id stringlengths 16 16 | text stringlengths 151 2.3k | word_count int64 30 60 | source stringclasses 1
value |
|---|---|---|---|
twg_000000037400 | said Barnett. "Good place for it," muttered Trendon. "In all probability it closed as the ship dissolved around it," said Darrow. "Otherwise we should see the effects in the water." "It might be recovered," cried Slade, excitedly. "Could you chart it, Darrow? Think of the possibilities--" "Let it lie," said the captain. "Has it not cost enough? Let it lie." | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037401 | Produced by Michael Lockey and PG Distributed Proofreaders [Illustration: He smashed down upon me again, and made that hole in my leg above the knee. I handled my knife in a hurry, and made more than one hole in his skin, while he stuck a prong through my arm.] WILD NORTHERN SCENES. OR SPORTING ADVENTURES WITH THE RIFLE AND THE | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037402 | ROD. BY S. H. HAMMOND. TO JOHN H. REYNOLDS, ESQ., OF ALBANY. You have floated over the beautiful lakes and along the pleasant rivers of that broad wilderness lying between the majestic St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain. You have, in seasons of relaxation from the labors of a profession in which you have achieved such enviable distinction, indulged in the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037403 | sports pertaining to that wild region. You have listened to the glad music of the woods when the morning was young, and to the solemn night voices of the forest when darkness enshrouded the earth. You are, therefore, familiar with the scenery described in the following pages. Permit me, then, to dedicate this book to you, not because of your | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037404 | eminence as a lawyer, nor yet on account of your distinguished position as a citizen, but as a keen, intelligent sportsman, one who loves nature in her primeval wildness, and who is at home, with a rifle and rod, in the old woods. With sentiments of great respect, I remain your friend and servant, THE AUTHOR. INTRODUCTORY. There is a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037405 | broad sweep of country lying between the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain, which civilization with its improvements and its rush of progress has not yet invaded. It is mountainous, rocky, and for all agricultural purposes sterile and unproductive. It is covered with dense forests, and inhabited by the same wild things, save the red man alone, that were there thousands | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037406 | of years ago. It abounds in the most beautiful lakes that the sun or the stars ever shone upon. I have stood upon the immense boulder that forms the head or summit of Baldface Mountain, a lofty, isolated peak, looming thousands of feet towards the sky, and counted upwards of twenty of these beautiful lakes--sleeping in quiet beauty in their | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037407 | forest beds, surrounded by primeval woods, overlooked by rugged hills, and their placid waters glowing in the sunlight. It is a high region, from which numerous rivers take their rise to wander away through gorges and narrow valleys, sometimes rushing down rapids, plunging over precipices, or moving in deep sluggish currents, some to Ontario, some to the St. Lawrence, some | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037408 | to Champlain, and some to seek the ocean, through the valley of the Hudson. The air of this mountain region in the summer is of the purest, loaded always with the freshness and the pleasant odors of the forest. It gives strength to the system, weakened by labor or reduced by the corrupted and debilitating atmosphere of the cities. It | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037409 | gives elasticity and buoyancy to the mind depressed by continued toil, or the cares and anxieties of business, and makes the blood course through the veins with renewed vigor and recuperated vitality. The invalid, whose health is impaired by excessive labor, but who is yet able to exercise in the open air, will find a visit to these beautiful lakes | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037410 | and pleasant rivers, and a fortnight or a month's stay among them, vastly more efficacious in restoring strength and tone to his system than all the remedial agencies of the most skillful physicians. I can speak understandingly on this subject, and from evidences furnished by my own personal experience and observation. To the sportsman, whether of the forest or flood, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037411 | who has a taste for nature as God threw it from his hand, who loves the mountains, the old woods, romantic lakes, and wild forest streams, this region is peculiarly inviting. The lakes, the rivers, and the streams abound in trout, while abundance of deer feed on the lily pads and grasses that grow in the shallow water, or the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037412 | natural meadows that line the shore. The fish may be taken at any season, and during the months of July and August he will find deer enough feeding along the margins of the lakes and rivers, and easily to be come at, to satisfy any reasonable or honorable sportsman. I have been within fair shooting distance of twenty in a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037413 | single afternoon while floating along one of those rivers, and have counted upwards of forty in view at the same time, feeding along the margin of one of the beautiful lakes hid away in the deep forest. The scenery I have attempted to describe--the lakes, rivers, mountains, islands, rocks, valleys and streams, will be found as recorded in this volume. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037414 | The game will be found as I have asserted, unless perchance an army of sportsmen may have thinned it somewhat on the borders, or driven it deeper into the broad wilderness spoken of. I was over a portion of that wilderness last summer, and found plenty of trout and abundance of deer. I heard the howl of the wolf, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037415 | scream of the panther, and the hoarse bellow of the moose, and though I did not succeed in taking or even seeing any of these latter animals, yet I or my companion slew a deer every day after we entered the forest, and might have slaughtered half a dozen had we been so disposed. Though the excursion spoken of in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037416 | the following pages was taken four years ago, yet I found, the last summer, small diminution of the trout even in the border streams and lakes of the "Saranac and Rackett woods." I have visited portions of this wilderness at least once every summer for the last ten years, and I have never yet been disappointed with my fortnight's sport, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037417 | or failed to meet with a degree of success which abundantly satisfied me, at least. I have generally gone into the woods weakened in body and depressed in mind. I have always come out of them with renewed health and strength, a perfect digestion, and a buoyant and cheerful spirit. For myself, I have come to regard these mountains, these | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037418 | lakes and streams, these old forests, and all this wild region, as my settled summer resort, instead of the discomforts, the jam, the excitement, and the unrest of the watering-places or the sea shore. I visit them for their calm seclusion, their pure air, their natural cheerfulness, their transcendent beauty, their brilliant mornings, their glorious sunsets, their quiet and repose. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037419 | I visit them too, because when among them, I can take off the armor which one is compelled to wear, and remove the watch which one must set over himself, in the crowded thoroughfares of life; because I can whistle, sing, shout, hurrah and be jolly, without exciting the ridicule or provoking the contempt of the world. In short, because | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037420 | I can go back to the days of old, and think, and act, and feel like "a boy again." CONTENTS. . A Great Institution . Hurrah! for the Country . The Departure--The Stag Hounds--The Chase--Round Lake . The Doctor's Story--A Slippery Fish--A Lawsuit and a Compromise . A Frightened Animal--Trolling for Trout--The Boatman's Story Defence . Kinks!--"Dirty Dogs"--The Barking Dog | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037421 | that was found Dead in the Yard--The Dog that Barked himself to Death . Stony Brook--A Good Time with the Trout--Rackett River--Tupper's Lake--A Question Asked and Answered . Hunting by Torchlight--An Incompetent Judge--A New Sound in the Forest--Old Sangamo's Donkey . Grindstone Brook--Forest Sounds--A Funny Tree covered with Snow Flakes . A Convention broken up in a Row--The Chairman ejected | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037422 | . The First Chain of Ponds--Shooting by Turns--Sheep Washing--A Plunge and a Dive--A Roland for an Oliver . A Jolly Time for the Deer--Hunting on the Water by Daylight--Mud Lake--Funereal Scenery--A New way of Taking Rabbits--The Negro and the Merino Buck--A Collision . A Deer Trapped--The Result of a Combat--A Question of Mental Philosophy Discussed . Hooking up Trout--The Left | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037423 | Branch--The Rapids--A Fight with a Buck . Round Pond--The Pile Driver--A Theory for Spiritualists . Little Tupper's Lake--A Spike Buck--A Thunder Storm in the Forest--The Howl of the Wolf . An Exploring Voyage in an Alderswamp--A Beaver Dam--A Fair Shot and a Miss--Drowning a Bear--an Unpleasant Passenger . Spalding's Bear Story--Climbing to avoid a Collision--An Unexpected Meeting--A Race . The | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037424 | Chase on the Island--The Chase on the Lake--The Bear--Gambling for Glory--Anecdote of Noah and the Gentleman who offered to Officiate as Pilot on Board the Ark . The Doctor and his Wife on a Fishing Excursion--The Law of the Case--Strong-minded Women . A Beautiful Flower--A New Lake--A Moose--His Capture--A Sumptuous Dinner . The Cricket in the Wall--The Minister's Illustration--Old Memories | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037425 | . The Accidents of Life--"Some Men Achieve Greatness, and Some have Greatness Thrust Upon Them"--A Slide--Rattle at the Top and an Icy Pool at the Bottom--A Fanciful Story . Headed Towards Home--The Martin and Sable Hunter--His Cabin--Autumnal Scenery . A Surprise--A Serenade--A Visit from Strangers--An Invitation to Breakfast--A Fashionable Hour and a Bountiful Bill of Fare . Would I were | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037426 | a Boy Again! . Headed Down Stream--Return to Tupper's Lake--The Camp on the Island . A Mysterious Sound--Treed by a Moose--Angling for a Powder Horn--An Unheeded Warning and the Consequences . Good-bye--Floating Down the Rackett--A Black Fox--A Trick upon the Martin Trappers and its Consequences . Out of the Woods--The Thousand Islands--Cape Vincent--Bass Fishing--Home--A Searcher after Truth--An Interruption--Finis THE RIFLE | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037427 | AND THE ROD. . A GREAT INSTITUTION. "It is a great institution," I said, or rather thought aloud, one beautiful summer morning, as my wife was dressing the baby. The little thing lay upon its face across her lap, paddling and kicking with its little bare arms and legs, as such little people are very apt to do, while being | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037428 | dressed. It was not our baby. We have dispensed with that luxury. And yet it was a sweet little thing, and nestled as closely in our hearts as if it were our own. It was our first grandchild, the beginning of a third generation, so that there is small danger of our name becoming extinct. A friend of mine, who | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037429 | unfortunately has no voice for song, has a most excellent wife and beautiful baby, and cannot therefore be said to be without music at home. It is his first descendant, and everybody knows that such are just the things of which fathers are very apt to be proud. He was spending an evening with a neighbor, and was asked to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037430 | sing. He declined, of course, giving as a reason that he never sang. "Why, Mr. H----," said a black-eyed little girl, of seven--"why, Mr. H----, don't you never sing to the baby?" Sure enough! I wonder if there ever was a civilized, a human man, who never sang to the baby. I do not believe that there was ever such | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037431 | a paradox in nature, as a man who had tossed the baby up and down, balanced it on his hand, given it a ride on his foot, and yet never sang to it. I do not care a fig about melody of voice, or science in quavering; I am not talking about sweetness of tone; what I mean to say | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037432 | is, that I do not believe there is a man living, even though he have no more voice than a raven, who is human, and yet never sang to the baby, always assuming that he has one. "A great institution," I repeated, half in soliloquy and half to my wife. "What in the world are you talking about?" said Mrs. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037433 | H----, as she took a pin from her mouth, and fastened the band that encircled the waist of the baby. The nurse was looking quietly on, quite willing that her work should be thus taken off her hands. Will somebody tell me, if there ever was a grandmother, especially one who became such young, who could sit by, and see | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037434 | the nurse dress her first, or even her tenth grandchild, while it was a helpless little thing, say a foot or a foot and a half long? The nurse is so unhandy; she tumbles the baby about so roughly, handles it so awkwardly, she will certainly dress it too loosely, or too tight, or leave a pin that will prick | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037435 | it, or some terrible calamity will happen. So she takes possession of the little thing, and with a hand guided by experience and the instincts of affection, puts its things on in a Christian and comfortable way. "A great institution!" I repeated again. "I do believe the man has lost his wits," remarked Mrs. H----, handing the baby to the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037436 | nurse. "Who ever heard of a baby less than three months old being called an institution?" "Never heard of such a thing in my life," I replied, "though a much greater mistake might be made." "What then, in the name of goodness, have you been talking about?" inquired Mrs. H----. "The COUNTRY of course," I replied. I had just returned | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037437 | from a business trip to Vermont--who ever thought that Vermont would be traversed by railroads, or that the echoes which dwell among her precipices and mountain fastnesses, would ever wake to the snort of the iron horse? Who ever thought that the locomotive would go screaming and thundering along the base of the Green Mountains, hurling its ponderous train, loaded | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037438 | with human freight, along the narrow valleys above which mountain peaks hide their heads in the clouds? How old Ethan Allen and General Stark, "Old Put," and the other glorious names that enrich the pages of our revolutionary history, would open their eyes in astonishment, if they could come back from "the other side of Jordan," and sit for a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037439 | little while on their own tombstones in sight of the railroads, and see the trains as they go rushing like a tornado along their native valleys. I had made up my mind that morning, all at once, to go into the country. It was a sudden resolve, but I acted upon it. Going into the country is a very different | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037440 | thing from what it used to be. There is no packing of trunks, or taking leave of friends. You take your satchel or travelling bag, kiss your wife in a hurry at the door, and jump aboard of the cars; the whistle sounds, the locomotive breathes hoarsely for a moment, and you are off like a shot. In ten minutes | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037441 | the suburbs are behind you; the fields and farms are flying to the rear; you dash through the woods and see the trees dodging and leaping behind and around each other, performing the dance of the witches "in most admired confusion;" in three hours you are among the hills of Massachusetts, the mountains of Vermont, on the borders of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037442 | majestic Hudson, in the beautiful valley of the Mohawk, a hundred miles from the good city of Albany, where you can tramp among the wild or tame things of nature to your heart's content. I had for the moment no particular place in view. What I wanted was, to get outside of the city, among the hills, where I could | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037443 | see the old woods, the streams, the mountains, and get a breath of fresh air, such as I used to breathe. I wanted to be free and comfortable for a month; to lay around loose in a promiscuous way among the hills, where beautiful lakes lay sleeping in their quiet loveliness; where the rivers flow on their everlasting course through | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037444 | primeval forests; where the moose, the deer, the panther and the wolf still range, and where the speckled trout sport in the crystal waters. I had made up my mind to throw off the cares and anxieties of business, and visit that great institution spread out all around us by the Almighty, to make men healthier, wiser, better. I had | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037445 | resolved to go into the country. That was a fixed fact. But where? There stood my rifle in one corner of the room, and my fishing rods in the other. The sight of these settled the matter. "I will go to the North," I said. "Go to the North!" said Mrs. H----. "Do tell me if you've got another of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037446 | your old hunting and fishing fits on you again?" "Yes," I replied, "I've felt it coming on for a week, and I've got it bad." "Very well," said my wife, "if the fit is on you, there's no use in remonstrating; your valise will be ready by the morning train." And so the matter was settled. But I must have | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037447 | a companion, somebody to talk to and with, somebody who could appreciate the beauties of nature; who loved the old woods, the wilderness, and all the wild things pertaining to them; to whom the forests, the lakes, and tall mountains, the rivers and streams, would recall the long past; to whom the forest songs and sounds would bring back the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037448 | memories of old, and make him "a boy again." So I sallied out to find him. I had scarcely traversed a square, when I met my friend, the doctor, with carpet bag in hand, on his way to the depot. "Whither away, my friend?" I inquired, as we shook hands. "Into the country," he replied. "Very well, but where?" "Into | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037449 | the country," he repeated, "don't you comprehend? Into the country, by the first train; anywhere, everywhere, all along shore." "Go with me," said I, "for a month." "A month! Bless your simple soul, every patient I've got will be well in less than half that time; but let them, I'll be avenged on them another time. But where do _you_ | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037450 | go?" "To my old haunts in the North," I replied. "To follow the stag to his slip'ry crag, And to chase the bounding roe." "But," said he, "I've no rifle." "I've got four." "I've no fishing rod." "I've half a dozen at your service." "Give me your hand," said he; "I'm with you." And so the doctor was booked. "Suppose," | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037451 | said the doctor, "we beat up Smith and Spalding, and take them along. Smith has got one of his old fits of the hypo. He sent for me to-day, and. I prescribed a frugal diet and the country. Wild game, and bleeding by the musquitoes, will do him good. Spalding is entitled to a holiday, for he's working himself into | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037452 | dyspepsia in this hot weather." "Just the thing;" I replied, and we started to find Smith and Spalding. We found them, and it was settled that they should go with us for a month among the mountains. Everybody knows Smith, the good-natured, eccentric Smith; Smith the bachelor, who has an income greatly beyond his moderate expenditures, and enough of capital | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037453 | to spoil, as he says, the orphan children of his sister. By way of saving them from being thrown upon the cold world with a fortune, he declares he will spend every dollar of it _himself_, simply out of regard for _them_. But Smith will do no such thing, and the tenderness with which he is rearing the two beautiful, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037454 | black-eyed, raven-haired little girls, proves that he will not. But Smith has no professional calling or business, and when his digestion troubles him, he has visions of the alms-house, and the Potters' Field, and of two mendicant little girls, while his endorsement would be regarded as good at the bank for a hundred thousand dollars. Spalding, as everybody within a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037455 | hundred leagues of the capitol knows, is a lawyer of eminence, full of good-nature, always cheerful, always instructive; a troublesome opponent at the bar; a man of genial sympathies and a big heart. If I have given him, as well as Smith, a _nom de plume_, it is out of regard for their modesty. We arranged to meet at the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037456 | cars, the next morning at six, each with a rifle and fishing rod, to be away for a month among the deer and the trout, floating over lakes the most beautiful, and along rivers the pleasantest that the sun ever shone upon. . HURRAH! FOR THE COUNTRY! Hurrah! Hurrah! We are in the country--the glorious country! Outside of the thronged | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037457 | streets; away from piled up bricks and mortar; outside of the clank of machinery; the rumbling of carriages; the roar of the escape pipe; the scream of the steam whistle; the tramp, tramp of moving thousands on the stone sidewalks; away from the heated atmosphere of the city, loaded with the smoke and dust, and gasses of furnaces, and the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037458 | ten thousand manufactories of villainous smells. We are beyond even the meadows and green fields. We are here alone with nature, surrounded by old primeval things. Tall forest trees, mountain and valley are on the right hand and on the left. Before us, stretching away for miles, is a beautiful lake, its waters calm and placid, giving back the bright | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037459 | heavens, the old woods, the fleecy clouds that drift across the sky, from away down in its quiet depths. Beyond still, are mountain ranges, whose castellated peaks stand out in sharp and bold relief, on whose tops the beams of the descending sun lie like a mantle of silver and gold. Glad voices are ringing; sounds of merriment make the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037460 | evening joyous with the music of the wild things around us. Hark! how from away off over the water, the voice of the loon comes clear and musical and shrill, like the sound of a clarion; and note how it is borne about by the echoes from hill to hill. Hark! again, to that clanking sound away up in the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037461 | air; metallic ringing, like the tones of a bell. It is the call of the cock of the woods as he flies, rising and falling, glancing upward and downward in his billowy flight across the lake. Hark! to that dull sound, like blows upon some soft, hollow, half sonorous substance, slow and measured at first, but increasing in rapidity, until | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037462 | it rolls like the beat of a muffled drum, or the low growl of the far-off thunder. It is the partridge drumming upon his log Hark! still again, to that quavering note, resembling somewhat the voice of the tree-frog when the storm is gathering, but not so clear and shrill. It is the call of the raccoon, as he clambers | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037463 | up some old forest tree, and seats himself among the lowest of its great limbs. Listen to the almost human halloo, the "hoo! hohoo, hoo!" that comes out from the clustering foliage of an ancient hemlock. It is the solemn call of the owl, as he sits among the limbs, looking out from between the branches with his great round | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037464 | grey eyes. Listen again and you will hear the voice of the catbird, the brown thrush, the chervink, the little chickadee, the wood robin, the blue-jay, the wood sparrow, and a hundred other nameless birds that live and build their nests and sing among these old woods. But go a little nearer the lake, and you will have a concert | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037465 | that will drown all these voices in its tumultuous roar. Compared to these feeble strains, it is the crashing of Julien's hundred brazen instruments to the soft and sweet melody of Ole Bull's violin. Come with me to this rocky promontory; stand with me on this moss-covered boulder, which forms the point. On either hand is a little bay, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037466 | head of which is hidden around among the woods. See! over against us, on the limb of that dead fir tree, which leans out over the water, is a bald eagle, straightening with his hooked beak the feathers of his wings, and pausing now and then to look out over the water for some careless duck of which to make | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037467 | prey. See! he has leaped from his perch, has spread his broad pinions, and is soaring upward towards the sky. See! how he circles round and round, mounting higher and higher at every gyration. He is like a speck in the air. But see! he is above the mountains now, and how like an arrow he goes, straight forward, with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037468 | no visible motion to his wings. He has laid his course for some lake, deeper in the wilderness, beyond that range of hills, and he is there, even while we are talking of his flight. A swift bird, the swiftest of all the birds, is the eagle, when he takes his descending stoop from his place away up in the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037469 | sky. He cleaves the air like a bullet, and so swift is his career that the eye can scarcely trace his flight. But, hark! all is still now, save the piping notes of the little peeper along the shore. Wait, however, a moment. There, hear that venerable podunker off to the right, with his deep bass, like the sound of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037470 | a brazen serpent. Listen! another deep voice on the left has fallen in. There, another right over against us! another and another still! a dozen! a hundred! a thousand! ten thousand! a million of them! close by us! far off! on the right hand and on the left! here! there! everywhere! until above, around us, all through the woods, all | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037471 | along the shore, all over the lake is a solid roar, impenetrable to any other sound, surging and swaying, rolling and swelling as if all the voices in the world were concentrated in one stupendous concert. But, hark! the roar is dying away; voice after voice drops out; here and there is one laggard in the song, still dragging out | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037472 | the chorus. Now all is still again, save the note of the little peeper along the shore. In two minutes that band will strike up again. The roar will go bellowing over the lake through the woods, to be thrown from hill to hill, to die away into silence again; and so it will be through all the long night, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037473 | and until the sun looks out from among the tree tops in the morning. Touch that solemn looking old croaker on yonder broad leaf of that pond lily, with the end of your fishing rod, while the music is at the highest, he will send forth a quick discordant and cracked cry, like that of a greedy dog choked with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037474 | a bone, as he plunges for the bottom; and note how suddenly that sound will be repeated, and how quick the roar of the frogs will be hushed into silence. That is a cry of alarm, a note of danger, and every frog within hearing understands its import. Is it asked _where_ we are? I answer, we are on the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037475 | Lower Saranac Lake, just on the south point, at the entrance of the romantic little bay, at the head of which stands Martin's Lake House, the only human dwelling in sight of this beautiful sheet of water. On the point where we now are, long ago, was the log shanty of a hunter and fisherman, surrounded by an acre or | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037476 | two of cleared land. But its occupant moved deeper into the wilderness, over on the waters of the Rackett, many years since; the log shanty has rotted away, and a vigorous growth of brush and small timber, now covers what once may have been called a field. But the night shadows are beginning to gather over the forest, throwing a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037477 | sort of spectral gloom among the old woods, giving a distorted look to the trunks of the trees, the low bushes, the turned up roots, and the boulders scattered over the ground. See what ogre shapes these things assume as the darkness deepens. Look at that cedar bush, with its dense foliage! It is a crouching lion, and as its | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037478 | branches wave in the gentle breeze, he seems preparing for his leap; and yonder boulder is a huge elephant! The root that comes out from the crevice is his trunk, and the moss and lichens which hang down on either side are his pendant ears; and see, he has a great tower on his back, wherein is seated a warrior | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037479 | in his ancient armor, grasping battle-axe and spear. Beyond, through that opening upon the bay, is a castle looming darkly against the sky, with massive towers and arched gateway. Such are the forms which fancy gives to these forest things, in the doubtful twilight of a summer evening. While we have been looking upon these unsubstantial shadows, the sunlight has | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037480 | left the mountain peaks, the stars have come out in the sky, and the moon has started on her course across the heavens. Let us rest on our oars a moment, here in the bay, to view the scenery around us, as seen by the mellow moonlight. So calm, so still, so motionless are both air and water, that we | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037481 | seem suspended between the sky above, sparkling and glowing with millions of bright stars, and the moon riding gloriously on her course, and a sky beneath, sparkling and glowing with like millions of bright stars, and the same moon, or its counterpart, floating away down in fathomless depths below us. See, how the same hillside, the same line of forest | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037482 | trees, the same ranges and mountain peaks are reflected back from the stirless bosom of the lake. There, above, and just on the upper line of that tall peak, looming darkly and majestically in the distance, hangs a brilliant star, sparkling and twinkling, like the sheen of a diamond; and right beneath, away down just as far below the surface | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037483 | of the water as mountain peak and star are above it, is another mountain peak and bright star, twinned by the mirrored waters. See, away down the lake, that little island with its half dozen spruce trees, clustered together! How like a great war vessel it looks, with sails all set, as seen by the uncertain light of the moon. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037484 | And that other island, off to the left, with the dead and barkless trees, how like a tall ship with bare masts riding at anchor it seems. That other island, away to the right, with its great boulders and bare rocks rising straight up out of the water, is a fortification, a stronghold surrounded by a wall of solid masonry, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037485 | and bristling with cannon. We can almost see the sentinel, and hear his measured tramp as he travels his lonely rounds, keeping watch out over the waters. See all along the shore, as you look up the bay towards the Lake House, how the millions of fireflies flash their tiny torches, upward and downward, this way and that, mingling and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037486 | crossing, and gyrating and whirling--a troubled and billowy sea of millions upon millions of glowing and sparkling gems. Reader, were you and I gifted with the spirit of poetry, what inspiration would we not gather from the glories which surround us, as we float of a summer evening over these beautiful lakes, sleeping away out here, in all their virgin | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037487 | loveliness, among these old primeval things? But you ask, "what inspiration can there be in a moon and stars, that we see every night, when the sky is cloudless; in a desolate wilderness; the roar of the frogs; the hooting of owls; these useless waters; the phosphorescent flash of lightning bugs; these piled up rocks and barren mountains? Can you | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037488 | grow corn on these hills, or make pastures of these rocky lowlands? Can you harness these rivers to great waterwheels, or make reservoirs of these lakes? Can you convert these old forests into lumber or cordwood? Can you quarry these rocks, lay them up with mortar into houses, mills, churches, public edifices? Can you make what you call these 'old | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037489 | primeval things' utilitarian? Can you make them minister to the progress of civilization, or coin them into dollars?" Pshaw! You have spoiled, with your worldliness, your greed for progress, your thirst for gain, a pleasant fancy, a glorious dream, as if everything in the heavens, on the earth, or in the waters, were to be measured by the dollar and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037490 | cent standard, and unless reducible to a representative of moneyed value, to be thrown, as utterly worthless, away. Let us row back to the Lake House. . THE DEPARTURE--THE STAG HOUNDS--THE CHASE--ROUND LAKE. From Martin's Lake House we were to take our departure in the morning. We had arranged for three boats, and as many stalwart boatmen. Two of these | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037491 | boats were for our own conveyance, and one for our luggage and provisions; the latter to be sent forward with our tents in advance, so as to have a home ready for us always, at our coming, when we chose to linger by the way. These boatmen were all jolly, good-natured and pleasant people, with a vast deal of practical | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037492 | sense, and a valuable experience in woodcraft, albeit they were rough and unpolished. Their hearts were in the right place, and they commanded our respect always for their kindness and attention to our wants, while they maintained at all times that sturdy independence which enters so largely into the character of the border men of our country. Their boats are | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037493 | constructed of spruce or cedar boards of a quarter of an inch in thickness, "clap-boarded," as the expression is, upon "knees" of the natural crook, and weigh from ninety to one hundred and ten pounds each. They are carried around rapids, or from river to river, on the back of the boatman in this wise: A "yoke" is provided, such | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037494 | as every man in the country, especially all who have visited a "sugar bush" at the season of sugar making, has seen. At the end of this yoke is a round iron projection, made to fit into a socket in the upper rave of the boat. The craft is turned bottom upwards, the yoke adjusted to the shoulders, the iron | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037495 | projections fitted into the sockets, and the boatman marches off with his boat, like a turtle with his shell upon his back. He will carry it thus sometimes half a mile before stopping to rest. With us were to go two staid and sober stag hounds, grave in aspect and trained and experienced, almost, in woodcraft, as their masters; animals | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037496 | that had been reared together, and who possessed the rare instinct of returning always to the shanty from which they started, however far the chase may have led them. It was a glorious sound in the old forests, the music of those two hounds, as their voices rang out bold and free, like a bugle, and went, ringing through the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037497 | forest, echoing among the mountains and dying away over the lakes. But of that hereafter. Our little fleet swung out upon the water, while the sun was yet hanging like a great torch among the tops of the trees, on the eastern hills. It was a beautiful morning, so fresh, so genial, so balmy. A pleasant breeze came sweeping lazily | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037498 | over the lake, and went sighing and moaning among the old forest trees. All around us were glad voices. The partridge drummed upon his log; the squirrels chattered as they chased each other up and down the great trunks of the trees; the loon lifted up his clarion voice away out upon the water; the eagle and the osprey screamed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037499 | as they hovered high above us in the air, while a thousand merry voices came from out the old woods, all mingling in the harmony of nature's gladness. A loud and repeated hurrah! burst from us all as our oars struck the water, and sent our little boats bounding over the rippled surface of the beautiful Saranac. This is a | 60 | gutenberg |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.