This day we had a most delightful run among hundreds of islands;
sometimes darting through narrow rocky channels, so narrow that I could
not see the water on either side of the canoe; and then emerging, we
glided through vast fields of white water-lilies; it was perpetual
variety, perpetual beauty, perpetual delight and enchantment, from hour
to hour. The men sang their gay French songs, the other canoe joining
in the chorus.
This peculiar singing has often been described; it is very animated on
the water and in the open air, but not very harmonious. They all sing in
unison, raising their voices and marking the time with their paddles.
One always led, but in these there was a diversity of taste and skill.
If I wished to hear "En roulant ma boule, roulette," I applied to Le
Duc. Jacques excelled in "La belle rose blanche," and Lewis was great in
"Trois canards s'en vont baignant."
They often amused me by a specimen of dexterity, something like that of
an accomplished whip in London. They would paddle up towards the rocky
shore with such extreme velocity, that I expected to be dashed on the
rock, and then in a moment, by a simultaneous back-stroke of the paddle,
stop with a jerk, which made me breathless.
My only discomposure arose from the destructive propensities of the
gentlemen, all keen and eager sportsmen; the utmost I could gain from
their mercy was, that the fish should gasp to death out of my sight, and
the pigeons and the wild ducks be put out of pain instantly. I will,
however, acknowledge, that when the bass-fish and pigeons were produced,
broiled and fried, they looked so _appetissants_, smelt so savoury, and
I was _so_ hungry, that I soon forgot all my sentimental pity for the
victims.
We found to-day, on a rock, the remains of an Indian lodge, over which
we threw a sail-cloth, and dined luxuriously on our fish and pigeons,
and a glass of good madeira. After dinner, the men dashed off with great
animation, singing my favourite ditty,
"Si mon moine voulait danser,
Un beau cheval lui donnerai!"
through groups of lovely islands, sometimes scattered wide, and
sometimes clustered so close, that I often mistook twenty or thirty
together for one large island; but on approaching nearer, they opened
before us and appeared intersected by winding labyrinthine channels,
where, amid flags and water-lilies, beneath the shade of rich
embowering foliage, we glided on our way; and then we came upon a wide
open space, where we could feel the heave of the waters under us, and
across which the men--still singing with untiring vivacity--paddled with
all their might to reach the opposite islands before sunset. The moment
it becomes too dark for our steersman to see _through_ the surface of
the water, it becomes in the highest degree dangerous to proceed; such
is the frail texture of these canoes, that a pin's point might scratch a
hole in the bottom; a sunk rock, or a _snag_ or projecting bough--and
often we glided within an inch of them--had certainly swamped us.
We passed this day two Indian sepulchres, on a point of rock, with the
sparkling waters murmuring round it, and over-shadowed by birch and
pine. I landed to examine them. The Indians cannot here _bury_ their
dead, there not being a sufficiency of earth to cover them from sight,
but they lay the body, wrapped up carefully in bark, on the flat rock,
and then cover it over with rocks and stones. This was the tomb of a
woman and her child, and fragments of the ornaments and other things
buried with them were still perceptible.
We landed at sunset on a flat ledge of rock, free from bushes, which we
avoided as much as possible, from fear of mosquitoes and rattle-snakes;
and while the men pitched the marquees and cooked supper, I walked and
mused.
I wish I could give you the least idea of the beauty of this evening;
but while I try to put in words what was before me, the sense of its
ineffable loveliness overpowers me _now_ even as it did then. The sun
had set in that cloudless splendour, and that peculiar blending of rose
and amber light that belongs only to these climes and Italy; the lake
lay weltering under the western sky like a bath of molten gold; the
rocky islands which studded its surface were of a dense purple, except
where their edges seemed fringed with fire. They assumed, to the
visionary eye, strange forms; some were like great horned beetles, and
some like turtles, and some like crocodiles, and some like sleeping
whales, and winged fishes. The foliage upon them resembled dorsal fins,
and sometimes tufts of feathers: then, as the purple shadows came
darkening from the east, the young crescent moon showed herself,
flinging a paly splendour over the water. I remember standing on the
shore, "my spirits as in a dream were all bound up," and overcome by
such an intense feeling of _the beautiful_, such a deep adoration for
the power that had created it, I must have suffocated if----
But why tell _you_ this?
They pitched my tent at a _respectful_ distance from the rest, and made
me a delicious elastic bed of some boughs, over which was spread a
bear-skin, and over that blankets: but the night was hot and feverish.
The voyageurs, after rowing since daylight, were dancing and singing on
the shore till near midnight.
Next morning we were off again at early dawn, paddled "trois pipes"
before breakfast, over an open space which they call a "traverse,"
caught eleven bass-fish, and shot two pigeons. The island on which we
breakfasted was in great part white marble; and in the clefts and
hollows grew quantities of gooseberries and raspberries, wild roses, the
crimson columbine, a large species of harebell, a sort of willow,
juniper, birch, and stunted pine, and such was the usual vegetation.
It is beautiful to see in these islands the whole process of preparatory
vegetation unfolded and exemplified before one's eyes, each successive
growth preparing a soil for that which is to follow.
There was first the naked rock washed by the spray, where the white
gulls were sitting: then you saw the rock covered with some moss or
lichens; then in the clefts and seams, some long grass, a few wild
flowers and strawberries; then a few juniper and rose bushes; then the
dwarf pine, hardly rising two or three feet, and lastly trees and shrubs
of large growth; and the nearer to the mainland, the richer of course
the vegetation, for the seeds are wafted thence by the winds, or carried
by the birds, and so dispersed from island to island.