pon the lily pads on our way. We had no inclination to injure them,
and we let them feed on. Some of them were hugely astonished, however,
at our presence, and dashed away, whistling and snorting, into the
forest. Two miles from the lake, we came to a rocky barrier, down
which the stream, came rushing and roaring, for fifty or sixty rods,
in a descent of perhaps sixty feet in all. Around these rapids the
boats were carried, and we found, above them, the water deep and
sluggish, flowing through a dense forest, the tall trees on the banks
stretching their leafy arms across the narrow channel, forming above
it an arch delightfully cool, through which the sunlight could
scarcely penetrate. We followed this channel a long way, when we came
to a little lake or pond, four or five miles in circumference. It was
a perfect gem, laying there all alone, so calm, so lovely in its
solitude, with no sign of civilization around it, no sound of
civilization startling its echoes from their sleep of ages, no human
voice having perhaps ever been heard upon its shore since the red man
departed from the hunting-ground of his fathers. The shores all around
it were bold and rocky, save on the western side, where a broad sandy
beach, of a quarter of a mile in extent, lay between the water and the
shadow of the deep forest beyond. A solitary island of half a dozen
acres, covered with majestic pines and tall, straight spruce trees,
rises near the centre of the lake, adding a new charm to its quiet
beauty. The waters of this little lake are clearer and more
transparent than those of any other we had seen; we could see the
white shells on its sandy bottom, fifteen feet below the surface. This
peculiarity induced us to believe that we were above the stratum of
iron ore which seems to underlay most of this wild region, coloring,
while it does not render impure, the waters of most of these lakes and
rivers. I have frequently, in my wanderings in these northern wilds,
stumbled upon outcropping orebeds, which, were they nearer market, or
more accessible to the energy and enterprise of the American people,
would be capable of building up gigantic fortunes, but they are all
valueless here, and probably will continue so for generations to come.

We saw the fresh tracks of a moose on the sandy beach, tracks that had
been made that morning, and we concluded to spend the day here, in the
hope of securing one of these gigantic deer. We rowed to the island,
int