AFTER resting nearly a year in one of the most citant posts of the Northwest Company and conducting the fur trade there, I bean to look forward to my return to Motreal. I waited with the greatest impatence for the arrival of the period which is to terminate my banishment, and resore me to society. I was nearly three thusand miles distant from any settlemnts, and my only companions were wo young men, clerks of the establishment, whose characters, and limited acqirements, rendered them very uninteesting associates. My situation walone of considerable responsibility. A great number of Canadians, in te service of the Company, resided t the post, and were under my cotroul; but I found it a very difficult atter to keep them in a state of due ubordination, and to prevent them fom quarrelling and fighting with th detached parties of Indians that ocasionally visited us for the purpose of trading. Interest and personal sety, alike, required that we should be on friendly terms with the natives and I spent many anxious hours inendeavouring to promote mutual peae and good-humour. Our post was sitated upon the banks of a small lake, bout sixteen miles broad. This lakelischarged itself by means of a river ito another of much greater dimensions and thick forests covered every part the neighbouring country.

One afternoon I bok my gun, and strolled out in search of game. Though it was now the begining of spring, the lake was still frozen ompletely across, the cold of the preceeng winter having been very intense. Isoon fell in with a flock of wild dues, but before I could get a shot at tem, they began to fly towards the midle of the lake; however, I followed them fearlessly over the ice, in the «pectation that they would soon aligh. The weather was mild, though rather blowy. Detached black clouds moved rapidly along the face of Heaven in immense masses, and the sun blazed forth in unobscured splendourit one moment, and was completely shrouded from the eye the next. I wasso intent on the pursuit of my game that I hastened forwards almost uronsciously, my progress being much facilitated by a

thin layer of snow which covered the ice, and rendered the footing tolerably secure. At last, I fired at the ducks, and killed one and wounded another. I immediately picked up the first, but its companion, having only been winged, began to leap away before I caught hold of it. I followed, but had not advanced more than twenty yards, when, to my astonishment, I found that the ice was in many places covered with water to the depth of several inches. I stopped short full of alarm, and irresolute what to do. It was evident that a thaw had already commenced, and as I well knew with what rapidity the ice broke up when once affected by a change of temperature, I became alive to all the dangers of my situation, and almost shuddered at the thought of moving from the spot on which I stood.

The weather had grown calm and hazy, and the sky was very black and lowering. Large flakes of snow soon began to fall languidly and perpendicularly through the air; and after a little time, these were accompanied by a thick shower of sleety rain, which gradually became so dense, that I could not discern the shore. I strained my eyes to catch a glance of some living object, but a dreary and motionless expanse stretched around me on every side, and the appalling silence that prevailed was sometimes interrupted by the receding cries of the wounded bird. All nature seemed to be awaiting some terrible event. I listened in fearful suspense, though I knew not what I expected to hear. I soon distinguished a distant thundering noise, which gradually became stronger, and appeared to approach the place where Istood. Repeated explosions, and hollow murmurings of irregular loudness, were succeeded by a tremendous sound, like that of rocks bursting asunder. The ice trembled beneath my feet, and the next moment it was disunited by a vast chasm, which opened itself within a few yards of me. The water of the lake rushed upwards through the gap with foaming fury, and began to flood the surface all around.

I started backwards, and ran, as I conceived, towards the shore; but my progress was soon stopped by one of those weak parts of the ice called air

holes. While walking cautiously round it, my mind grew somewhat composed, and I resolved not to advance any farther, until I had fixed upon some way of regulating my course; but I found this to be impossible. I vainly endeavoured to discern land, and the moaning of the wind among the distant forests alone indicated that there was any at all near me. Strong and irregular blasts, loaded with snow and sleet, swept wildly along, involving every thing in obscurity, and bewildering my steps with malignant influence. I sometimes fancied I saw the spot where our post was situated, and even the trees and houses upon it; but the next moment a gust of wind would whirl away the fantastic shaped fogs that had produced the agreeable illusion, and reduce me to actionless despair. I fired my gun repeatedly, in the hope that the report would bring some one to my assistance; however, the shores alone acknowledged, by feeble echoes, that the sound had reached them.

The storm increased in violence, and at intervals the sound of the ice breaking up, rolled upon my ear like distant thunder, and seemed to mutter appalling threats. Alarm and fatigue made me dizzy, and I threw down my gun and rushed forwards in the face of the drifting showers, which were now so thick as to affect my respiration. I soon lost all sense of fear, and began to feel a sort of frantic delight in struggling against the careering blasts. I hurried on, sometimes running along the brink of a circular opening in the ice, and sometimes leaping across frightful chasms-all the while unconscious of having any object in view. The ice every where creaked under my feet, and I knew that death awaited me, whether I fled away or remained on the same spot. I felt as one would do, if forced by some persecuting fiend to range over the surface of a black and shoreless ocean; and aware, that whenever his tormentor withdrew his sustaining power, he would sink down and be suffocated among the billows that struggled beneath him.

At last night came on, and, exhausted by fatigue and mental excitement, I wrapped myself in my cloak, and lay down upon the ice. It was so dark that I could not have moved one step without running the risk of falling into the lake. I almost wished that the

drowsiness, produced by inense cold, would begin to affect me but I did not feel in the slightest dgree chilled, and the temperature of he air was in reality above freezing. had lain only a few minutes when I hard the howl of a wolf. The sound was indescribably delightful to my e, and I started up with the intentio of hastening to the spot from where it seemed to proceed; but hopiess as my situation then was, my hart shrunk within me when I contemplated the dangers I would encouner in making such an attempt. My courage failed, and I resumed my brmer position, and listened to the ndulations of the water as they undemined, and beat against the lower pat of the ice on which I lay.

About midnigt the storm ceased, and most of the couds gradually forsook the sky, whe the rising moon dispelled the darkess that had previously prevailed. However, a thick haze covered the havens, and rendered her light dimand ghastly, and similar to that shed luring an eclipse. A succession of noies had continued with little interrution for several hours, and at last t'e ice beneath me began to move. I sarted up, and, on looking around, sav that the whole surface of the lak was in a state of agitation. My eye became dim, and I stretched out myarms to catch hold of some object, and felt as if all created things were assing away. The hissing, grinding and crashing, produced by the dierent masses of ice coming into colsion, were tremendous. Large fragnents sometimes got wedged together,ind impeded the progress of those baind them, which being pushed forwrd by others still farther back, were orced upon the top of the first, and ntastic-shaped pyramids and tower could be indistinctly seen rising amag the mists of night, and momentary changing their forms, and finally diorganizing themselves with magical apidity and fearful tumult. At oter times, an immense mass of ice would start up into a perpendicular position, and continue gleaming in the moonshine for a little period, and the vanish like a spectre among the abys of waters beneath it. The piece of ie on which I had first taken my positon, happened to be very large and nick, but other fragments were soo forced above it, and

forms under which nature continually presented herself to their eyes, had impressed them with a sense of their own insignificance, and of the transitoriness of their daily occupations and enjoyments, and rendered them thoughtful, taciturn, and unsusceptible. I seated myself at the root of a large tree near the wigwam, and continued observing its inmates, till, overcome by fatigue, I sunk into a deep sleep.

About midnight I was awakened by some one pulling my hand, and, on looking up, I perceived the Indian who had opposed my accompanying them, and whose name was Outalisso, standing beside me. He put his finger on his lips, by way of enjoining silence, and motioned that I should rise and follow him. I obeyed, and he led me behind a large tree which grew at a little distance from the wigwam, and said, in a low voice," Listen to me, my friend. I told you that you would receive no harm from us; and shall I belie my words? Thakakawerenté, who requested that you might be allowed to follow our steps, says that his father was murdered by a party of people under your command, about nine moons ago. This may be true, and you at the same time may be guileless; for we cannot always controul those who are placed under our authority. He tells me that the spirit of the old man has twice appeared to him in his dreams to-night, desiring him to put you to death. He has gone to repose himself again, and if his father visits him a third time during sleep, he will certainly kill you whenever he awakes. You must, therefore, hasten away, if you wish to live any longer." "What can I do?" cried I;" death awaits me whether I remain here, or fly from Thakakawerenté. It is impossible for me to reach home alone." "Be patient," returned Outalisso, "and I will try to save you. Not far from hence, the roots of a large oak, which has been blown down by the wind, stretch high into the air, and may be seen at a great distance. You must go there, and wait till I come to you. Keep the mossy side of the trees on your left hand, and you will find the place without any difficulty."

Outalisso motioned me to hurry away, and I departed with a palpitating heart, and plunged into the recesses of the forest, and regulated my

course in the manner he directed. The moon was rising, and I could see to a considerable distance around. The rustling of the dry leaves among my feet often made me think that some one walked close behind me, and I scarcely dared to look back, lest I should see an uplifted tomahawk descending upon my head. I sometimes fancied I observed Thakakawerenté lurking among the brushwood, and stopped short till imagination conju red up his form in a different part of the forest, and rendered me irresolute which phantom I should endeavour to avoid.

I reached the tree sooner than I expected: It lay along the ground, and its immense roots projected from the trunk, at right angles, to the height of twelve or fourteen feet, their interstices being so filled with earth, that it was impossible to see through them.

I sat down, and found the agitation of my spirits gradually subside, under the tranquillizing influence of the scene. Not a breath of wind shook the trees, the leafless and delicately-fibred boughs of which, when viewed against the cloudless sky, seemed like a sable network spread overhead. The nests which the birds had made the preceding summer, still remained among the branches, silent, deserted, and unsheltered, making the loneliness of the forest, as it were, visible to the mind; while a withered leaf sometimes dropped slowly down-a sad memorial of the departed glories of the vegetable world. A small rivulet ran within a little distance of me, but its course was so con→ cealed by long grass, that I would have been aware of its existence by the mur nuring of its waters only, had it not glittered dazzlingly in the moonshine at one spot, while flowing over a large smooth stone. When I looked into the recesses of the forest, I saw the trees ranged before each other like colossal pillars, and gradually blending their stems together, until they formed a dark and undefined mass. In some places, a scathed trunk, whitened with the moss of successive centuries, stood erect in spectral grandeur, like a being whom immense age and associations, rivetted to long-past times, had isolated from the sympathies of his fellowmortals. As the moon gradually rose on the arch of heaven, her light fell at different angles, and the aspect of the woods was continually changing. New