scriptures, her only teacher a poor
Highland soldier.

Following the elevated ground above this deep valley, the travellers at
last halted on the extreme, edge of a high and precipitous mound, that
formed an abrupt termination to the deep glen. They found water not far
from this spot fit for drinking, by following a deer-path a little to
the southward. And there, on the borders of a little basin on a pleasant
brae, where the bright silver birch waved gracefully over its sides,
they decided upon building a winter house. They named the spot Mount
Ararat: "For here." said they, "we will build us an ark of refuge and
wander no more." And mount Ararat is the name which the spot still
bears. Here they sat them down on a fallen tree, and ate a meal of dried
venison, and drank of the cold spring that welled out from beneath the
edge of the bank. Hector felled a tree to mark the site of their house
near the birches, and they made a regular blaze on the trees as they
returned home towards the wigwam, that they might not miss the place.
They found less difficul