There is
ever a lurking suspicion that the beginning of things is in some way
associated with water, and one may notice that in his private walks he
is led by a curious attraction to fetch all the springs and ponds in
his route, as if by them was the place for wonders and miracles to
happen. Once, while in advance of my companions, I saw, from a high
rock, a commotion in the water near the shore, but on reaching the
point found only the marks of a musquash.
Pressing on through the forest, after many adventures with pine-knots,
we reached, about the middle of the afternoon, our destination, Nate's
Pond,--a pretty sheet of water, lying like a silver mirror in the lap
of the mountain, about a mile long and half a mile wide, surrounded by
dark forests of balsam, hemlock, and pine, and, like the one we had
just passed, a very picture of unbroken solitude.
It is not in the woods alone to give one this impression of utter
loneliness. In the woods are sounds and voices, and a dumb kind of
companionship; one is little more than a walking tree himself; but
come upon one of these mountain lakes, and the wildness stands
revealed and meets you face to face.
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