We made the land about three o'clock, after much exertion and
very considerable wetting. After the storm had passed over, a calm
succeeded, when we again put out, and kept the lake till eight o'clock.
We had a very bad encampment--loose rough stones to lie on, and scarcely
wood enough to make a fire. To finish our misery, it soon began to rain,
but ceased before ten. At four o'clock this morning we arose, the
weather being quite cold. At an early hour, after getting afloat, we
reached and passed a noted landing for canoes and boats, called
_Choishwa_ (Smooth-rock.) This shelter, is formed by a ledge of rock
running into the lake. On the inner, or perpendicular face, hundreds of
names are cut or scratched upon the rock. This _cacoethes scribendi_ is
the pest of every local curiosity or public watering-place. Even here,
in the wilderness, it is developed.
Wise men ne'er cut their names on doors or rock-heads,
But leave the task to scribblers and to blockheads;
Pert, trifling folks, who, bent on being witty,
Scrawl on each post some fag-end of a ditty,
Spinning, with spider's web, their shallow brains,
O'er wainscots, borrowed books, or window panes.
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