Here were no boards marked "DANGEROUS," nor any intimation of the depth of water beneath.

The most timid person could feel no apprehension on ice which seemed more solid than the earth; so accordingly in a few moments we had buckled and strapped on our skates, and were skimming and gliding--and I must add, falling--in all directions.

We were very much out of practice at first, except Mr.K----, who skated every day, taking short cuts across the lake to track a stray heifer or explore a blind gully.
I despair of making my readers see the scene as I saw it, or of conveying any adequate idea of the intense, the appalling loneliness of the spot.

It really seemed to me as if our voices and laughter, so far from breaking the deep eternal silence, only brought it out into stronger relief.

On either hand rose up, shear from the waters edge, a great, barren, shingly mountain; before us loomed a dark pine forest, whose black shadows crept up until they merged in the deep _crevasses_ and fissures of the Snowy Range.