from off the face of the earth, and the lake appeared blending with the sky amid the indistinct and hazy outlines of the half-shrouded country. While we were sitting listening to the storm, silence had fallen upon us all: a thunderstorm is apt to prove an interruption to conversation. During this pause, Mr. ---- took out his pencil, and wrote upon a scrap of paper a very eloquent Mahomedan description of the attributes of God. I do not know whether it was his own, or an authentic Mahomedan document: it was sublime. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The storm having abated, we proceeded on our way; crossed a bridge a mile and some roods long, over the Cayuga lake; which, however, was still so veiled with scowling mist and clouds, that we could discern none of its features. At about three o'clock we reached Geneva, a small town situated on a lake called Seneca Water. Here we dined. ---- had most providentially brought silver forks with him: for the wretched two-pronged iron implements furnished us by our host were any thing but clean or convenient. After dinner, the weather having become mild and bright, we went up to a piazza on the second floor, which overlooked the lake and its banks: the latter are very picturesque; and the town itself, climbing in terraces along the side of a steep acclivity, rising from the water, has a very good effect. The lake at this point did not appear very wide; for we could distinguish, from where we stood, minute objects on the opposite shore. After resting ourselves for a short time, we again took to our coach, and pursued our route towards Canandaigua, where we were to pass the night. The afternoon was bright and beautiful, the road tolerable, and the country through which we passed fertile and smiling. As the evening began to come on, we reached Canandaigua Lake, a very beautiful sheet of water, of considerable extent; we coasted for some time close along its very margin. The opposite shore was high, clothed with wood, from amidst which here and there a white house looked peacefully down on the clear mirror below: the dead themselves can hardly inhabit regions more blessedly apart from the evil turmoil of the world, than the inhabitants of these beautiful solitudes.[106]