or Canadian ivy) and the wild vine,
flinging their closely-entwined wreaths of richly tinted foliage from
bough to bough of the forest trees, mingling their hues with the
splendid rose-tipped branches of the soft maple, the autumnal tints of
which are unrivalled in beauty by any of our forest trees at home.

The purple clusters of the grape, by no means so contemptible in size as
I had been led to imagine, looked tempting to my longing eyes, as they
appeared just ripening among these forest bowers. I am told the juice
forms a delicious and highly-flavoured jelly, boiled with sufficient
quantity of sugar; the seeds are too large to make any other preparation
of them practicable. I shall endeavour, at some time or other, to try
the improvement that can be effected by cultivation. One is apt to
imagine where Nature has so abundantly bestowed fruits, that is the most
favourable climate for their attaining perfection with the assistance of
culture and soil.

[Illustration: Silver Pine]

The waters of the Otanabee are so clear and free from impurity that you
distinctly see every stone-pebble or shell at the bottom. Here and there
an opening in the forest reveals some tributary stream, working its way
beneath the gigantic trees that meet above it. The silence of the scene
is unbroken but by the sudden rush of the wild duck, disturbed from its
retreat among the shrubby willows, that in some parts fringe the left
bank, or the shrill cry of the kingfisher, as it darts across the water.
The steam-boat put in for a supply of fire-wood at a clearing about
half-way from Peterborough, and I gladly availed myself of the
opportunity of indulging my inclination for gathering some of the
splendid cardinal flowers that grew among the stones by the river's
brink. Here, too, I plucked as sweet a rose as ever graced an English
garden. I also found, among the grass of the meadow-land, spearmint,
and, nearer to the bank, peppermint. There was a bush resembling our
hawthorn, which, on examination, proved to be the cockspur hawthorn,
with fruit as large as cherries, pulpy, and of a pleasant tartness not
much unlike to tamarinds. The thorns of this tree were of formidable
length and strength. I should think it might be introduced with great
advantage to form live fences; the fruit, too, would prove by no means
contemptible as a preserve.

As I felt a great curiosity to see the interior of a log-house, I
entered the open door-way of the tavern,