bluffs you see a single row of trees at a distance of several feet from one another, like warriors in Indian file.
The amenity of the landscape lends to it an indescribable charm. On Lake George you see bold and beautiful hills, wooded to the water's edge, and interspersed with rocks and rugged declivities that contrast with the pervading verdure. But on Lake Pepin you see grandeur putting on all forms of beauty, and wearing, under all aspects, a smile. Even its ravines are so hollowed and smoothed that every rugged feature has been softened down. Its charming hill-sides are such as the imagination of Watteau used to select for the pastoral pic-nics and concerts he delighted to paint. The charm of variety is not wanting to these slopes. The curves and undulations of verdure assume every fanciful and delightful form; now sweeping so as to create a regular amphitheatre between two high bluffs; now sinking into basins; now sparsely dotted with trees; now entirely bare of trees, and richly carpeted with grass; now crowned with noble forests; and now rising into a perpendicular and precipitous wall of sand-stone.
On our northward trip, we passed through Lake Pepin in the night-time; so that we could not see much of its scenery. Three of our boats were lashed together, and thus proceeded along the whole length of the lake, exhibiting to any stray occupant of the shore a startling and fiery spectacle. On our return we were more fortunate. We entered upon Lake Pepin at the dawn of a beautiful day. Toward the southern extremity of the lake we saw the high bluff, with its sand-stone pinnacle, known as the Maiden's Rock. It was my fortune to be standing on the hurricane-deck, with my foot upon a life-preserving stool, and my elbow leaned upon my knee, when some of my lady acquaintances of the excursion broke in upon my contemplations.
"We have come to you," said one, "for the authentic version of the legend which gives to that rock its name. Please to sit down, and tell it like a faithful chronicler."
"Authorities differ," said another, "as to whether the maiden, who threw herself from the rock, had a lover; now I insist upon it that she had."
