Where he had thought there was only the thick forest he saw a narrow opening toward which Jean was speeding in his canoe.
Five minutes later they passed under a thick mass of overhanging spruce boughs into a narrow stream so still and black in the deep shadows of the forest that it looked like oil.

There was something a little awesome in the suddenness and completeness with which they were swallowed up.

Over their heads the spruce and cedar tops met and shut out the sunlight.

On both sides of them the forest was thick and black.
The trail of the stream itself was like a tunnel, silent, dark, mysterious.

The paddles dipped noiselessly, and the two canoes travelled side by side.
"There are few who know of this break into the forest," said Jean in a low voice.