(a Frenchman could not have wished it older,) and devoured it. I begged the half of a cigar of one of the company, (I offered him five dollars for the whole of it,) to stimulate my exhausted system, and we began our descent. We again lost our course and wandered about till, wearied out, and hungry, we sat down in a bed of wild "sheep sorrel," and plucked the green leaves and ate them. An owl fluttered on a branch over head, and I drew up my rifle and fired, but missed him. I verily believe, if I had killed him I should have eaten him on the spot. The doctor declared he would not stir-he would rather die than go any further. We cheered him up with the remembrance of his venison, at which he made sundry wry faces, not to be mistaken, and which drew peals of laughter from us, weary and faint as we were. The doctor would then stagger on, but it was really pitiful to look back and see him stop, put his shoulder to a tree, and sink his head against the trunk, then slide down in utter exhaustion, on the green moss at the root.

At length the rifle shot of the clergyman, who had gone on while we tarried for the doctor, announced that he had at last found the lake. This gave new life to our spirits, and we scrambled joyously for

66

A WEARY WIGHT."

149

ward. Those slender boats never looked so beautiful to me before, as they then did, resting quietly on the beach.

It was now nearly dark, and the nearest hut was four miles off. Three of us sat down in one boat and looked despairingly on each other, as much as to say, "Who can row these four miles?" Invalid as I was, I seemed to have the most strength left, and so took the oars and rowed two miles and a half, though every stroke seemed to tear out my very stomach-ribs and all. We at length moored our skiff at the base of a hill, and began the ascent to a clearing. With both hands on the muzzle of my rifle, which I used as a pole to push myself along with, I dragged one foot after another, till I at length stopped, and bowing my head on my gun, declared I was fairly done up, and could go no farther. Just then there came a flash of lightning that set the dark forest in a blaze, followed by a peal of thunder that made the shores and mountains tremble, as it rolled like the report of a hundred cannon down the lake. I instinctively straightened up, as the thought flashed over me, what sort of a mathematical line the bullet of my rifle would just then have made through my

brain, had the powder but ignited. I immediately stepped forward with considerable alertness, though not without reflecting on the wonderful power electricity and magnetism exerted over the human system, especially under such circumstances.

I at length reached the hut, with a head bursting with pain; and, throwing myself on the floor, begged most piteously for a morsel of bread. I had been fourteen hours without food, and most of the time undergoing the severest toil. That night was

one of pain to me, and as I turned

on my rude bed,

I felt that for once I had "paid too dear for the

whistle."

Yours truly.

LONG LAKE-A FEARFUL NIGHT-A GALE IN THE WOODSMAN BITTEN BY A RABBIT.

LONG LAKE, August.

MY DEAR H—:

You must expect now and then a hiatus in my journal, for hours of idleness are indulged in here as well as in civilized life. To-day, wearied with yesterday's tramp, we may be loitering around the camp, cleaning our rifles, and recruiting ourselves for a long to-morrow. Sometimes we idle away the entire morning, and spend the afternoon in fishing—again take a deer in the morning, and after dinner dress him, then perhaps, practice rifle-shooting towards evening. At another time a rain-storm sets in, which lasts two or three days, compelling us to keep close and do nothing. As these are all rather monotonous to me, the relation would be so to you-beside, one trout fishing

and one deer hunt is very much like another; and though the excitement is ever new to him who is engaged in them, they have no freshness in the description.

Long Lake is one of the most beautiful sheets of water I ever floated over, and its frame-work of mountains becomes the glorious picture. No artist has ever yet visited it; and alas, as I have no skill with the pencil, its beauties, like the "rose in the wilderness," must, for a while, blush unseen. I never saw a more beautiful island than "Round Island," as it is called, situated midway of the lake. As you look at it from above or below, it appears to stand between two promontories, whose green and rounded points are striving to reach it as they push boldly out into the water; while, with its abrupt, high banks, from which go up the lofty pine trees, it looks like a huge green cylinder, sunk there endwise, in the waves. I wished I owned that island-it would be pleasant to be possessor of so much beauty.

Mitchell went yesterday to the foot of this lake to meet his father and sister, who were on the way to visit him. They had started some time before, a hundred and fifty miles distant, in a bark canoe, and