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diff --git a/1562-h/1562-h.htm b/1562-h/1562-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..364ee6a --- /dev/null +++ b/1562-h/1562-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6542 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Little Rivers, by Henry Van Dyke + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Rivers, by Henry van Dyke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Little Rivers + A Book Of Essays In Profitable Idleness + +Author: Henry van Dyke + +Release Date: May 12, 2006 [EBook #1562] +Last Updated: January 15, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE RIVERS *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + LITTLE RIVERS + </h1> + <h2> + A BOOK OF ESSAYS IN PROFITABLE IDLENESS <br /> <br /> by Henry Van Dyke + </h2> + <p> + "And suppose he takes nothing, yet he enjoyeth a delightful walk by + pleasant Rivers, in sweet Pastures, amongst odoriferous Flowers, which + gratifie his Senses, and delight his Mind; which Contentments induce many + (who affect not Angling) to choose those places of pleasure for their + summer Recreation and Health." + </p> + <p> + COL. ROBERT VENABLES, The Experienc'd Angler, 1662. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + DEDICATION + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + To one who wanders by my side + As cheerfully as waters glide; + Whose eyes are brown as woodland streams, + And very fair and full of dreams; + Whose heart is like a mountain spring, + Whose thoughts like merry rivers sing: + To her—my little daughter Brooke— + I dedicate this little book. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> DEDICATION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> PRELUDE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> LITTLE RIVERS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> A LEAF OF SPEARMINT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> AMPERSAND </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> A HANDFUL OF HEATHER </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> THE RISTIGOUCHE FROM A HORSE-YACHT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> ALPENROSEN AND GOAT'S MILK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> AU LARGE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> TROUT-FISHING IN THE TRAUN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> AT THE SIGN OF THE BALSAM BOUGH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> A SONG AFTER SUNDOWN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> THE WOOD-NOTES OF THE VEERY </a> + </p> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + PRELUDE + </h2> + <p> + AN ANGLER'S WISH IN TOWN + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + When tulips bloom in Union Square, + And timid breaths of vernal air + Are wandering down the dusty town, + Like children lost in Vanity Fair; + + When every long, unlovely row + Of westward houses stands aglow + And leads the eyes toward sunset skies, + Beyond the hills where green trees grow; + + Then weary is the street parade, + And weary books, and weary trade: + I'm only wishing to go a-fishing; + For this the month of May was made. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I guess the pussy-willows now + Are creeping out on every bough + Along the brook; and robins look + For early worms behind the plough. + + The thistle-birds have changed their dun + For yellow coats to match the sun; + And in the same array of flame + The Dandelion Show's begun. + + The flocks of young anemones + Are dancing round the budding trees: + Who can help wishing to go a-fishing + In days as full of joy as these? +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I think the meadow-lark's clear sound + Leaks upward slowly from the ground, + While on the wing the bluebirds ring + Their wedding-bells to woods around: + + The flirting chewink calls his dear + Behind the bush; and very near, + Where water flows, where green grass grows, + Song-sparrows gently sing, "Good cheer:" + + And, best of all, through twilight's calm + The hermit-thrush repeats his psalm: + How much I'm wishing to go a-fishing + In days so sweet with music's balm! +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'Tis not a proud desire of mine; + I ask for nothing superfine; + No heavy weight, no salmon great, + To break the record, or my line: + + Only an idle little stream, + Whose amber waters softly gleam, + Where I may wade, through woodland shade, + And cast the fly, and loaf, and dream: + + Only a trout or two, to dart + From foaming pools, and try my art: + No more I'm wishing—old-fashioned fishing, + And just a day on Nature's heart. + + 1894. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LITTLE RIVERS + </h2> + <p> + A river is the most human and companionable of all inanimate things. It + has a life, a character, a voice of its own, and is as full of good + fellowship as a sugar-maple is of sap. It can talk in various tones, loud + or low, and of many subjects, grave and gay. Under favourable + circumstances it will even make a shift to sing, not in a fashion that can + be reduced to notes and set down in black and white on a sheet of paper, + but in a vague, refreshing manner, and to a wandering air that goes + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Over the hills and far away." +</pre> + <p> + For real company and friendship, there is nothing outside of the animal + kingdom that is comparable to a river. + </p> + <p> + I will admit that a very good case can be made out in favour of some other + objects of natural affection. For example, a fair apology has been offered + by those ambitious persons who have fallen in love with the sea. But, + after all, that is a formless and disquieting passion. It lacks solid + comfort and mutual confidence. The sea is too big for loving, and too + uncertain. It will not fit into our thoughts. It has no personality + because it has so many. It is a salt abstraction. You might as well think + of loving a glittering generality like "the American woman." One would be + more to the purpose. + </p> + <p> + Mountains are more satisfying because they are more individual. It is + possible to feel a very strong attachment for a certain range whose + outline has grown familiar to our eyes, or a clear peak that has looked + down, day after day, upon our joys and sorrows, moderating our passions + with its calm aspect. We come back from our travels, and the sight of such + a well-known mountain is like meeting an old friend unchanged. But it is a + one-sided affection. The mountain is voiceless and imperturbable; and its + very loftiness and serenity sometimes make us the more lonely. + </p> + <p> + Trees seem to come closer to our life. They are often rooted in our + richest feelings, and our sweetest memories, like birds, build nests in + their branches. I remember, the last time that I saw James Russell Lowell, + (only a few weeks before his musical voice was hushed,) he walked out with + me into the quiet garden at Elmwood to say good-bye. There was a great + horse-chestnut tree beside the house, towering above the gable, and + covered with blossoms from base to summit,—a pyramid of green + supporting a thousand smaller pyramids of white. The poet looked up at it + with his gray, pain-furrowed face, and laid his trembling hand upon the + trunk. "I planted the nut," said he, "from which this tree grew. And my + father was with me and showed me how to plant it." + </p> + <p> + Yes, there is a good deal to be said in behalf of tree-worship; and when I + recline with my friend Tityrus beneath the shade of his favourite oak, I + consent in his devotions. But when I invite him with me to share my + orisons, or wander alone to indulge the luxury of grateful, unlaborious + thought, my feet turn not to a tree, but to the bank of a river, for there + the musings of solitude find a friendly accompaniment, and human + intercourse is purified and sweetened by the flowing, murmuring water. It + is by a river that I would choose to make love, and to revive old + friendships, and to play with the children, and to confess my faults, and + to escape from vain, selfish desires, and to cleanse my mind from all the + false and foolish things that mar the joy and peace of living. Like + David's hart, I pant for the water-brooks. There is wisdom in the advice + of Seneca, who says, "Where a spring rises, or a river flows, there should + we build altars and offer sacrifices." + </p> + <p> + The personality of a river is not to be found in its water, nor in its + bed, nor in its shore. Either of these elements, by itself, would be + nothing. Confine the fluid contents of the noblest stream in a walled + channel of stone, and it ceases to be a stream; it becomes what Charles + Lamb calls "a mockery of a river—a liquid artifice—a wretched + conduit." But take away the water from the most beautiful river-banks, and + what is left? An ugly road with none to travel it; a long, ghastly scar on + the bosom of the earth. + </p> + <p> + The life of a river, like that of a human being, consists in the union of + soul and body, the water and the banks. They belong together. They act and + react upon each other. The stream moulds and makes the shore; hollowing + out a bay here, and building a long point there; alluring the little + bushes close to its side, and bending the tall slim trees over its + current; sweeping a rocky ledge clean of everything but moss, and sending + a still lagoon full of white arrow-heads and rosy knot-weed far back into + the meadow. The shore guides and controls the stream; now detaining and + now advancing it; now bending it in a hundred sinuous curves, and now + speeding it straight as a wild-bee on its homeward flight; here hiding the + water in a deep cleft overhung with green branches, and there spreading it + out, like a mirror framed in daisies, to reflect the sky and the clouds; + sometimes breaking it with sudden turns and unexpected falls into a foam + of musical laughter, sometimes soothing it into a sleepy motion like the + flow of a dream. + </p> + <p> + Is it otherwise with the men and women whom we know and like? Does not the + spirit influence the form, and the form affect the spirit? Can we divide + and separate them in our affections? + </p> + <p> + I am no friend to purely psychological attachments. In some unknown future + they may be satisfying, but in the present I want your words and your + voice with your thoughts, your looks and your gestures to interpret your + feelings. The warm, strong grasp of Greatheart's hand is as dear to me as + the steadfast fashion of his friendships; the lively, sparkling eyes of + the master of Rudder Grange charm me as much as the nimbleness of his + fancy; and the firm poise of the Hoosier Schoolmaster's shaggy head gives + me new confidence in the solidity of his views of life. I like the pure + tranquillity of Isabel's brow as well as her + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "most silver flow + Of subtle-paced counsel in distress." +</pre> + <p> + The soft cadences and turns in my lady Katrina's speech draw me into the + humour of her gentle judgments of men and things. The touches of + quaintness in Angelica's dress, her folded kerchief and smooth-parted + hair, seem to partake of herself, and enhance my admiration for the sweet + order of her thoughts and her old-fashioned ideals of love and duty. Even + so the stream and its channel are one life, and I cannot think of the + swift, brown flood of the Batiscan without its shadowing primeval forests, + or the crystalline current of the Boquet without its beds of pebbles and + golden sand and grassy banks embroidered with flowers. + </p> + <p> + Every country—or at least every country that is fit for habitation—has + its own rivers; and every river has its own quality; and it is the part of + wisdom to know and love as many as you can, seeing each in the fairest + possible light, and receiving from each the best that it has to give. The + torrents of Norway leap down from their mountain home with plentiful + cataracts, and run brief but glorious races to the sea. The streams of + England move smoothly through green fields and beside ancient, sleepy + towns. The Scotch rivers brawl through the open moorland and flash along + steep Highland glens. The rivers of the Alps are born in icy caves, from + which they issue forth with furious, turbid waters; but when their anger + has been forgotten in the slumber of some blue lake, they flow down more + softly to see the vineyards of France and Italy, the gray castles of + Germany, the verdant meadows of Holland. The mighty rivers of the West + roll their yellow floods through broad valleys, or plunge down dark + canyons. The rivers of the South creep under dim arboreal archways hung + with banners of waving moss. The Delaware and the Hudson and the + Connecticut are the children of the Catskills and the Adirondacks and the + White Mountains, cradled among the forests of spruce and hemlock, playing + through a wild woodland youth, gathering strength from numberless + tributaries to bear their great burdens of lumber and turn the wheels of + many mills, issuing from the hills to water a thousand farms, and + descending at last, beside new cities, to the ancient sea. + </p> + <p> + Every river that flows is good, and has something worthy to be loved. But + those that we love most are always the ones that we have known best,—the + stream that ran before our father's door, the current on which we ventured + our first boat or cast our first fly, the brook on whose banks we first + picked the twinflower of young love. However far we may travel, we come + back to Naaman's state of mind: "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of + Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?" + </p> + <p> + It is with rivers as it is with people: the greatest are not always the + most agreeable, nor the best to live with. Diogenes must have been an + uncomfortable bedfellow: Antinous was bored to death in the society of the + Emperor Hadrian: and you can imagine much better company for a walking + trip than Napoleon Bonaparte. Semiramis was a lofty queen, but I fancy + that Ninus had more than one bad quarter-of-an-hour with her: and in "the + spacious times of great Elizabeth" there was many a milkmaid whom the wise + man would have chosen for his friend, before the royal red-haired virgin. + "I confess," says the poet Cowley, "I love littleness almost in all + things. A little convenient Estate, a little chearful House, a little + Company, and a very little Feast, and if I were ever to fall in Love + again, (which is a great Passion, and therefore, I hope, I have done with + it,) it would be, I think, with Prettiness, rather than with Majestical + Beauty. I would neither wish that my Mistress, nor my Fortune, should be a + Bona Roba, as Homer uses to describe his Beauties, like a daughter of + great Jupiter for the stateliness and largeness of her Person, but as + Lucretius says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'Parvula, pumilio, [Greek text omitted], tota merum sal.'" +</pre> + <p> + Now in talking about women it is prudent to disguise a prejudice like + this, in the security of a dead language, and to intrench it behind a + fortress of reputable authority. But in lowlier and less dangerous + matters, such as we are now concerned with, one may dare to speak in plain + English. I am all for the little rivers. Let those who will, chant in + heroic verse the renown of Amazon and Mississippi and Niagara, but my + prose shall flow—or straggle along at such a pace as the prosaic + muse may grant me to attain—in praise of Beaverkill and Neversink + and Swiftwater, of Saranac and Raquette and Ausable, of Allegash and + Aroostook and Moose River. "Whene'er I take my walks abroad," it shall be + to trace the clear Rauma from its rise on the fjeld to its rest in the + fjord; or to follow the Ericht and the Halladale through the heather. The + Ziller and the Salzach shall be my guides through the Tyrol; the Rotha and + the Dove shall lead me into the heart of England. My sacrificial flames + shall be kindled with birch-bark along the wooded stillwaters of the + Penobscot and the Peribonca, and my libations drawn from the pure current + of the Ristigouche and the Ampersand, and my altar of remembrance shall + rise upon the rocks beside the falls of Seboomok. + </p> + <p> + I will set my affections upon rivers that are not too great for intimacy. + And if by chance any of these little ones have also become famous, like + the Tweed and the Thames and the Arno, I at least will praise them, + because they are still at heart little rivers. + </p> + <p> + If an open fire is, as Charles Dudley Warner says, the eye of a room; then + surely a little river may be called the mouth, the most expressive + feature, of a landscape. It animates and enlivens the whole scene. Even a + railway journey becomes tolerable when the track follows the course of a + running stream. + </p> + <p> + What charming glimpses you catch from the window as the train winds along + the valley of the French Broad from Asheville, or climbs the southern + Catskills beside the Aesopus, or slides down the Pusterthal with the + Rienz, or follows the Glommen and the Gula from Christiania to Throndhjem. + Here is a mill with its dripping, lazy wheel, the type of somnolent + industry; and there is a white cascade, foaming in silent pantomime as the + train clatters by; and here is a long, still pool with the cows standing + knee-deep in the water and swinging their tails in calm indifference to + the passing world; and there is a lone fisherman sitting upon a rock, rapt + in contemplation of the point of his rod. For a moment you become a + partner of his tranquil enterprise. You turn around, you crane your neck + to get the last sight of his motionless angle. You do not know what kind + of fish he expects to catch, nor what species of bait he is using, but at + least you pray that he may have a bite before the train swings around the + next curve. And if perchance your wish is granted, and you see him gravely + draw some unknown, reluctant, shining reward of patience from the water, + you feel like swinging your hat from the window and crying out "Good + luck!" + </p> + <p> + Little rivers seem to have the indefinable quality that belongs to certain + people in the world,—the power of drawing attention without courting + it, the faculty of exciting interest by their very presence and way of + doing things. + </p> + <p> + The most fascinating part of a city or town is that through which the + water flows. Idlers always choose a bridge for their place of meditation + when they can get it; and, failing that, you will find them sitting on the + edge of a quay or embankment, with their feet hanging over the water. What + a piquant mingling of indolence and vivacity you can enjoy by the + river-side! The best point of view in Rome, to my taste, is the Ponte San + Angelo; and in Florence or Pisa I never tire of loafing along the Lung' + Arno. You do not know London until you have seen it from the Thames. And + you will miss the charm of Cambridge unless you take a little boat and go + drifting on the placid Cam, beneath the bending trees, along the backs of + the colleges. + </p> + <p> + But the real way to know a little river is not to glance at it here or + there in the course of a hasty journey, nor to become acquainted with it + after it has been partly civilised and spoiled by too close contact with + the works of man. You must go to its native haunts; you must see it in + youth and freedom; you must accommodate yourself to its pace, and give + yourself to its influence, and follow its meanderings whithersoever they + may lead you. + </p> + <p> + Now, of this pleasant pastime there are three principal forms. You may go + as a walker, taking the river-side path, or making a way for yourself + through the tangled thickets or across the open meadows. You may go as a + sailor, launching your light canoe on the swift current and committing + yourself for a day, or a week, or a month, to the delightful uncertainties + of a voyage through the forest. You may go as a wader, stepping into the + stream and going down with it, through rapids and shallows and deeper + pools, until you come to the end of your courage and the daylight. Of + these three ways I know not which is best. But in all of them the + essential thing is that you must be willing and glad to be led; you must + take the little river for your guide, philosopher, and friend. + </p> + <p> + And what a good guidance it gives you. How cheerfully it lures you on into + the secrets of field and wood, and brings you acquainted with the birds + and the flowers. The stream can show you, better than any other teacher, + how nature works her enchantments with colour and music. + </p> + <p> + Go out to the Beaver-kill + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "In the tassel-time of spring," +</pre> + <p> + and follow its brimming waters through the budding forests, to that corner + which we call the Painter's Camp. See how the banks are all enamelled with + the pale hepatica, the painted trillium, and the delicate pink-veined + spring beauty. A little later in the year, when the ferns are uncurling + their long fronds, the troops of blue and white violets will come dancing + down to the edge of the stream, and creep venturously out to the very end + of that long, moss-covered log in the water. Before these have vanished, + the yellow crow-foot and the cinquefoil will appear, followed by the + star-grass and the loose-strife and the golden St. John's-wort. Then the + unseen painter begins to mix the royal colour on his palette, and the red + of the bee-balm catches your eye. If you are lucky, you may find, in + midsummer, a slender fragrant spike of the purple-fringed orchis, and you + cannot help finding the universal self-heal. Yellow returns in the + drooping flowers of the jewel-weed, and blue repeats itself in the + trembling hare-bells, and scarlet is glorified in the flaming robe of the + cardinal-flower. Later still, the summer closes in a splendour of bloom, + with gentians and asters and goldenrod. + </p> + <p> + You never get so close to the birds as when you are wading quietly down a + little river, casting your fly deftly under the branches for the wary + trout, but ever on the lookout for all the various pleasant things that + nature has to bestow upon you. Here you shall come upon the cat-bird at + her morning bath, and hear her sing, in a clump of pussy-willows, that + low, tender, confidential song which she keeps for the hours of domestic + intimacy. The spotted sandpiper will run along the stones before you, + crying, "wet-feet, wet-feet!" and bowing and teetering in the friendliest + manner, as if to show you the way to the best pools. In the thick branches + of the hemlocks that stretch across the stream, the tiny warblers, dressed + in a hundred colours, chirp and twitter confidingly above your head; and + the Maryland yellow-throat, flitting through the bushes like a little + gleam of sunlight, calls "witchery, witchery, witchery!" That plaintive, + forsaken, persistent note, never ceasing, even in the noonday silence, + comes from the wood-pewee, drooping upon the bough of some high tree, and + complaining, like Mariana in the moated grange, "weary, weary, weary!" + </p> + <p> + When the stream runs out into the old clearing, or down through the + pasture, you find other and livelier birds,—the robins, with his + sharp, saucy call and breathless, merry warble; the bluebird, with his + notes of pure gladness, and the oriole, with his wild, flexible whistle; + the chewink, bustling about in the thicket, talking to his sweetheart in + French, "cherie, cherie!" and the song-sparrow, perched on his favourite + limb of a young maple, dose beside the water, and singing happily, through + sunshine and through rain. This is the true bird of the brook, after all: + the winged spirit of cheerfulness and contentment, the patron saint of + little rivers, the fisherman's friend. He seems to enter into your sport + with his good wishes, and for an hour at a time, while you are trying + every fly in your book, from a black gnat to a white miller, to entice the + crafty old trout at the foot of the meadow-pool, the song-sparrow, close + above you, will be chanting patience and encouragement. And when at last + success crowns your endeavour, and the parti-coloured prize is glittering + in your net, the bird on the bough breaks out in an ecstasy of + congratulation: "catch 'im, catch 'im, catch 'im; oh, what a pretty + fellow! sweet!" + </p> + <p> + There are other birds that seem to have a very different temper. The + blue-jay sits high up in the withered-pine tree, bobbing up and down, and + calling to his mate in a tone of affected sweetness, "salute-her, + salute-her," but when you come in sight he flies away with a harsh cry of + "thief, thief, thief!" The kingfisher, ruffling his crest in solitary + pride on the end of a dead branch, darts down the stream at your approach, + winding up his red angrily as if he despised you for interrupting his + fishing. And the cat-bird, that sang so charmingly while she thought + herself unobserved, now tries to scare you away by screaming "snake, + snake!" + </p> + <p> + As evening draws near, and the light beneath the trees grows yellower, and + the air is full of filmy insects out for their last dance, the voice of + the little river becomes louder and more distinct. The true poets have + often noticed this apparent increase in the sound of flowing waters at + nightfall. Gray, in one of his letters, speaks of "hearing the murmur of + many waters not audible in the daytime." Wordsworth repeats the same + thought almost in the same words: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "A soft and lulling sound is heard + Of streams inaudible by day." +</pre> + <p> + And Tennyson, in the valley of Cauteretz, tells of the river + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Deepening his voice with deepening of the night." +</pre> + <p> + It is in this mystical hour that you will hear the most celestial and + entrancing of all bird-notes, the songs of the thrushes,—the hermit, + and the wood-thrush, and the veery. Sometimes, but not often, you will see + the singers. I remember once, at the close of a beautiful day's fishing on + the Swiftwater, I came out, just after sunset, into a little open space in + an elbow of the stream. It was still early spring, and the leaves were + tiny. On the top of a small sumac, not thirty feet away from me, sat a + veery. I could see the pointed spots upon his breast, the swelling of his + white throat, and the sparkle of his eyes, as he poured his whole heart + into a long liquid chant, the clear notes rising and falling, echoing and + interlacing in endless curves of sound, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Orb within orb, intricate, wonderful." +</pre> + <p> + Other bird-songs can be translated into words, but not this. There is no + interpretation. It is music,—as Sidney Lanier defines it,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Love in search of a word." +</pre> + <p> + But it is not only to the real life of birds and flowers that the little + rivers introduce you. They lead you often into familiarity with human + nature in undress, rejoicing in the liberty of old clothes, or of none at + all. People do not mince along the banks of streams in patent-leather + shoes or crepitating silks. Corduroy and home-spun and flannel are the + stuffs that suit this region; and the frequenters of these paths go their + natural gaits, in calf-skin or rubber boots, or bare-footed. The girdle of + conventionality is laid aside, and the skirts rise with the spirits. + </p> + <p> + A stream that flows through a country of upland farms will show you many a + pretty bit of genre painting. Here is the laundry-pool at the foot of the + kitchen garden, and the tubs are set upon a few planks close to the water, + and the farmer's daughters, with bare arms and gowns tucked up, are + wringing out the clothes. Do you remember what happened to Ralph Peden in + The Lilac Sunbonnet when he came on a scene like this? He tumbled at once + into love with Winsome Charteris,—and far over his head. + </p> + <p> + And what a pleasant thing it is to see a little country lad riding one of + the plough-horses to water, thumping his naked heels against the ribs of + his stolid steed, and pulling hard on the halter as if it were the bridle + of Bucephalus! Or perhaps it is a riotous company of boys that have come + down to the old swimming-hole, and are now splashing and gambolling + through the water like a drove of white seals very much sun-burned. You + had hoped to catch a goodly trout in that hole, but what of that? The + sight of a harmless hour of mirth is better than a fish, any day. + </p> + <p> + Possibly you will overtake another fisherman on the stream. It may be one + of those fabulous countrymen, with long cedar poles and bed-cord lines, + who are commonly reported to catch such enormous strings of fish, but who + rarely, so far as my observation goes, do anything more than fill their + pockets with fingerlings. The trained angler, who uses the finest tackle, + and drops his fly on the water as accurately as Henry James places a word + in a story, is the man who takes the most and the largest fish in the long + run. Perhaps the fisherman ahead of you is such an one,—a man whom + you have known in town as a lawyer or a doctor, a merchant or a preacher, + going about his business in the hideous respectability of a high silk hat + and a long black coat. How good it is to see him now in the freedom of a + flannel shirt and a broad-brimmed gray felt with flies stuck around the + band. + </p> + <p> + In Professor John Wilson's Essays Critical and Imaginative, there is a + brilliant description of a bishop fishing, which I am sure is drawn from + the life: "Thus a bishop, sans wig and petticoat, in a hairy cap, black + jacket, corduroy breeches and leathern leggins, creel on back and rod in + hand, sallying from his palace, impatient to reach a famous salmon-cast + ere the sun leave his cloud, . . . appears not only a pillar of his + church, but of his kind, and in such a costume is manifestly on the high + road to Canterbury and the Kingdom-Come." I have had the good luck to see + quite a number of bishops, parochial and diocesan, in that style, and the + vision has always dissolved my doubts in regard to the validity of their + claim to the true apostolic succession. + </p> + <p> + Men's "little ways" are usually more interesting, and often more + instructive than their grand manners. When they are off guard, they + frequently show to better advantage than when they are on parade. I get + more pleasure out of Boswell's Johnson than I do out of Rasselas or The + Rambler. The Little Flowers of St. Francis appear to me far more precious + than the most learned German and French analyses of his character. There + is a passage in Jonathan Edwards' Personal Narrative, about a certain walk + that he took in the fields near his father's house, and the blossoming of + the flowers in the spring, which I would not exchange for the whole of his + dissertation On the Freedom of the Will. And the very best thing of + Charles Darwin's that I know is a bit from a letter to his wife: "At last + I fell asleep," says he, "on the grass, and awoke with a chorus of birds + singing around me, and squirrels running up the tree, and some woodpeckers + laughing; and it was as pleasant and rural a scene as ever I saw; and I + did not care one penny how any of the birds or beasts had been formed." + </p> + <p> + Little rivers have small responsibilities. They are not expected to bear + huge navies on their breast or supply a hundred-thousand horse-power to + the factories of a monstrous town. Neither do you come to them hoping to + draw out Leviathan with a hook. It is enough if they run a harmless, + amiable course, and keep the groves and fields green and fresh along their + banks, and offer a happy alternation of nimble rapids and quiet pools, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "With here and there a lusty trout, + And here and there a grayling." +</pre> + <p> + When you set out to explore one of these minor streams in your canoe, you + have no intention of epoch-making discoveries, or thrilling and + world-famous adventures. You float placidly down the long stillwaters, and + make your way patiently through the tangle of fallen trees that block the + stream, and run the smaller falls, and carry your boat around the larger + ones, with no loftier ambition than to reach a good camp-ground before + dark and to pass the intervening hours pleasantly, "without offence to God + or man." It is an agreeable and advantageous frame of mind for one who has + done his fair share of work in the world, and is not inclined to grumble + at his wages. There are few moods in which we are more susceptible of + gentle instruction; and I suspect there are many tempers and attitudes, + often called virtuous, in which the human spirit appears to less advantage + in the sight of Heaven. + </p> + <p> + It is not required of every man and woman to be, or to do, something + great; most of us must content ourselves with taking small parts in the + chorus. Shall we have no little lyrics because Homer and Dante have + written epics? And because we have heard the great organ at Freiburg, + shall the sound of Kathi's zither in the alpine hut please us no more? + Even those who have greatness thrust upon them will do well to lay the + burden down now and then, and congratulate themselves that they are not + altogether answerable for the conduct of the universe, or at least not all + the time. "I reckon," said a cowboy to me one day, as we were riding + through the Bad Lands of Dakota, "there's some one bigger than me, running + this outfit. He can 'tend to it well enough, while I smoke my pipe after + the round-up." + </p> + <p> + There is such a thing as taking ourselves and the world too seriously, or + at any rate too anxiously. Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane + sadness of modern society comes from the vain idea that every man is bound + to be a critic of life, and to let no day pass without finding some fault + with the general order of things, or projecting some plan for its + improvement. And the other half comes from the greedy notion that a man's + life does consist, after all, in the abundance of the things that he + possesses, and that it is somehow or other more respectable and pious to + be always at work making a larger living, than it is to lie on your back + in the green pastures and beside the still waters, and thank God that you + are alive. + </p> + <p> + Come, then, my gentle reader, (for by this time you have discovered that + this chapter is only a preface in disguise,—a declaration of + principles or the want of them, an apology or a defence, as you choose to + take it,) and if we are agreed, let us walk together; but if not, let us + part here with out ill-will. + </p> + <p> + You shall not be deceived in this book. It is nothing but a handful of + rustic variations on the old tune of "Rest and be thankful," a record of + unconventional travel, a pilgrim's scrip with a few bits of blue-sky + philosophy in it. There is, so far as I know, very little useful + information and absolutely no criticism of the universe to be found in + this volume. So if you are what Izaak Walton calls "a severe, + sour-complexioned man," you would better carry it back to the bookseller, + and get your money again, if he will give it to you, and go your way + rejoicing after your own melancholy fashion. + </p> + <p> + But if you care for plain pleasures, and informal company, and friendly + observations on men and things, (and a few true fish-stories,) then + perhaps you may find something here not unworthy your perusal. And so I + wish that your winter fire may burn clear and bright while you read these + pages; and that the summer days may be fair, and the fish may rise merrily + to your fly, whenever you follow one of these little rivers. + </p> + <p> + 1895. <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A LEAF OF SPEARMINT + </h2> + <h3> + RECOLLECTIONS OF A BOY AND A ROD. + </h3> + <p> + "It puzzles me now, that I remember all these young impressions so, + because I took no heed of them at the time whatever; and yet they come + upon me bright, when nothing else is evident in the gray fog of + experience."—B. D. BLACKMORE: Lorna Doone. + </p> + <p> + Of all the faculties of the human mind, memory is the one that is most + easily "led by the nose." There is a secret power in the sense of smell + which draws the mind backward into the pleasant land of old times. + </p> + <p> + If you could paint a picture of Memory, in the symbolical manner of + Quarles's Emblems, it should represent a man travelling the highway with a + dusty pack upon his shoulders, and stooping to draw in a long, sweet + breath from the small, deep-red, golden-hearted flowers of an + old-fashioned rose-tree straggling through the fence of a neglected + garden. Or perhaps, for a choice of emblems, you would better take a yet + more homely and familiar scent: the cool fragrance of lilacs drifting + through the June morning from the old bush that stands between the kitchen + door and the well; the warm layer of pungent, aromatic air that floats + over the tansy-bed in a still July noon; the drowsy dew of odour that + falls from the big balm-of-Gilead tree by the roadside as you are driving + homeward through the twilight of August; or, best of all, the clean, + spicy, unexpected, unmistakable smell of a bed of spearmint—that is + the bed whereon Memory loves to lie and dream! + </p> + <p> + Why not choose mint as the symbol of remembrance? It is the true + spice-tree of our Northern clime, the myrrh and frankincense of the land + of lingering snow. When its perfume rises, the shrines of the past are + unveiled, and the magical rites of reminiscence begin. + </p> + <p> + I. + </p> + <p> + You are fishing down the Swiftwater in the early Spring. In a shallow + pool, which the drought of summer will soon change into dry land, you see + the pale-green shoots of a little plant thrusting themselves up between + the pebbles, and just beginning to overtop the falling water. You pluck a + leaf of it as you turn out of the stream to find a comfortable place for + lunch, and, rolling it between your fingers to see whether it smells like + a good salad for your bread and cheese, you discover suddenly that it is + new mint. For the rest of that day you are bewitched; you follow a stream + that runs through the country of Auld Lang Syne, and fill your creel with + the recollections of a boy and a rod. + </p> + <p> + And yet, strangely enough, you cannot recall the boy himself at all + distinctly. There is only the faintest image of him on the endless roll of + films that has been wound through your mental camera: and in the very + spots where his small figure should appear, it seems as if the pictures + were always light-struck. Just a blur, and the dim outline of a new cap, + or a well-beloved jacket with extra pockets, or a much-hated pair of + copper-toed shoes—that is all you can see. + </p> + <p> + But the people that the boy saw, the companions who helped or hindered him + in his adventures, the sublime and marvellous scenes among the Catskills + and the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains, in the midst of which he + lived and moved and had his summer holidays—all these stand out + sharp and clear, as the "Bab Ballads" say, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Photographically lined + On the tablets of your mind." +</pre> + <p> + And most vivid do these scenes and people become when the vague and + irrecoverable boy who walks among them carries a rod over his shoulder, + and you detect the soft bulginess of wet fish about his clothing, and + perhaps the tail of a big one emerging from his pocket. Then it seems + almost as if these were things that had really happened, and of which you + yourself were a great part. + </p> + <p> + The rod was a reward, yet not exactly of merit. It was an instrument of + education in the hand of a father less indiscriminate than Solomon, who + chose to interpret the text in a new way, and preferred to educate his + child by encouraging him in pursuits which were harmless and wholesome, + rather than by chastising him for practices which would likely enough + never have been thought of, if they had not been forbidden. The boy + enjoyed this kind of father at the time, and later he came to understand, + with a grateful heart, that there is no richer inheritance in all the + treasury of unearned blessings. For, after all, the love, the patience, + the kindly wisdom of a grown man who can enter into the perplexities and + turbulent impulses of a boy's heart, and give him cheerful companionship, + and lead him on by free and joyful ways to know and choose the things that + are pure and lovely and of good report, make as fair an image as we can + find of that loving, patient Wisdom which must be above us all if any good + is to come out of our childish race. + </p> + <p> + Now this was the way in which the boy came into possession of his + undreaded rod. He was by nature and heredity one of those predestined + anglers whom Izaak Walton tersely describes as "born so." His earliest + passion was fishing. His favourite passage in Holy Writ was that place + where Simon Peter throws a line into the sea and pulls out a great fish at + the first cast. + </p> + <p> + But hitherto his passion had been indulged under difficulties—with + improvised apparatus of cut poles, and flabby pieces of string, and bent + pins, which always failed to hold the biggest fish; or perhaps with + borrowed tackle, dangling a fat worm in vain before the noses of the + staring, supercilious sunfish that poised themselves in the clear water + around the Lake house dock at Lake George; or, at best, on picnic parties + across the lake, marred by the humiliating presence of nurses, and + disturbed by the obstinate refusal of old Horace, the boatman, to believe + that the boy could bait his own hook, but sometimes crowned with the + delight of bringing home a whole basketful of yellow perch and + goggle-eyes. Of nobler sport with game fish, like the vaulting salmon and + the merry, pugnacious trout, as yet the boy had only dreamed. But he had + heard that there were such fish in the streams that flowed down from the + mountains around Lake George, and he was at the happy age when he could + believe anything—if it was sufficiently interesting. + </p> + <p> + There was one little river, and only one, within his knowledge and the + reach of his short legs. It was a tiny, lively rivulet that came out of + the woods about half a mile away from the hotel, and ran down + cater-cornered through a sloping meadow, crossing the road under a flat + bridge of boards, just beyond the root-beer shop at the lower end of the + village. It seemed large enough to the boy, and he had long had his eye + upon it as a fitting theatre for the beginning of a real angler's life. + Those rapids, those falls, those deep, whirling pools with beautiful foam + on them like soft, white custard, were they not such places as the trout + loved to hide in? + </p> + <p> + You can see the long hotel piazza, with the gossipy groups of wooden + chairs standing vacant in the early afternoon; for the grown-up people are + dallying with the ultimate nuts and raisins of their mid-day dinner. A + villainous clatter of innumerable little vegetable-dishes comes from the + open windows of the pantry as the boy steals past the kitchen end of the + house, with Horace's lightest bamboo pole over his shoulder, and a little + brother in skirts and short white stockings tagging along behind him. + </p> + <p> + When they come to the five-rail fence where the brook runs out of the + field, the question is, Over or under? The lowlier method seems safer for + the little brother, as well as less conspicuous for persons who desire to + avoid publicity until their enterprise has achieved success. So they crawl + beneath a bend in the lowest rail,—only tearing one tiny + three-cornered hole in a jacket, and making some juicy green stains on the + white stockings,—and emerge with suppressed excitement in the field + of the cloth of buttercups and daisies. + </p> + <p> + What an afternoon—how endless and yet how swift! What perilous + efforts to leap across the foaming stream at its narrowest points; what + escapes from quagmires and possible quicksands; what stealthy creeping + through the grass to the edge of a likely pool, and cautious dropping of + the line into an unseen depth, and patient waiting for a bite, until the + restless little brother, prowling about below, discovers that the hook is + not in the water at all, but lying on top of a dry stone,—thereby + proving that patience is not the only virtue—or, at least, that it + does a better business when it has a small vice of impatience in + partnership with it! + </p> + <p> + How tired the adventurers grow as the day wears away; and as yet they have + taken nothing! But their strength and courage return as if by magic when + there comes a surprising twitch at the line in a shallow, unpromising + rapid, and with a jerk of the pole a small, wiggling fish is whirled + through the air and landed thirty feet back in the meadow. + </p> + <p> + "For pity's sake, don't lose him! There he is among the roots of the blue + flag." + </p> + <p> + "I've got him! How cold he is—how slippery—how pretty! Just + like a piece of rainbow!" + </p> + <p> + "Do you see the red spots? Did you notice how gamy he was, little brother; + how he played? It is a trout, for sure; a real trout, almost as long as + your hand." + </p> + <p> + So the two lads tramp along up the stream, chattering as if there were no + rubric of silence in the angler's code. Presently another simple-minded + troutling falls a victim to their unpremeditated art; and they begin + already, being human, to wish for something larger. In the very last pool + that they dare attempt—a dark hole under a steep bank, where the + brook issues from the woods—the boy drags out the hoped-for prize, a + splendid trout, longer than a new lead-pencil. But he feels sure that + there must be another, even larger, in the same place. He swings his line + out carefully over the water, and just as he is about to drop it in, the + little brother, perched on the sloping brink, slips on the smooth + pine-needles, and goes sliddering down into the pool up to his waist. How + he weeps with dismay, and how funnily his dress sticks to him as he crawls + out! But his grief is soon assuaged by the privilege of carrying the trout + strung on an alder twig; and it is a happy, muddy, proud pair of urchins + that climb over the fence out of the field of triumph at the close of the + day. + </p> + <p> + What does the father say, as he meets them in the road? Is he frowning or + smiling under that big brown beard? You cannot be quite sure. But one + thing is clear: he is as much elated over the capture of the real trout as + any one. He is ready to deal mildly with a little irregularity for the + sake of encouraging pluck and perseverance. Before the three comrades have + reached the hotel, the boy has promised faithfully never to take his + little brother off again without asking leave; and the father has promised + that the boy shall have a real jointed fishing-rod of his own, so that he + will not need to borrow old Horace's pole any more. + </p> + <p> + At breakfast the next morning the family are to have a private dish; not + an every-day affair of vulgar, bony fish that nurses can catch, but trout—three + of them! But the boy looks up from the table and sees the adored of his + soul, Annie V——, sitting at the other end of the room, and + faring on the common food of mortals. Shall she eat the ordinary breakfast + while he feasts on dainties? Do not other sportsmen send their spoils to + the ladies whom they admire? The waiter must bring a hot plate, and take + this largest trout to Miss V—— (Miss Annie, not her sister—make + no mistake about it). + </p> + <p> + The face of Augustus is as solemn as an ebony idol while he plays his part + of Cupid's messenger. The fair Annie affects surprise; she accepts the + offering rather indifferently; her curls drop down over her cheeks to + cover some small confusion. But for an instant the corner of her eye + catches the boy's sidelong glance, and she nods perceptibly, whereupon his + mother very inconsiderately calls attention to the fact that yesterday's + escapade has sun-burned his face dreadfully. + </p> + <p> + Beautiful Annie V——, who, among all the unripened nymphs that + played at hide-and-seek among the maples on the hotel lawn, or waded with + white feet along the yellow beach beyond the point of pines, flying with + merry shrieks into the woods when a boat-load of boys appeared suddenly + around the corner, or danced the lancers in the big, bare parlours before + the grown-up ball began—who in all that joyous, innocent bevy could + be compared with you for charm or daring? How your dark eyes sparkled, and + how the long brown ringlets tossed around your small head, when you stood + up that evening, slim and straight, and taller by half a head than your + companions, in the lamp-lit room where the children were playing forfeits, + and said, "There is not one boy here that DARES to kiss ME!" Then you ran + out on the dark porch, where the honeysuckle vines grew up the tall, inane + Corinthian pillars. + </p> + <p> + Did you blame the boy for following? And were you very angry, indeed, + about what happened,—until you broke out laughing at his cravat, + which had slipped around behind his ear? That was the first time he ever + noticed how much sweeter the honeysuckle smells at night than in the day. + It was his entrance examination in the school of nature—human and + otherwise. He felt that there was a whole continent of newly discovered + poetry within him, and worshipped his Columbus disguised in curls. Your + boy is your true idealist, after all, although (or perhaps because) he is + still uncivilised. + </p> + <p> + II. + </p> + <p> + The arrival of the rod, in four joints, with an extra tip, a brass reel, + and the other luxuries for which a true angler would willingly exchange + the necessaries of life, marked a new epoch in the boy's career. At the + uplifting of that wand, as if it had been in the hand of another Moses, + the waters of infancy rolled back, and the way was opened into the + promised land, whither the tyrant nurses, with all their proud array of + baby-chariots, could not follow. The way was open, but not by any means + dry. One of the first events in the dispensation of the rod was the + purchase of a pair of high rubber boots. Inserted in this armour of modern + infantry, and transfigured with delight, the boy clumped through all the + little rivers within a circuit of ten miles from Caldwell, and began to + learn by parental example the yet unmastered art of complete angling. + </p> + <p> + But because some of the streams were deep and strong, and his legs were + short and slender, and his ambition was even taller than his boots, the + father would sometimes take him up pickaback, and wade along carefully + through the perilous places—which are often, in this world, the very + places one longs to fish in. So, in your remembrance, you can see the + little rubber boots sticking out under the father's arms, and the rod + projecting over his head, and the bait dangling down unsteadily into the + deep holes, and the delighted boy hooking and playing and basketing his + trout high in the air. How many of our best catches in life are made from + some one else's shoulders! + </p> + <p> + From this summer the whole earth became to the boy, as Tennyson describes + the lotus country, "a land of streams." In school-days and in town he + acknowledged the sway of those mysterious and irresistible forces which + produce tops at one season, and marbles at another, and kites at another, + and bind all boyish hearts to play mumble-the-peg at the due time more + certainly than the stars are bound to their orbits. But when vacation + came, with its annual exodus from the city, there was only one sign in the + zodiac, and that was Pisces. + </p> + <p> + No country seemed to him tolerable without trout, and no landscape + beautiful unless enlivened by a young river. Among what delectable + mountains did those watery guides lead his vagrant steps, and with what + curious, mixed, and sometimes profitable company did they make him + familiar! + </p> + <p> + There was one exquisite stream among the Alleghanies, called Lycoming + Creek, beside which the family spent a summer in a decadent inn, kept by a + tremulous landlord who was always sitting on the steps of the porch, and + whose most memorable remark was that he had "a misery in his stomach." + This form of speech amused the boy, but he did not in the least comprehend + it. It was the description of an unimaginable experience in a region which + was as yet known to him only as the seat of pleasure. He did not + understand how any one could be miserable when he could catch trout from + his own dooryard. + </p> + <p> + The big creek, with its sharp turns from side to side of the valley, its + hemlock-shaded falls in the gorge, and its long, still reaches in the + "sugar-bottom," where the maple-trees grew as if in an orchard, and the + superfluity of grasshoppers made the trout fat and dainty, was too wide to + fit the boy. But nature keeps all sizes in her stock, and a smaller + stream, called Rocky Run, came tumbling down opposite the inn, as if made + to order for juvenile use. + </p> + <p> + How well you can follow it, through the old pasture overgrown with alders, + and up past the broken-down mill-dam and the crumbling sluice, into the + mountain-cleft from which it leaps laughing! The water, except just after + a rain-storm, is as transparent as glass—old-fashioned window-glass, + I mean, in small panes, with just a tinge of green in it, like the air in + a grove of young birches. Twelve feet down in the narrow chasm below the + falls, where the water is full of tiny bubbles, like Apollinaris, you can + see the trout poised, with their heads up-stream, motionless, but + quivering a little, as if they were strung on wires. + </p> + <p> + The bed of the stream has been scooped out of the solid rock. Here and + there banks of sand have been deposited, and accumulations of loose stone + disguise the real nature of the channel. Great boulders have been rolled + down the alleyway and left where they chanced to stick; the stream must + get around them or under them as best it can. But there are other places + where everything has been swept clean; nothing remains but the primitive + strata, and the flowing water merrily tickles the bare ribs of mother + earth. Whirling stones, in the spring floods, have cut well-holes in the + rock, as round and even as if they had been made with a drill, and + sometimes you can see the very stone that sunk the well lying at the + bottom. There are long, straight, sloping troughs through which the water + runs like a mill-race. There are huge basins into which the water rumbles + over a ledge, as if some one were pouring it very steadily out of a + pitcher, and from which it glides away without a ripple, flowing over a + smooth pavement of rock which shelves down from the shallow foot to the + deep head of the pool. + </p> + <p> + The boy wonders how far he dare wade out along that slippery floor. The + water is within an inch of his boot-tops now. But the slope seems very + even, and just beyond his reach a good fish is rising. Only one step more, + and then, like the wicked man in the psalm, his feet begin to slide. + Slowly, and standing bolt upright, with the rod held high above his head, + as if it must on no account get wet, he glides forward up to his neck in + the ice-cold bath, gasping with amazement. There have been other and more + serious situations in life into which, unless I am mistaken, you have made + an equally unwilling and embarrassed entrance, and in which you have been + surprised to find yourself not only up to your neck, but over,—and + you are a lucky man if you have had the presence of mind to stand still + for a moment, before wading out, and make sure at least of the fish that + tempted you into your predicament. + </p> + <p> + But Rocky Run, they say, exists no longer. It has been blasted by miners + out of all resemblance to itself, and bewitched into a dingy water-power + to turn wheels for the ugly giant, Trade. It is only in the valley of + remembrance that its current still flows like liquid air; and only in that + country that you can still see the famous men who came and went along the + banks of the Lyocoming when the boy was there. + </p> + <p> + There was Collins, who was a wondrous adept at "daping, dapping, or + dibbling" with a grasshopper, and who once brought in a string of trout + which he laid out head to tail on the grass before the house in a line of + beauty forty-seven feet long. A mighty bass voice had this Collins also, + and could sing, "Larboard Watch, Ahoy!" "Down in a Coal-Mine," and other + profound ditties in a way to make all the glasses on the table jingle; but + withal, as you now suspect, rather a fishy character, and undeserving of + the unqualified respect which the boy had for him. And there was Dr. + Romsen, lean, satirical, kindly, a skilful though reluctant physician, who + regarded it as a personal injury if any one in the party fell sick in + summer time; and a passionately unsuccessful hunter, who would sit all + night in the crotch of a tree beside an alleged deer-lick, and come home + perfectly satisfied if he had heard a hedgehog grunt. It was he who called + attention to the discrepancy between the boy's appetite and his size by + saying loudly at a picnic, "I wouldn't grudge you what you eat, my boy, if + I could only see that it did you any good,"—which remark was not + forgiven until the doctor redeemed his reputation by pronouncing a serious + medical opinion, before a council of mothers, to the effect that it did + not really hurt a boy to get his feet wet. That was worthy of Galen in his + most inspired moment. And there was hearty, genial Paul Merit, whose mere + company was an education in good manners, and who could eat eight + hard-boiled eggs for supper without ruffling his equanimity; and the tall, + thin, grinning Major, whom an angry Irishwoman once described as "like a + comb, all back and teeth;" and many more were the comrades of the boy's + father, all of whom he admired, (and followed when they would let him,) + but none so much as the father himself, because he was the wisest, + kindest, and merriest of all that merry crew, now dispersed to the + uttermost parts of the earth and beyond. + </p> + <p> + Other streams played a part in the education of that happy boy: the + Kaaterskill, where there had been nothing but the ghosts of trout for the + last thirty years, but where the absence of fish was almost forgotten in + the joy of a first introduction to Dickens, one very showery day, when + dear old Ned Mason built a smoky fire in a cave below Haines's Falls, and, + pulling The Old Curiosity Shop out of his pocket, read aloud about Little + Nell until the tears ran down the cheeks of reader and listener—the + smoke was so thick, you know: and the Neversink, which flows through John + Burroughs's country, and past one house in particular, perched on a high + bluff, where a very dreadful old woman come out and throws stones at "city + fellers fishin' through her land" (as if any one wanted to touch her land! + It was the water that ran over it, you see, that carried the fish with it, + and they were not hers at all): and the stream at Healing Springs, in the + Virginia mountains, where the medicinal waters flow down into a lovely + wild brook without injuring the health of the trout in the least, and + where the only drawback to the angler's happiness is the abundance of + rattlesnakes—but a boy does not mind such things as that; he feels + as if he were immortal. Over all these streams memory skips lightly, and + strikes a trail through the woods to the Adirondacks, where the boy made + his first acquaintance with navigable rivers,—that is to say, rivers + which are traversed by canoes and hunting-skiffs, but not yet defiled by + steamboats,—and slept, or rather lay awake, for the first time on a + bed of balsam-boughs in a tent. + </p> + <p> + III. + </p> + <p> + The promotion from all-day picnics to a two weeks' camping-trip is like + going from school to college. By this time a natural process of evolution + has raised the first rod to something lighter and more flexible,—a + fly-rod, so to speak, but not a bigoted one,—just a serviceable, + unprejudiced article, not above using any kind of bait that may be + necessary to catch the fish. The father has received the new title of + "governor," indicating not less, but more authority, and has called in new + instructors to carry on the boy's education: real Adirondack guides—old + Sam Dunning and one-eyed Enos, the last and laziest of the Saranac + Indians. Better men will be discovered for later trips, but none more + amusing, and none whose woodcraft seems more wonderful than that of this + queerly matched team, as they make the first camp in a pelting rain-storm + on the shore of Big Clear Pond. The pitching of the tents is a lesson in + architecture, the building of the camp-fire a victory over damp nature, + and the supper of potatoes and bacon and fried trout a veritable triumph + of culinary art. + </p> + <p> + At midnight the rain is pattering persistently on the canvas; the fronts + flaps are closed and tied together; the lingering fire shines through + them, and sends vague shadows wavering up and down: the governor is rolled + up in his blankets, sound asleep. It is a very long night for the boy. + </p> + <p> + What is that rustling noise outside the tent? Probably some small + creature, a squirrel or a rabbit. Rabbit stew would be good for breakfast. + But it sounds louder now, almost loud enough to be a fox,—there are + no wolves left in the Adirondacks, or at least only a very few. That is + certainly quite a heavy footstep prowling around the provision-box. Could + it be a panther,—they step very softly for their size,—or a + bear perhaps? Sam Dunning told about catching one in a trap just below + here. (Ah, my boy, you will soon learn that there is no spot in all the + forests created by a bountiful Providence so poor as to be without its + bear story.) Where was the rifle put? There it is, at the foot of the + tent-pole. Wonder if it is loaded? + </p> + <p> + "Waugh-ho! Waugh-ho-o-o-o!" + </p> + <p> + The boy springs from his blankets like a cat, and peeps out between the + tent-flaps. There sits Enos, in the shelter of a leaning tree by the fire, + with his head thrown back and a bottle poised at his mouth. His lonely eye + is cocked up at a great horned owl on the branch above him. Again the + sudden voice breaks out: + </p> + <p> + "Whoo! whoo! whoo cooks for you all?" + </p> + <p> + Enos puts the bottle down, with a grunt, and creeps off to his tent. + </p> + <p> + "De debbil in dat owl," he mutters. "How he know I cook for dis camp? How + he know 'bout dat bottle? Ugh!" + </p> + <p> + There are hundreds of pictures that flash into light as the boy goes on + his course, year after year, through the woods. There is the luxurious + camp on Tupper's Lake, with its log cabins in the spruce-grove, and its + regiment of hungry men who ate almost a deer a day; and there is the + little bark shelter on the side of Mount Marcy, where the governor and the + boy, with baskets full of trout from the Opalescent River, are spending + the night, with nothing but a fire to keep them warm. There is the North + Bay at Moosehead, with Joe La Croix (one more Frenchman who thinks he + looks like Napoleon) posing on the rocks beside his canoe, and only + reconciled by his vanity to the wasteful pastime of taking photographs + while the big fish are rising gloriously out at the end of the point. + There is the small spring-hole beside the Saranac River, where Pliny + Robbins and the boy caught twenty-three noble trout, weighing from one to + three pounds apiece, in the middle of a hot August afternoon, and hid + themselves in the bushes when ever they heard a party coming down the + river, because they did not care to attract company; and there are the + Middle Falls, where the governor stood on a long spruce log, taking + two-pound fish with the fly, and stepping out at every cast a little + nearer to the end of the log, until it slowly tipped with him, and he + settled down into the river. + </p> + <p> + Among such scenes as these the boy pursued his education, learning many + things that are not taught in colleges; learning to take the weather as it + comes, wet or dry, and fortune as it falls, good or bad; learning that a + meal which is scanty fare for one becomes a banquet for two—provided + the other is the right person; learning that there is some skill in + everything, even in digging bait, and that what is called luck consists + chiefly in having your tackle in good order; learning that a man can be + just as happy in a log shanty as in a brownstone mansion, and that the + very best pleasures are those that do not leave a bad taste in the mouth. + And in all this the governor was his best teacher and his closest comrade. + </p> + <p> + Dear governor, you have gone out of the wilderness now, and your steps + will be no more beside these remembered little rivers—no more, + forever and forever. You will not come in sight around any bend of this + clear Swiftwater stream where you made your last cast; your cheery voice + will never again ring out through the deepening twilight where you are + lingering for your disciple to catch up with you; he will never again hear + you call: "Hallo, my boy! What luck? Time to go home!" But there is a + river in the country where you have gone, is there not?—a river with + trees growing all along it—evergreen trees; and somewhere by those + shady banks, within sound of clear running waters, I think you will be + dreaming and waiting for your boy, if he follows the trail that you have + shown him even to the end. + </p> + <p> + 1895. <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + AMPERSAND + </h2> + <p> + "It is not the walking merely, it is keeping yourself in tune for a walk, + in the spiritual and bodily condition in which you can find entertainment + and exhilaration in so simple and natural a pastime. You are eligible to + any good fortune when you are in a condition to enjoy a walk. When the air + and water taste sweet to you, how much else will taste sweet! When the + exercise of your limbs affords you pleasure, and the play of your senses + upon the various objects and shows of Nature quickens and stimulates your + spirit, your relation to the world and to yourself is what it should be,—simple, + and direct, and wholesome."—JOHN BURROUGHS: Pepacton. + </p> + <p> + The right to the name of Ampersand, like the territory of Gaul in those + Commentaries which Julius Caesar wrote for the punishment of schoolboys, + is divided into three parts. It belongs to a mountain, and a lake, and a + little river. + </p> + <p> + The mountain stands in the heart of the Adirondack country, just near + enough to the thoroughfare of travel for thousands of people to see it + every year, and just far enough from the beaten track to be unvisited + except by a very few of the wise ones, who love to turn aside. Behind the + mountain is the lake, which no lazy man has ever seen. Out of the lake + flows the stream, winding down a long, untrodden forest valley, to join + the Stony Creek waters and empty into the Raquette River. + </p> + <p> + Which of the three Ampersands has the prior claim to the name, I cannot + tell. Philosophically speaking, the mountain ought to be regarded as the + head of the family, because it was undoubtedly there before the others. + And the lake was probably the next on the ground, because the stream is + its child. But man is not strictly just in his nomenclature; and I + conjecture that the little river, the last-born of the three, was the + first to be christened Ampersand, and then gave its name to its parent and + grand-parent. It is such a crooked stream, so bent and curved and twisted + upon itself, so fond of turning around unexpected corners and sweeping + away in great circles from its direct course, that its first explorers + christened it after the eccentric supernumerary of the alphabet which + appears in the old spelling-books as &— and per se, and. + </p> + <p> + But in spite of this apparent subordination to the stream in the matter of + a name, the mountain clearly asserts its natural authority. It stands up + boldly; and not only its own lake, but at least three others, the Lower + Saranac, Round Lake, and Lonesome Pond, lie at its foot and acknowledge + its lordship. When the cloud is on its brow, they are dark. When the + sunlight strikes it, they smile. Wherever you may go over the waters of + these lakes you shall see Mount Ampersand looking down at you, and saying + quietly, "This is my domain." + </p> + <p> + I never look at a mountain which asserts itself in this fashion without + desiring to stand on the top of it. If one can reach the summit, one + becomes a sharer in the dominion. The difficulties in the way only add to + the zest of the victory. Every mountain is, rightly considered, an + invitation to climb. And as I was resting for a month one summer at + Bartlett's, Ampersand challenged me daily. + </p> + <p> + Did you know Bartlett's in its palmy time? It was the homeliest, + quaintest, coziest place in the Adirondacks. Away back in the ante-bellum + days Virgil Bartlett had come into the woods, and built his house on the + bank of the Saranac River, between the Upper Saranac and Round Lake. It + was then the only dwelling within a circle of many miles. The deer and + bear were in the majority. At night one could sometimes hear the scream of + the panther or the howling of wolves. But soon the wilderness began to + wear the traces of a conventional smile. The desert blossomed a little—if + not as the rose, at least as the gilly-flower. Fields were cleared, + gardens planted; half a dozen log cabins were scattered along the river; + and the old house, having grown slowly and somewhat irregularly for twenty + years, came out, just before the time of which I write, in a modest coat + of paint and a broad-brimmed piazza. But Virgil himself, the creator of + the oasis—well known of hunters and fishermen, dreaded of lazy + guides and quarrelsome lumbermen,—"Virge," the irascible, + kind-hearted, indefatigable, was there no longer. He had made his last + clearing, and fought his last fight; done his last favour to a friend, and + thrown his last adversary out of the tavern door. His last log had gone + down the river. His camp-fire had burned out. Peace to his ashes. His + wife, who had often played the part of Abigail toward travellers who had + unconsciously incurred the old man's mistrust, now reigned in his stead; + and there was great abundance of maple-syrup on every man's flapjack. + </p> + <p> + The charm of Bartlett's for the angler was the stretch of rapid water in + front of the house. The Saranac River, breaking from its first + resting-place in the Upper Lake, plunged down through a great bed of + rocks, making a chain of short falls and pools and rapids, about half a + mile in length. Here, in the spring and early summer, the speckled trout—brightest + and daintiest of all fish that swim—used to be found in great + numbers. As the season advanced, they moved away into the deep water of + the lakes. But there were always a few stragglers left, and I have taken + them in the rapids at the very end of August. What could be more + delightful than to spend an hour or two, in the early morning or evening + of a hot day, in wading this rushing stream, and casting the fly on its + clear waters? The wind blows softly down the narrow valley, and the trees + nod from the rocks above you. The noise of the falls makes constant music + in your ears. The river hurries past you, and yet it is never gone. + </p> + <p> + The same foam-flakes seem to be always gliding downward, the same spray + dashing over the stones, the same eddy coiling at the edge of the pool. + Send your fly in under those cedar branches, where the water swirls around + by that old log. Now draw it up toward the foam. There is a sudden gleam + of dull gold in the white water. You strike too soon. Your line comes back + to you. In a current like this, a fish will almost always hook himself. + Try it again. This time he takes the fly fairly, and you have him. It is a + good fish, and he makes the slender rod bend to the strain. He sulks for a + moment as if uncertain what to do, and then with a rush darts into the + swiftest part of the current. You can never stop him there. Let him go. + Keep just enough pressure on him to hold the hook firm, and follow his + troutship down the stream as if he were a salmon. He slides over a little + fall, gleaming through the foam, and swings around in the next pool. Here + you can manage him more easily; and after a few minutes' brilliant play, a + few mad dashes for the current, he comes to the net, and your skilful + guide lands him with a quick, steady sweep of the arm. The scales credit + him with an even pound, and a better fish than this you will hardly take + here in midsummer. + </p> + <p> + "On my word, master," says the appreciative Venator, in Walton's Angler, + "this is a gallant trout; what shall we do with him?" And honest Piscator, + replies: "Marry! e'en eat him to supper; we'll go to my hostess from + whence we came; she told me, as I was going out of door, that my brother + Peter, [and who is this but Romeyn of Keeseville?] a good angler and a + cheerful companion, had sent word he would lodge there tonight, and bring + a friend with him. My hostess has two beds, and I know you and I have the + best; we'll rejoice with my brother Peter and his friend, tell tales, or + sing ballads, or make a catch, or find some harmless sport to content us, + and pass away a little time without offence to God or man." + </p> + <p> + Ampersand waited immovable while I passed many days in such innocent and + healthful pleasures as these, until the right day came for the ascent. + Cool, clean, and bright, the crystal morning promised a glorious noon, and + the mountain almost seemed to beckon us to come up higher. The + photographic camera and a trustworthy lunch were stowed away in the + pack-basket. The backboard was adjusted at a comfortable angle in the + stern seat of our little boat. The guide held the little craft steady + while I stepped into my place; then he pushed out into the stream, and we + went swiftly down toward Round Lake. + </p> + <p> + A Saranac boat is one of the finest things that the skill of man has ever + produced under the inspiration of the wilderness. It is a frail shell, so + light that a guide can carry it on his shoulders with ease, but so + dexterously fashioned that it rides the heaviest waves like a duck, and + slips through the water as if by magic. You can travel in it along the + shallowest rivers and across the broadest lakes, and make forty or fifty + miles a day, if you have a good guide. + </p> + <p> + Everything depends, in the Adirondacks, as in so many other regions of + life, upon your guide. If he is selfish, or surly, or stupid, you will + have a bad time. But if he is an Adirondacker of the best old-fashioned + type,—now unhappily growing more rare from year to year,—you + will find him an inimitable companion, honest, faithful, skilful and + cheerful. He is as independent as a prince, and the gilded youths and + finicking fine ladies who attempt to patronise him are apt to make but a + sorry show before his solid and undisguised contempt. But deal with him + man to man, and he will give you a friendly, loyal service which money + cannot buy, and teach you secrets of woodcraft and lessons in plain, + self-reliant manhood more valuable than all the learning of the schools. + Such a guide was mine, rejoicing in the Scriptural name of Hosea, but + commonly called, in brevity and friendliness, "Hose." + </p> + <p> + As we entered Round Lake on this fair morning, its surface was as smooth + and shining as a mirror. It was too early yet for the tide of travel which + sends a score of boats up and down this thoroughfare every day; and from + shore to shore the water was unruffled, except by a flock of sheldrakes + which had been feeding near Plymouth Rock, and now went skittering off + into Weller Bay with a motion between flying and swimming, leaving a long + wake of foam behind them. + </p> + <p> + At such a time as this you can see the real colour of these Adirondack + lakes. It is not blue, as romantic writers so often describe it, nor + green, like some of those wonderful Swiss lakes; although of course it + reflects the colour of the trees along the shore; and when the wind stirs + it, it gives back the hue of the sky, blue when it is clear, gray when the + clouds are gathering, and sometimes as black as ink under the shadow of + storm. But when it is still, the water itself is like that river which one + of the poets has described as + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Flowing with a smooth brown current." +</pre> + <p> + And in this sheet of burnished bronze the mountains and islands were + reflected perfectly, and the sun shone back from it, not in broken gleams + or a wide lane of light, but like a single ball of fire, moving before us + as we moved. + </p> + <p> + But stop! What is that dark speck on the water, away down toward Turtle + Point? It has just the shape and size of a deer's head. It seems to move + steadily out into the lake. There is a little ripple, like a wake, behind + it. Hose turns to look at it, and then sends the boat darting in that + direction with long, swift strokes. It is a moment of pleasant excitement, + and we begin to conjecture whether the deer is a buck or a doe, and whose + hounds have driven it in. But when Hose turns to look again, he slackens + his stroke, and says: "I guess we needn't to hurry; he won't get away. + It's astonishin' what a lot of fun a man can get in the course of a + natural life a-chasm' chumps of wood." + </p> + <p> + We landed on a sand beach at the mouth of a little stream, where a blazed + tree marked the beginning of the Ampersand trail. This line through the + forest was made years ago by that ardent sportsman and lover of the + Adirondacks, Dr. W. W. Ely, of Rochester. Since that time it has been + shortened and improved a little by other travellers, and also not a little + blocked and confused by the lumbermen and the course of Nature. For when + the lumbermen go into the woods, they cut roads in every direction, + leading nowhither, and the unwary wanderer is thereby led aside from the + right way, and entangled in the undergrowth. And as for Nature, she is + entirely opposed to continuance of paths through her forest. She covers + them with fallen leaves, and hides them with thick bushes. She drops great + trees across them, and blots then out with windfalls. But the blazed line—a + succession of broad axe-marks on the trunks of the trees, just high enough + to catch the eye on a level—cannot be so easily obliterated, and + this, after all, is the safest guide through the woods. + </p> + <p> + Our trail led us at first through a natural meadow, overgrown with + waist-high grass, and very spongy to the tread. Hornet-haunted also was + this meadow, and therefore no place for idle dalliance or unwary + digression, for the sting of the hornet is one of the saddest and most + humiliating surprises of this mortal life. + </p> + <p> + Then through a tangle of old wood-roads my guide led me safely, and we + struck one of the long ridges which slope gently from the lake to the base + of the mountain. Here walking was comparatively easy, for in the hard-wood + timber there is little underbrush. The massive trunks seemed like pillars + set to uphold the level roof of green. Great yellow birches, shaggy with + age, stretched their knotted arms high above us; sugar-maples stood up + straight and proud under their leafy crowns; and smooth beeches—the + most polished and parklike of all the forest trees—offered + opportunities for the carving of lovers' names in a place where few lovers + ever come. + </p> + <p> + The woods were quiet. It seemed as if all living creatures had deserted + them. Indeed, if you have spent much time in our Northern forests, you + must have often wondered at the sparseness of life, and felt a sense of + pity for the apparent loneliness of the squirrel that chatters at you as + you pass, or the little bird that hops noiselessly about in the thickets. + The midsummer noontide is an especially silent time. The deer are asleep + in some wild meadow. The partridge has gathered her brood for their midday + nap. The squirrels are perhaps counting over their store of nuts in a + hollow tree, and the hermit-thrush spares his voice until evening. The + woods are close—not cool and fragrant as the foolish romances + describe them—but warm and still; for the breeze which sweeps across + the hilltop and ruffles the lake does not penetrate into these shady + recesses, and therefore all the inhabitants take the noontide as their + hour of rest. Only the big woodpecker—he of the scarlet head and + mighty bill—is indefatigable, and somewhere unseen is "tapping the + hollow beech-tree," while a wakeful little bird,—I guess it is the + black-throated green warbler,—prolongs his dreamy, listless ditty,—'te-de-terit-sca,—'te-de-us—wait. + </p> + <p> + After about an hour of easy walking, our trail began to ascend more + sharply. We passed over the shoulder of a ridge and around the edge of a + fire-slash, and then we had the mountain fairly before us. Not that we + could see anything of it, for the woods still shut us in, but the path + became very steep, and we knew that it was a straight climb; not up and + down and round about did this most uncompromising trail proceed, but right + up, in a direct line for the summit. + </p> + <p> + Now this side of Ampersand is steeper than any Gothic roof I have ever + seen, and withal very much encumbered with rocks and ledges and fallen + trees. There were places where we had to haul ourselves up by roots and + branches, and places where we had to go down on our hands and knees to + crawl under logs. It was breathless work, but not at all dangerous or + difficult. Every step forward was also a step upward; and as we stopped to + rest for a moment, we could see already glimpses of the lake below us. But + at these I did not much care to look, for I think it is a pity to spoil + the surprise of a grand view by taking little snatches of it beforehand. + It is better to keep one's face set to the mountain, and then, coming out + from the dark forest upon the very summit, feel the splendour of the + outlook flash upon one like a revelation. + </p> + <p> + The character of the woods through which we were now passing was entirely + different from those of the lower levels. On these steep places the birch + and maple will not grow, or at least they occur but sparsely. The higher + slopes and sharp ridges of the mountains are always covered with soft-wood + timber. Spruce and hemlock and balsam strike their roots among the rocks, + and find a hidden nourishment. They stand close together; thickets of + small trees spring up among the large ones; from year to year the great + trunks are falling one across another, and the undergrowth is thickening + around them, until a spruce forest seems to be almost impassable. The + constant rain of needles and the crumbling of the fallen trees form a + rich, brown mould, into which the foot sinks noiselessly. Wonderful beds + of moss, many feet in thickness, and softer than feathers, cover the rocks + and roots. There are shadows never broken by the sun, and dark, cool + springs of icy water hidden away in the crevices. You feel a sense of + antiquity here which you can never feel among the maples and birches. + Longfellow was right when he filled his forest primeval with "murmuring + pines and hemlocks." + </p> + <p> + The higher one climbs, the darker and gloomier and more rugged the + vegetation becomes. The pine-trees soon cease to follow you; the hemlocks + disappear, and the balsams can go no farther. Only the hardy spruce keeps + on bravely, rough and stunted, with branches matted together and pressed + down flat by the weight of the winter's snow, until finally, somewhere + about the level of four thousand feet above the sea, even this bold + climber gives out, and the weather-beaten rocks of the summit are clad + only with mosses and Alpine plants. + </p> + <p> + Thus it is with mountains, as perhaps with men, a mark of superior dignity + to be naturally bald. + </p> + <p> + Ampersand, falling short by a thousand feet of the needful height, cannot + claim this distinction. But what Nature has denied, human labour has + supplied. Under the direction of the Adirondack Survey, some years ago, + several acres of trees were cut from the summit; and when we emerged, + after the last sharp scramble, upon the very crest of the mountain, we + were not shut in by a dense thicket, but stood upon a bare ridge of + granite in the centre of a ragged clearing. + </p> + <p> + I shut my eyes for a moment, drew a few long breaths of the glorious + breeze, and then looked out upon a wonder and a delight beyond + description. + </p> + <p> + A soft, dazzling splendour filled the air. Snowy banks and drifts of cloud + were floating slowly over a wide and wondrous land. Vast sweeps of forest, + shining waters, mountains near and far, the deepest green and the palest + blue, changing colours and glancing lights, and all so silent, so strange, + so far away, that it seemed like the landscape of a dream. One almost + feared to speak, lest it should vanish. + </p> + <p> + Right below us the Lower Saranac and Lonesome Pond, Round Lake and the + Weller Ponds, were spread out like a map. Every point and island was + clearly marked. We could follow the course of the Saranac River in all its + curves and windings, and see the white tents of the hay-makers on the wild + meadows. Far away to the northeast stretched the level fields of + Bloomingdale. But westward all was unbroken wilderness, a great sea of + woods as far as the eye could reach. And how far it can reach from a + height like this! What a revelation of the power of sight! That faint blue + outline far in the north was Lyon Mountain, nearly thirty miles away as + the crow flies. Those silver gleams a little nearer were the waters of St. + Regis. The Upper Saranac was displayed in all its length and breadth, and + beyond it the innumerable waters of Fish Creek were tangled among the dark + woods. The long ranges of the hills about the Jordan bounded the western + horizon, and on the southwest Big Tupper Lake was sleeping at the base of + Mount Morris. Looking past the peak of Stony Creek Mountain, which rose + sharp and distinct in a line with Ampersand, we could trace the path of + the Raquette River from the distant waters of Long Lake down through its + far-stretched valley, and catch here and there a silvery link of its + current. + </p> + <p> + But when we turned to the south and east, how wonderful and how different + was the view! Here was no widespread and smiling landscape with gleams of + silver scattered through it, and soft blue haze resting upon its fading + verge, but a wild land of mountains, stern, rugged, tumultuous, rising one + beyond another like the waves of a stormy ocean,—Ossa piled upin + Pelion,—Mcintyre's sharp peak, and the ragged crest of the Gothics, + and, above all, Marcy's dome-like head, raised just far enough above the + others to assert his royal right as monarch of the Adirondacks. + </p> + <p> + But grandest of all, as seen from this height, was Mount Seward,—a + solemn giant of a mountain, standing apart from the others, and looking us + full in the face. He was clothed from base to summit in a dark, unbroken + robe of forest. Ou-kor-lah, the Indians called him—the Great Eye; + and he seemed almost to frown upon us in defiance. At his feet, so + straight below us that it seemed almost as if we could cast a stone into + it, lay the wildest and most beautiful of all the Adirondack waters—Ampersand + Lake. + </p> + <p> + On its shore, some five-and-twenty years ago, the now almost forgotten + Adirondack Club had their shanty—the successor of "the Philosophers' + Camp" on Follensbee Pond. Agassiz, Appleton, Norton, Emerson, Lowell, + Hoar, Gray, John Holmes, and Stillman, were among the company who made + their resting-place under the shadow of Mount Seward. They had bought a + tract of forest land completely encircling the pond, cut a rough road to + it through the woods, and built a comfortable log cabin, to which they + purposed to return summer after summer. But the civil war broke out, with + all its terrible excitement and confusion of hurrying hosts: the club + existed but for two years, and the little house in the wilderness was + abandoned. In 1878, when I spent three weeks at Ampersand, the cabin was + in ruins, and surrounded by an almost impenetrable growth of bushes. The + only philosophers to be seen were a family of what the guides quaintly + call "quill pigs." The roof had fallen to the ground; raspberry-bushes + thrust themselves through the yawning crevices between the logs; and in + front of the sunken door-sill lay a rusty, broken iron stove, like a + dismantled altar on which the fire had gone out forever. + </p> + <p> + After we had feasted upon the view as long as we dared, counted the lakes + and streams, and found that we could see without a glass more than thirty, + and recalled the memories of "good times" which came to us from almost + every point of the compass, we unpacked the camera, and proceeded to take + some pictures. + </p> + <p> + If you are a photographer, and have anything of the amateur's passion for + your art, you will appreciate my pleasure and my anxiety. Never before, so + far as I knew, had a camera been set up on Ampersand. I had but eight + plates with me. The views were all very distant and all at a downward + angle. The power of the light at this elevation was an unknown quantity. + And the wind was sweeping vigorously across the open summit of the + mountain. I put in my smallest stop, and prepared for short exposures. + </p> + <p> + My instrument was a thing called a Tourograph, which differs from most + other cameras in having the plate-holder on top of the box. The plates are + dropped into a groove below, and then moved into focus, after which the + cap is removed and the exposure made. + </p> + <p> + I set my instrument for Ampersand Pond, sighted the picture through the + ground glass, and measured the focus. Then I waited for a quiet moment, + dropped the plate, moved it carefully forward to the proper mark, and went + around to take off the cap. I found that I already had it in my hand, and + the plate had been exposed for about thirty seconds with a sliding focus! + </p> + <p> + I expostulated with myself. I said: "You are excited; you are stupid; you + are unworthy of the name of photographer. Light-writer! You ought to write + with a whitewash-brush!" The reproof was effectual, and from that moment + all went well. The plates dropped smoothly, the camera was steady, the + exposure was correct. Six good pictures were made, to recall, so far as + black and white could do it, the delights of that day. + </p> + <p> + It has been my good luck to climb many of the peaks of the Adirondacks—Dix, + the Dial, Hurricane, the Giant of the Valley, Marcy, and Whiteface—but + I do not think the outlook from any of them is so wonderful and lovely as + that from little Ampersand: and I reckon among my most valuable chattels + the plates of glass on which the sun has traced for me (who cannot draw) + the outlines of that loveliest landscape. + </p> + <p> + The downward journey was swift. We halted for an hour or two beside a + trickling spring, a few rods below the summit, to eat our lunch. Then, + jumping, running, and sometimes sliding, we made the descent, passed in + safety by the dreaded lair of the hornet, and reached Bartlett's as the + fragrance of the evening pancake was softly diffused through the twilight. + Mark that day, Memory, with a double star in your catalogue! + </p> + <p> + 1895. <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A HANDFUL OF HEATHER + </h2> + <p> + "Scotland is the home of romance because it is the home of Scott, Burns, + Black, Macdonald, Stevenson, and Barrie—and of thousands of men like + that old Highlander in kilts on the tow-path, who loves what they have + written. I would wager he has a copy of Burns in his sporran, and has + quoted him half a dozen times to the grim Celt who is walking with him. + Those old boys don't read for excitement or knowledge, but because they + love their land and their people and their religion—and their great + writers simply express their emotions for them in words they can + understand. You and I come over here, with thousands of our countrymen, to + borrow their emotions."—ROBERT BRIDGES: Overheard in Arcady. + </p> + <p> + My friend the Triumphant Democrat, fiercest of radicals and kindest of + men, expresses his scorn for monarchical institutions (and his invincible + love for his native Scotland) by tenanting, summer after summer, a famous + castle among the heathery Highlands. There he proclaims the most + uncompromising Americanism in a speech that grows more broadly Scotch with + every week of his emancipation from the influence of the clipped, + commercial accent of New York, and casts contempt on feudalism by playing + the part of lord of the manor to such a perfection of high-handed + beneficence that the people of the glen are all become his clansmen, and + his gentle lady would be the patron saint of the district—if the + republican theology of Scotland could only admit saints among the elect. + </p> + <p> + Every year he sends trophies of game to his friends across the sea—birds + that are as toothsome and wild-flavoured as if they had not been hatched + under the tyranny of the game-laws. He has a pleasant trick of making them + grateful to the imagination as well as to the palate by packing them in + heather. I'll warrant that Aaron's rod bore no bonnier blossoms than these + stiff little bushes—and none more magical. For every time I take up + a handful of them they transport me to the Highlands, and send me tramping + once more, with knapsack and fishing-rod, over the braes and down the + burns. + </p> + <p> + I. BELL-HEATHER. + </p> + <p> + Some of my happiest meanderings in Scotland have been taken under the lead + of a book. Indeed, for travel in a strange country there can be no better + courier. Not a guide-book, I mean, but a real book, and, by preference, a + novel. + </p> + <p> + Fiction, like wine, tastes best in the place where it was grown. And the + scenery of a foreign land (including architecture, which is artificial + landscape) grows less dreamlike and unreal to our perception when we + people it with familiar characters from our favourite novels. Even on a + first journey we feel ourselves among old friends. Thus to read Romola in + Florence, and Les Miserables in Paris, and Lorna Doone on Exmoor, and The + Heart of Midlothian in Edinburgh, and David Balfour in the Pass of + Glencoe, and The Pirate in the Shetland Isles, is to get a new sense of + the possibilities of life. All these things have I done with much inward + contentment; and other things of like quality have I yet in store; as, for + example, the conjunction of The Bonnie Brier-Bush with Drumtochty, and The + Little Minister with Thrums, and The Raiders with Galloway. But I never + expect to pass pleasanter days than those I spent with A Princess of Thule + among the Hebrides. + </p> + <p> + For then, to begin with, I was young; which is an unearned increment of + delight sure to be confiscated by the envious years and never regained. + But even youth itself was not to be compared with the exquisite felicity + of being deeply and desperately in love with Sheila, the clear-eyed + heroine of that charming book. In this innocent passion my gray-haired + comrades, Howard Crosby, the Chancellor of the University of New York, and + my father, an ex-Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, were + ardent but generous rivals. + </p> + <p> + How great is the joy and how fascinating the pursuit of such an ethereal + affection! It enlarges the heart without embarrassing the conscience. It + is a cup of pure gladness with no bitterness in its dregs. It spends the + present moment with a free hand, and yet leaves no undesirable mortgage + upon the future. King Arthur, the founder of the Round Table, expressed a + conviction, according to Tennyson, that the most important element in a + young knight's education is "the maiden passion for a maid." Surely the + safest form in which this course in the curriculum may be taken is by + falling in love with a girl in a book. It is the only affair of the kind + into which a young fellow can enter without responsibility, and out of + which he can always emerge, when necessary, without discredit. And as for + the old fellow who still keeps up this education of the heart, and + worships his heroine with the ardour of a John Ridd and the fidelity of a + Henry Esmond, I maintain that he is exempt from all the penalties of + declining years. The man who can love a girl in a book may be old, but + never aged. + </p> + <p> + So we sailed, lovers all three, among the Western Isles, and whatever ship + it was that carried us, her figurehead was always the Princess Sheila. + Along the ruffled blue waters of the sounds and lochs that wind among the + roots of unpronounceable mountains, and past the dark hills of Skye, and + through the unnumbered flocks of craggy islets where the sea-birds nest, + the spell of the sweet Highland maid drew us, and we were pilgrims to the + Ultima Thule where she lived and reigned. + </p> + <p> + The Lewis, with its tail-piece, the Harris, is quite a sizable island to + be appended to such a country as Scotland. It is a number of miles long, + and another number of miles wide, and it has a number of thousand + inhabitants—I should say as many as three-quarters of an inhabitant + to the square mile—and the conditions of agriculture and the + fisheries are extremely interesting and quarrelsome. All these I duly + studied at the time, and reported in a series of intolerably dull letters + to the newspaper which supplied a financial basis for my sentimental + journey. They are full of information; but I have been amused to note, + after these many years, how wide they steer of the true motive and + interest of the excursion. There is not even a hint of Sheila in any of + them. Youth, after all, is a shamefaced and secretive season; like the + fringed polygala, it hides its real blossom underground. + </p> + <p> + It was Sheila's dark-blue dress and sailor hat with the white feather that + we looked for as we loafed through the streets of Stornoway, that quaint + metropolis of the herring-trade, where strings of fish alternated with + boxes of flowers in the windows, and handfuls of fish were spread upon the + roofs to dry just as the sliced apples are exposed upon the kitchen-sheds + of New England in September, and dark-haired women were carrying great + creels of fish on their shoulders, and groups of sunburned men were + smoking among the fishing-boats on the beach and talking about fish, and + sea-gulls were floating over the houses with their heads turning from side + to side and their bright eyes peering everywhere for unconsidered trifles + of fish, and the whole atmosphere of the place, physical, mental, and + moral, was pervaded with fish. It was Sheila's soft, sing-song Highland + speech that we heard through the long, luminous twilight in the pauses of + that friendly chat on the balcony of the little inn where a good fortune + brought us acquainted with Sam Bough, the mellow Edinburgh painter. It was + Sheila's low sweet brow, and long black eyelashes, and tender blue eyes, + that we saw before us as we loitered over the open moorland, a far-rolling + sea of brown billows, reddened with patches of bell-heather, and + brightened here and there with little lakes lying wide open to the sky. + And were not these peat-cutters, with the big baskets on their backs, + walking in silhouette along the ridges, the people that Sheila loved and + tried to help; and were not these crofters' cottages with thatched roofs, + like beehives, blending almost imperceptibly with the landscape, the + dwellings into which she planned to introduce the luxury of windows; and + were not these Standing Stones of Callernish, huge tombstones of a + vanished religion, the roofless temple from which the Druids paid their + westernmost adoration to the setting sun as he sank into the Atlantic—was + not this the place where Sheila picked the bunch of wild flowers and gave + it to her lover? There is nothing in history, I am sure, half so real to + us as some of the things in fiction. The influence of an event upon our + character is little affected by considerations as to whether or not it + ever happened. + </p> + <p> + There were three churches in Stornoway, all Presbyterian, of course, and + therefore full of pious emulation. The idea of securing an American + preacher for an August Sabbath seemed to fall upon them simultaneously, + and to offer the prospect of novelty without too much danger. The brethren + of the U. P. congregation, being a trifle more gleg than the others, + arrived first at the inn, and secured the promise of a morning sermon from + Chancellor Howard Crosby. The session of the Free Kirk came in a body a + little later, and to them my father pledged himself for the evening + sermon. The senior elder of the Established Kirk, a snuff-taking man and + very deliberate, was the last to appear, and to his request for an + afternoon sermon there was nothing left to offer but the services of the + young probationer in theology. I could see that it struck him as a + perilous adventure. Questions about "the fundamentals" glinted in his + watery eye. He crossed and uncrossed his legs with solemnity, and blew his + nose so frequently in a huge red silk handkerchief that it seemed like a + signal of danger. At last he unburdened himself of his hesitations. + </p> + <p> + "Ah'm not saying that the young man will not be orthodox—ahem! But + ye know, sir, in the Kirk, we are not using hymns, but just the pure + Psawms of Daffit, in the meetrical fairsion. And ye know, sir, they are + ferry tifficult in the reating, whatefer, for a young man, and one that + iss a stranger. And if his father will just be coming with him in the + pulpit, to see that nothing iss said amiss, that will be ferry comforting + to the congregation." + </p> + <p> + So the dear governor swallowed his laughter gravely and went surety for + his son. They appeared together in the church, a barnlike edifice, with + great galleries half-way between the floor and the roof. Still higher up, + the pulpit stuck like a swallow's nest against the wall. The two ministers + climbed the precipitous stair and found themselves in a box so narrow that + one must stand perforce, while the other sat upon the only seat. In this + "ride and tie" fashion they went through the service. When it was time to + preach, the young man dropped the doctrines as discreetly as possible upon + the upturned countenances beneath him. I have forgotten now what it was + all about, but there was a quotation from the Song of Solomon, ending with + "Sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." And when it came to + that, the probationer's eyes (if the truth must be told) went searching + through that sea of faces for one that should be familiar to his heart, + and to which he might make a personal application of the Scripture passage—even + the face of Sheila. + </p> + <p> + There are rivers in the Lewis, at least two of them, and on one of these + we had the offer of a rod for a day's fishing. Accordingly we cast lots, + and the lot fell upon the youngest, and I went forth with a tall, + red-legged gillie, to try for my first salmon. The Whitewater came singing + down out of the moorland into a rocky valley, and there was a merry curl + of air on the pools, and the silver fish were leaping from the stream. The + gillie handled the big rod as if it had been a fairy's wand, but to me it + was like a giant's spear. It was a very different affair from fishing with + five ounces of split bamboo on a Long Island trout-pond. The monstrous + fly, like an awkward bird, went fluttering everywhere but in the right + direction. It was the mercy of Providence that preserved the gillie's + life. But he was very patient and forbearing, leading me on from one pool + to another, as I spoiled the water and snatched the hook out of the mouth + of rising fish, until at last we found a salmon that knew even less about + the niceties of salmon-fishing than I did. He seized the fly firmly, + before I could pull it away, and then, in a moment, I found myself + attached to a creature with the strength of a whale and the agility of a + flying-fish. He led me rushing up and down the bank like a madman. He + played on the surface like a whirlwind, and sulked at the bottom like a + stone. He meditated, with ominous delay, in the middle of the deepest + pool, and then, darting across the river, flung himself clean out of water + and landed far up on the green turf of the opposite shore. My heart melted + like a snowflake in the sea, and I thought that I had lost him forever. + But he rolled quietly back into the water with the hook still set in his + nose. A few minutes afterwards I brought him within reach of the gaff, and + my first salmon was glittering on the grass beside me. + </p> + <p> + Then I remembered that William Black had described this very fish in A + Princess of Thule. I pulled the book from my pocket, and, lighting a pipe, + sat down to read that delightful chapter over again. The breeze played + softly down the valley. The warm sunlight was filled with the musical hum + of insects and the murmur of falling waters. I thought how much pleasanter + it would have been to learn salmon-fishing, as Black's hero did, from the + Maid of Borva, than from a red-headed gillie. But, then, his salmon, after + leaping across the stream, got away; whereas mine was safe. A man cannot + have everything in this world. I picked a spray of rosy bell-heather from + the bank of the river, and pressed it between the leaves of the book in + memory of Sheila. + </p> + <p> + II. COMMON HEATHER. + </p> + <p> + It is not half as far from Albany to Aberdeen as it is from New York to + London. In fact, I venture to say that an American on foot will find + himself less a foreigner in Scotland than in any other country in the Old + World. There is something warm and hospitable—if he knew the + language well enough he would call it couthy—in the greeting that he + gets from the shepherd on the moor, and the conversation that he holds + with the farmer's wife in the stone cottage, where he stops to ask for a + drink of milk and a bit of oat-cake. He feels that there must be a drop of + Scotch somewhere in his mingled blood, or at least that the texture of his + thought and feelings has been partly woven on a Scottish loom—perhaps + the Shorter Catechism, or Robert Burns's poems, or the romances of Sir + Walter Scott. At all events, he is among a kindred and comprehending + people. They do not speak English in the same way that he does—through + the nose—-but they think very much more in his mental dialect than + the English do. They are independent and wide awake, curious and full of + personal interest. The wayside mind in Inverness or Perth runs more to + muscle and less to fat, has more active vanity and less passive pride, is + more inquisitive and excitable and sympathetic—in short, to use a + symbolist's description, it is more apt to be red-headed—than in + Surrey or Somerset. Scotchmen ask more questions about America, but fewer + foolish ones. You will never hear them inquiring whether there is any good + bear-hunting in the neighbourhood of Boston, or whether Shakespeare is + much read in the States. They have a healthy respect for our institutions, + and have quite forgiven (if, indeed, they ever resented) that little + affair in 1776. They are all born Liberals. When a Scotchman says he is a + Conservative, it only means that he is a Liberal with hesitations. + </p> + <p> + And yet in North Britain the American pedestrian will not find that amused + and somewhat condescending toleration for his peculiarities, that placid + willingness to make the best of all his vagaries of speech and conduct, + that he finds in South Britain. In an English town you may do pretty much + what you like on a Sunday, even to the extent of wearing a billycock hat + to church, and people will put up with it from a countryman of Buffalo + Bill and the Wild West Show. But in a Scotch village, if you whistle in + the street on a Lord's Day, though it be a Moody and Sankey tune, you will + be likely to get, as I did, an admonition from some long-legged, grizzled + elder: + </p> + <p> + "Young man, do ye no ken it's the Sawbath Day?" + </p> + <p> + I recognised the reproof of the righteous, an excellent oil which doth not + break the head, and took it gratefully at the old man's hands. For did it + not prove that he regarded me as a man and a brother, a creature capable + of being civilised and saved? + </p> + <p> + It was in the gray town of Dingwall that I had this bit of pleasant + correction, as I was on the way to a fishing tramp through + Sutherlandshire. This northwest corner of Great Britain is the best place + in the whole island for a modest and impecunious angler. There are, or + there were a few years ago, wild lochs and streams which are still + practically free, and a man who is content with small things can pick up + some very pretty sport from the highland inns, and make a good basket of + memorable experiences every week. + </p> + <p> + The inn at Lairg, overlooking the narrow waters of Loch Shin, was + embowered in honeysuckles, and full of creature comfort. But there were + too many other men with rods there to suit my taste. "The feesh in this + loch," said the boatman, "iss not so numerous ass the feeshermen, but more + wise. There iss not one of them that hass not felt the hook, and they know + ferry well what side of the fly has the forkit tail." + </p> + <p> + At Altnaharra, in the shadow of Ben Clebrig, there was a cozy little house + with good fare, and abundant trout-fishing in Loch Naver and Loch Meadie. + It was there that I fell in with a wandering pearl-peddler who gathered + his wares from the mussels in the moorland streams. They were not of the + finest quality, these Scotch pearls, but they had pretty, changeable + colours of pink and blue upon them, like the iridescent light that plays + over the heather in the long northern evenings. I thought it must be a + hard life for the man, wading day after day in the ice-cold water, and + groping among the coggly, sliddery stones for the shellfish, and cracking + open perhaps a thousand before he could find one pearl. "Oh, yess," said + be, "and it iss not an easy life, and I am not saying that it will be so + warm and dry ass liffing in a rich house. But it iss the life that I am + fit for, and I hef my own time and my thoughts to mysel', and that is a + ferry goot thing; and then, sir, I haf found the Pearl of Great Price, and + I think upon that day and night." + </p> + <p> + Under the black, shattered peaks of Ben Laoghal, where I saw an eagle + poising day after day as if some invisible centripetal force bound him + forever to that small circle of air, there was a loch with plenty of brown + trout and a few salmo ferox; and down at Tongue there was a little river + where the sea-trout sometimes come up with the tide. + </p> + <p> + Here I found myself upon the north coast, and took the road eastward + between the mountains and the sea. It was a beautiful region of + desolation. There were rocky glens cutting across the road, and + occasionally a brawling stream ran down to the salt water, breaking the + line of cliffs with a little bay and a half-moon of yellow sand. The + heather covered all the hills. There were no trees, and but few houses. + The chief signs of human labour were the rounded piles of peat, and the + square cuttings in the moor marking the places where the subterranean + wood-choppers had gathered their harvests. The long straths were once + cultivated, and every patch of arable land had its group of cottages full + of children. The human harvest has always been the richest and most + abundant that is raised in the Highlands; but unfortunately the supply + exceeded the demand; and so the crofters were evicted, and great flocks of + sheep were put in possession of the land; and now the sheep-pastures have + been changed into deer-forests; and far and wide along the valleys and + across the hills there is not a trace of habitation, except the heaps of + stones and the clumps of straggling bushes which mark the sites of lost + homes. But what is one country's loss is another country's gain. Canada + and the United States are infinitely the richer for the tough, strong, + fearless, honest men that were dispersed from these lonely straths to make + new homes across the sea. + </p> + <p> + It was after sundown when I reached the straggling village of Melvich, and + the long day's journey had left me weary. But the inn, with its + red-curtained windows, looked bright and reassuring. Thoughts of dinner + and a good bed comforted my spirit—prematurely. For the inn was + full. There were but five bedrooms and two parlours. The gentlemen who had + the neighbouring shootings occupied three bedrooms and a parlour; the + other two bedrooms had just been taken by the English fishermen who had + passed me in the road an hour ago in the mail-coach (oh! why had I not + suspected that treacherous vehicle?); and the landlord and his wife + assured me, with equal firmness and sympathy, that there was not another + cot or pair of blankets in the house. I believed them, and was sinking + into despair when Sandy M'Kaye appeared on the scene as my angel of + deliverance. Sandy was a small, withered, wiry man, dressed in rusty gray, + with an immense white collar thrusting out its points on either side of + his chin, and a black stock climbing over the top of it. I guessed from + his speech that he had once lived in the lowlands. He had hoped to be + engaged as a gillie by the shooting party, but had been disappointed. He + had wanted to be taken by the English fishermen, but another and younger + man had stepped in before him. Now Sandy saw in me his Predestinated + Opportunity, and had no idea of letting it post up the road that night to + the next village. He cleared his throat respectfully and cut into the + conversation. + </p> + <p> + "Ah'm thinkin' the gentleman micht find a coomfortaible lodgin' wi' the + weedow Macphairson a wee bittie doon the road. Her dochter is awa' in + Ameriky, an' the room is a verra fine room, an' it is a peety to hae it + stannin' idle, an' ye wudna mind the few steps to and fro tae yir meals + here, sir, wud ye? An' if ye 'ill gang wi' me efter dinner, 'a 'll be + prood to shoo ye the hoose." + </p> + <p> + So, after a good dinner with the English fishermen, Sandy piloted me down + the road through the thickening dusk. I remember a hoodie crow flew close + behind us with a choking, ghostly cough that startled me. The Macpherson + cottage was a snug little house of stone, with fuchsias and roses growing + in the front yard: and the widow was a douce old lady, with a face like a + winter apple in the month of April, wrinkled, but still rosy. She was a + little doubtful about entertaining strangers, but when she heard I was + from America she opened the doors of her house and her heart. And when, by + a subtle cross examination that would have been a credit to the wife of a + Connecticut deacon, she discovered the fact that her lodger was a + minister, she did two things, with equal and immediate fervour; she + brought out the big Bible and asked him to conduct evening worship, and + she produced a bottle of old Glenlivet and begged him to "guard against + takkin' cauld by takkin' a glass of speerits." + </p> + <p> + It was a very pleasant fortnight at Melvich. Mistress Macpherson was so + motherly that "takkin' cauld" was reduced to a permanent impossibility. + The other men at the inn proved to be very companionable fellows, quite + different from the monsters of insolence that my anger had imagined in the + moment of disappointment. The shooting party kept the table abundantly + supplied with grouse and hares and highland venison; and there was a piper + to march up and down before the window and play while we ate dinner—a + very complimentary and disquieting performance. But there are many + occasions in life when pride can be entertained only at the expense of + comfort. + </p> + <p> + Of course Sandy was my gillie. It was a fine sight to see him exhibiting + the tiny American trout-rod, tied with silk ribbons in its delicate case, + to the other gillies and exulting over them. Every morning he would lead + me away through the heather to some lonely loch on the shoulders of the + hills, from which we could look down upon the Northern Sea and the blue + Orkney Isles far away across the Pentland Firth. Sometimes we would find a + loch with a boat on it, and drift up and down, casting along the shores. + Sometimes, in spite of Sandy's confident predictions, no boat could be + found, and then I must put on the Mackintosh trousers and wade out over my + hips into the water, and circumambulate the pond, throwing the flies as + far as possible toward the middle, and feeling my way carefully along the + bottom with the long net-handle, while Sandy danced on the bank in an + agony of apprehension lest his Predestinated Opportunity should step into + a deep hole and be drowned. It was a curious fact in natural history that + on the lochs with boats the trout were in the shallow water, but in the + boatless lochs they were away out in the depths. "Juist the total + depraivity o' troots," said Sandy, "an' terrible fateegin'." + </p> + <p> + Sandy had an aversion to commit himself to definite statements on any + subject not theological. If you asked him how long the morning's tramp + would be, it was "no verra long, juist a bit ayant the hull yonner." And + if, at the end of the seventh mile, you complained that it was much too + far, he would never do more than admit that "it micht be shorter." If you + called him to rejoice over a trout that weighed close upon two pounds, he + allowed that it was "no bad—but there's bigger anes i' the loch gin + we cud but wile them oot." And at lunch-time, when we turned out a full + basket of shining fish on the heather, the most that he would say, while + his eyes snapped with joy and pride, was, "Aweel, we canna complain, the + day." + </p> + <p> + Then he would gather an armful of dried heather-stems for kindling, and + dig out a few roots and crooked limbs of the long-vanished forest from the + dry, brown, peaty soil, and make our campfire of prehistoric wood—just + for the pleasant, homelike look of the blaze—and sit down beside it + to eat our lunch. Heat is the least of the benefits that man gets from + fire. It is the sign of cheerfulness and good comradeship. I would not + willingly satisfy my hunger, even in a summer nooning, without a little + flame burning on a rustic altar to consecrate and enliven the feast. When + the bread and cheese were finished and the pipes were filled with Virginia + tobacco, Sandy would begin to tell me, very solemnly and respectfully, + about the mistakes I had made in the fishing that day, and mourn over the + fact that the largest fish had not been hooked. There was a strong strain + of pessimism in Sandy, and he enjoyed this part of the sport immensely. + </p> + <p> + But he was at his best in the walk home through the lingering twilight, + when the murmur of the sea trembled through the air, and the incense of + burning peat floated up from the cottages, and the stars blossomed one by + one in the pale-green sky. Then Sandy dandered on at his ease down the + hills, and discoursed of things in heaven and earth. He was an unconscious + follower of the theology of the Reverend John Jasper, of Richmond, + Virginia, and rejected the Copernican theory of the universe as + inconsistent with the history of Joshua. "Gin the sun doesna muve," said + he, "what for wad Joshua be tellin' him to stond steel? 'A wad suner + beleeve there was a mistak' in the veesible heevens than ae fault in the + Guid Buik." Whereupon we held long discourse of astronomy and inspiration; + but Sandy concluded it with a philosophic word which left little to be + said: "Aweel, yon teelescope is a wonnerful deescovery; but 'a dinna think + the less o' the Baible." + </p> + <p> + III. WHITE HEATHER. + </p> + <p> + Memory is a capricious and arbitrary creature. You never can tell what + pebble she will pick up from the shore of life to keep among her + treasures, or what inconspicuous flower of the field she will preserve as + the symbol of + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." +</pre> + <p> + She has her own scale of values for these mementos, and knows nothing of + the market price of precious stones or the costly splendour of rare + orchids. The thing that pleases her is the thing that she will hold fast. + And yet I do not doubt that the most important things are always the best + remembered; only we must learn that the real importance of what we see and + hear in the world is to be measured at last by its meaning, its + significance, its intimacy with the heart of our heart and the life of our + life. And when we find a little token of the past very safely and + imperishably kept among our recollections, we must believe that memory has + made no mistake. It is because that little thing has entered into our + experience most deeply, that it stays with us and we cannot lose it. + </p> + <p> + You have half forgotten many a famous scene that you travelled far to look + upon. You cannot clearly recall the sublime peak of Mont Blanc, the + roaring curve of Niagara, the vast dome of St. Peter's. The music of + Patti's crystalline voice has left no distinct echo in your remembrance, + and the blossoming of the century-plant is dimmer than the shadow of a + dream. But there is a nameless valley among the hills where you can still + trace every curve of the stream, and see the foam-bells floating on the + pool below the bridge, and the long moss wavering in the current. There is + a rustic song of a girl passing through the fields at sunset, that still + repeats its far-off cadence in your listening ears. There is a small + flower trembling on its stem in some hidden nook beneath the open sky, + that never withers through all the changing years; the wind passes over + it, but it is not gone—it abides forever in your soul, an + amaranthine blossom of beauty and truth. + </p> + <p> + White heather is not an easy flower to find. You may look for it among the + highlands for a day without success. And when it is discovered, there is + little outward charm to commend it. It lacks the grace of the dainty bells + that hang so abundantly from the Erica Tetralix, and the pink glow of the + innumerable blossoms of the common heather. But then it is a symbol. It is + the Scotch Edelweiss. It means sincere affection, and unselfish love, and + tender wishes as pure as prayers. I shall always remember the evening when + I found the white heather on the moorland above Glen Ericht. Or, rather, + it was not I that found it (for I have little luck in the discovery of + good omens, and have never plucked a four-leaved clover in my life), but + my companion, the gentle Mistress of the Glen, whose hair was as white as + the tiny blossoms, and yet whose eyes were far quicker than mine to see + and name every flower that bloomed in those lofty, widespread fields. + </p> + <p> + Ericht Water is formed by the marriage of two streams, one flowing out of + Strath Ardle and the other descending from Cairn Gowar through the long, + lonely Pass of Glenshee. The Ericht begins at the bridge of Cally, and its + placid, beautiful glen, unmarred by railway or factory, reaches almost + down to Blairgowrie. On the southern bank, but far above the water, runs + the high road to Braemar and the Linn of Dee. On the other side of the + river, nestling among the trees, is the low white manor-house, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "An ancient home of peace." +</pre> + <p> + It is a place where one who had been wearied and perchance sore wounded in + the battle of life might well desire to be carried, as Arthur to the + island valley of Avilion, for rest and healing. + </p> + <p> + I have no thought of renewing the conflicts and cares that filled that + summer with sorrow. There were fightings without and fears within; there + was the surrender of an enterprise that had been cherished since boyhood, + and the bitter sense of irremediable weakness that follows such a reverse; + there was a touch of that wrath with those we love, which, as Coleridge + says, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Doth work like madness in the brain;" +</pre> + <p> + flying across the sea from these troubles, I had found my old comrade of + merrier days sentenced to death, and caught but a brief glimpse of his + pale, brave face as he went away into exile. At such a time the sun and + the light and the moon and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return + after rain. But through those clouds the Mistress of the Glen came to meet + me—a stranger till then, but an appointed friend, a minister of + needed grace, an angel of quiet comfort. The thick mists of rebellion, + mistrust, and despair have long since rolled away, and against the + background of the hills her figure stands out clearly, dressed in the + fashion of fifty years ago, with the snowy hair gathered close beneath her + widow's cap, and a spray of white heather in her outstretched hand. + </p> + <p> + There were no other guests in the house by the river during those still + days in the noontide hush of midsummer. Every morning, while the Mistress + was busied with her household cares and letters, I would be out in the + fields hearing the lark sing, and watching the rabbits as they ran to and + fro, scattering the dew from the grass in a glittering spray. Or perhaps I + would be angling down the river, with the swift pressure of the water + around my knees, and an inarticulate current of cooling thoughts flowing + on and on through my brain like the murmur of the stream. Every afternoon + there were long walks with the Mistress in the old-fashioned garden, where + wonderful roses were blooming; or through the dark, fir-shaded den where + the wild burn dropped down to join the river; or out upon the high moor + under the waning orange sunset. Every night there were luminous and + restful talks beside the open fire in the library, when the words came + clear and calm from the heart, unperturbed by the vain desire of saying + brilliant things, which turns so much of our conversation into a combat of + wits instead of an interchange of thoughts. Talk like this is possible + only between two. The arrival of a third person sets the lists for a + tournament, and offers the prize for a verbal victory. But where there are + only two, the armour is laid aside, and there is no call to thrust and + parry. + </p> + <p> + One of the two should be a good listener, sympathetic, but not silent, + giving confidence in order to attract it—and of this art a woman is + the best master. But its finest secrets do not come to her until she has + passed beyond the uncertain season of compliments and conquests, and + entered into the serenity of a tranquil age. + </p> + <p> + What is this foolish thing that men say about the impossibility of true + intimacy and converse between the young and the old? Hamerton, for + example, in his book on Human Intercourse, would have us believe that a + difference in years is a barrier between hearts. For my part, I have more + often found it an open door, and a security of generous and tolerant + welcome for the young soldier, who comes in tired and dusty from the + battle-field, to tell his story of defeat or victory in the garden of + still thoughts where old age is resting in the peace of honourable + discharge. I like what Robert Louis Stevenson says about it in his essay + on Talk and Talkers. + </p> + <p> + "Not only is the presence of the aged in itself remedial, but their minds + are stored with antidotes, wisdom's simples, plain considerations + overlooked by youth. They have matter to communicate, be they never so + stupid. Their talk is not merely literature, it is great literature; + classic by virtue of the speaker's detachment; studded, like a book of + travel, with things we should not otherwise have learnt . . . where youth + agrees with age, not where they differ, wisdom lies; and it is when the + young disciple finds his heart to beat in tune with his gray-haired + teacher's that a lesson may be learned." + </p> + <p> + The conversation of the Mistress of the Glen shone like the light and + distilled like the dew, not only by virtue of what she said, but still + more by virtue of what she was. Her face was a good counsel against + discouragement; and the cheerful quietude of her demeanour was a rebuke to + all rebellious, cowardly, and discontented thoughts. It was not the + striking novelty or profundity of her commentary on life that made it + memorable, it was simply the truth of what she said and the gentleness + with which she said it. Epigrams are worth little for guidance to the + perplexed, and less for comfort to the wounded. But the plain, homely + sayings which come from a soul that has learned the lesson of patient + courage in the school of real experience, fall upon the wound like drops + of balsam, and like a soothing lotion up on the eyes smarting and blinded + with passion. + </p> + <p> + She spoke of those who had walked with her long ago in her garden, and for + whose sake, now that they had all gone into the world of light, every + flower was doubly dear. Would it be a true proof of loyalty to them if she + lived gloomily or despondently because they were away? She spoke of the + duty of being ready to welcome happiness as well as to endure pain, and of + the strength that endurance wins by being grateful for small daily joys, + like the evening light, and the smell of roses, and the singing of birds. + She spoke of the faith that rests on the Unseen Wisdom and Love like a + child on its mother's breast, and of the melting away of doubts in the + warmth of an effort to do some good in the world. And if that effort has + conflict, and adventure, and confused noise, and mistakes, and even + defeats mingled with it, in the stormy years of youth, is not that to be + expected? The burn roars and leaps in the den; the stream chafes and frets + through the rapids of the glen; the river does not grow calm and smooth + until it nears the sea. Courage is a virtue that the young cannot spare; + to lose it is to grow old before the time; it is better to make a thousand + mistakes and suffer a thousand reverses than to refuse the battle. + Resignation is the final courage of old age; it arrives in its own season; + and it is a good day when it comes to us. Then there are no more + disappointments; for we have learned that it is even better to desire the + things that we have than to have the things that we desire. And is not the + best of all our hopes—the hope of immortality—always before + us? How can we be dull or heavy while we have that new experience to look + forward to? It will be the most joyful of all our travels and adventures. + It will bring us our best acquaintances and friendships. But there is only + one way to get ready for immortality, and that is to love this life, and + live it as bravely and cheerfully and faithfully as we can. + </p> + <p> + So my gentle teacher with the silver hair showed me the treasures of her + ancient, simple faith; and I felt that no sermons, nor books, nor + arguments can strengthen the doubting heart so deeply as just to come into + touch with a soul which has proved the truth of that plain religion whose + highest philosophy is "Trust in the Lord and do good." At the end of the + evening the household was gathered for prayers, and the Mistress kneeled + among her servants, leading them, in her soft Scottish accent, through the + old familiar petitions for pardon for the errors of the day, and + refreshing sleep through the night and strength for the morrow. It is good + to be in a land where the people are not ashamed to pray. I have shared + the blessing of Catholics at their table in lowly huts among the mountains + of the Tyrol, and knelt with Covenanters at their household altar in the + glens of Scotland; and all around the world, where the spirit of prayer + is, there is peace. The genius of the Scotch has made many contributions + to literature, but none I think, more precious, and none that comes closer + to the heart, than the prayer which Robert Louis Stevenson wrote for his + family in distant Samoa, the night before he died:— + </p> + <p> + "We beseech thee, Lord, to behold us with favour, folk of many families + and nations, gathered together in the peace of this roof: weak men and + women subsisting under the covert of thy patience. Be patient still; + suffer us yet a while longer—with our broken promises of good, with + our idle endeavours against evil—suffer us a while longer to endure, + and (if it may be) help us to do better. Bless to us our extraordinary + mercies; if the day come when these must be taken, have us play the man + under affliction. Be with our friends, be with ourselves. Go with each of + us to rest; if any awake, temper to them the dark hours of watching; and + when the day returns to us—our sun and comforter—call us with + morning faces, eager to labour, eager to be happy, if happiness shall be + our portion, and, if the day be marked to sorrow, strong to endure it. We + thank thee and praise thee; and, in the words of Him to whom this day is + sacred, close our oblation." + </p> + <p> + The man who made that kindly human prayer knew the meaning of white + heather. And I dare to hope that I too have known something of its + meaning, since that evening when the Mistress of the Glen picked the spray + and gave it to me on the lonely moor. "And now," she said, "you will be + going home across the sea; and you have been welcome here, but it is time + that you should go, for there is the place where your real duties and + troubles and joys are waiting for you. And if you have left any + misunderstandings behind you, you will try to clear them up; and if there + have been any quarrels, you will heal them. Carry this little flower with + you. It's not the bonniest blossom in Scotland, but it's the dearest, for + the message that it brings. And you will remember that love is not + getting, but giving; not a wild dream of pleasure, and a madness of desire—oh + no, love is not that—it is goodness, and honour, and peace, and pure + living—yes, love is that; and it is the best thing in the world, and + the thing that lives longest. And that is what I am wishing for you and + yours with this bit of white heather." + </p> + <p> + 1893. <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE RISTIGOUCHE FROM A HORSE-YACHT + </h2> + <p> + Dr. Paley was ardently attached to this amusement; so much so that when + the Bishop of Durham inquired of him when one of his most important works + would be finished, he said, with great simplicity and good humour, 'My + Lord, I shall work steadily at it when the fly-fishing season is over.'—SIR + HUMPHRY DAVY: Salmonia. + </p> + <p> + The boundary line between the Province of Quebec and New Brunswick, for a + considerable part of its course, resembles the name of the poet Keats; it + is "writ in water." But like his fame, it is water that never fails,—the + limpid current of the river Ristigouche. + </p> + <p> + The railway crawls over it on a long bridge at Metapedia, and you are + dropped in the darkness somewhere between midnight and dawn. When you open + your window-shutters the next morning, you see that the village is a + disconsolate hamlet, scattered along the track as if it had been shaken by + chance from an open freight-car; it consists of twenty houses, three + shops, and a discouraged church perched upon a little hillock like a + solitary mourner on the anxious seat. The one comfortable and prosperous + feature in the countenance of Metapedia is the house of the Ristigouche + Salmon Club—an old-fashioned mansion, with broad, white piazza, + looking over rich meadow-lands. Here it was that I found my friend + Favonius, president of solemn societies, pillar of church and state, + ingenuously arrayed in gray knickerbockers, a flannel shirt, and a soft + hat, waiting to take me on his horse-yacht for a voyage up the river. + </p> + <p> + Have you ever seen a horse-yacht? Sometimes it is called a scow; but that + sounds common. Sometimes it is called a house-boat; but that is too + English. What does it profit a man to have a whole dictionary full of + language at his service, unless he can invent a new and suggestive name + for his friend's pleasure-craft? The foundation of the horse-yacht—if + a thing that floats may be called fundamental—is a flat-bottomed + boat, some fifty feet long and ten feet wide, with a draft of about eight + inches. The deck is open for fifteen feet aft of the place where the + bowsprit ought to be; behind that it is completely covered by a house, + cabin, cottage, or whatever you choose to call it, with straight sides and + a peaked roof of a very early Gothic pattern. Looking in at the door you + see, first of all, two cots, one on either side of the passage; then an + open space with a dining-table, a stove, and some chairs; beyond that a + pantry with shelves, and a great chest for provisions. A door at the back + opens into the kitchen, and from that another door opens into a + sleeping-room for the boatmen. A huge wooden tiller curves over the stern + of the boat, and the helmsman stands upon the kitchen-roof. Two canoes are + floating behind, holding back, at the end of their long tow-ropes, as if + reluctant to follow so clumsy a leader. This is an accurate description of + the horse-yacht. If necessary it could be sworn to before a notary public. + But I am perfectly sure that you might read this page through without + skipping a word, and if you had never seen the creature with your own + eyes, you would have no idea how absurd it looks and how comfortable it + is. + </p> + <p> + While we were stowing away our trunks and bags under the cots, and making + an equitable division of the hooks upon the walls, the motive power of the + yacht stood patiently upon the shore, stamping a hoof, now and then, or + shaking a shaggy head in mild protest against the flies. Three more + pessimistic-looking horses I never saw. They were harnessed abreast, and + fastened by a prodigious tow-rope to a short post in the middle of the + forward deck. Their driver was a truculent, brigandish, bearded old fellow + in long boots, a blue flannel shirt, and a black sombrero. He sat upon the + middle horse, and some wild instinct of colour had made him tie a big red + handkerchief around his shoulders, so that the eye of the beholder took + delight in him. He posed like a bold, bad robber-chief. But in point of + fact I believe he was the mildest and most inoffensive of men. We never + heard him say anything except at a distance, to his horses, and we did not + inquire what that was. + </p> + <p> + Well, as I have said, we were haggling courteously over those hooks in the + cabin, when the boat gave a lurch. The bow swung out into the stream. + There was a scrambling and clattering of iron horse-shoes on the rough + shingle of the bank; and when we looked out of doors, our house was moving + up the river with the boat under it. + </p> + <p> + The Ristigouche is a noble stream, stately and swift and strong. It rises + among the dense forests in the northern part of New Brunswick—a + moist upland region, of never-failing springs and innumerous lakes—and + pours a flood of clear, cold water one hundred and fifty miles northward + and eastward through the hills into the head of the Bay of Chaleurs. There + are no falls in its course, but rapids everywhere. It is steadfast but not + impetuous, quick but not turbulent, resolute and eager in its desire to + get to the sea, like the life of a man who has a purpose + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Too great for haste, too high for rivalry." +</pre> + <p> + The wonder is where all the water comes from. But the river is fed by more + than six thousand square miles of territory. From both sides the little + brooks come dashing in with their supply. At intervals a larger stream, + reaching away back among the mountains like a hand with many fingers to + gather + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The filtered tribute of the rough woodland," +</pre> + <p> + delivers its generous offering to the main current. + </p> + <p> + The names of the chief tributaries of the Ristigouche are curious. There + is the headstrong Metapedia, and the crooked Upsalquitch, and the + Patapedia, and the Quatawamkedgwick. These are words at which the tongue + balks at first, but you soon grow used to them and learn to take anything + of five syllables with a rush, as a hunter takes a five-barred gate, + trusting to fortune that you will come down with the accent in the right + place. + </p> + <p> + For six or seven miles above Metapedia the river has a breadth of about + two hundred yards, and the valley slopes back rather gently to the + mountains on either side. There is a good deal of cultivated land, and + scattered farm-houses appear. The soil is excellent. But it is like a + pearl cast before an obstinate, unfriendly climate. Late frosts prolong + the winter. Early frosts curtail the summer. The only safe crops are + grass, oats, and potatoes. And for half the year all the cattle must be + housed and fed to keep them alive. This lends a melancholy aspect to + agriculture. Most of the farmers look as if they had never seen better + days. With few exceptions they are what a New Englander would call + "slack-twisted and shiftless." Their barns are pervious to the weather, + and their fences fail to connect. Sleds and ploughs rust together beside + the house, and chickens scratch up the front-door yard. In truth, the + people have been somewhat demoralised by the conflicting claims of + different occupations; hunting in the fall, lumbering in the winter and + spring, and working for the American sportsmen in the brief angling + season, are so much more attractive and offer so much larger returns of + ready money, that the tedious toil of farming is neglected. But for all + that, in the bright days of midsummer, these green fields sloping down to + the water, and pastures high up among the trees on the hillsides, look + pleasant from a distance, and give an inhabited air to the landscape. + </p> + <p> + At the mouth of the Upsalquitch we passed the first of the fishing-lodges. + It belongs to a sage angler from Albany who saw the beauty of the + situation, years ago, and built a habitation to match it. Since that time + a number of gentlemen have bought land fronting on good pools, and put up + little cottages of a less classical style than Charles Cotton's + "Fisherman's Retreat" on the banks of the river Dove, but better suited to + this wild scenery, and more convenient to live in. The prevailing pattern + is a very simple one; it consists of a broad piazza with a small house in + the middle of it. The house bears about the same proportion to the piazza + that the crown of a Gainsborough hat does to the brim. And the cost of the + edifice is to the cost of the land as the first price of a share in a + bankrupt railway is to the assessments which follow the reorganisation. + All the best points have been sold, and real estate on the Ristigouche has + been bid up to an absurd figure. In fact, the river is over-populated and + probably over-fished. But we could hardly find it in our hearts to regret + this, for it made the upward trip a very sociable one. At every lodge that + was open, Favonius (who knows everybody) had a friend, and we must slip + ashore in a canoe to leave the mail and refresh the inner man. + </p> + <p> + An angler, like an Arab, regards hospitality as a religious duty. There + seems to be something in the craft which inclines the heart to kindness + and good-fellowship. Few anglers have I seen who were not pleasant to + meet, and ready to do a good turn to a fellow-fisherman with the gift of a + killing fly or the loan of a rod. Not their own particular and well-proved + favourite, of course, for that is a treasure which no decent man would + borrow; but with that exception the best in their store is at the service + of an accredited brother. One of the Ristigouche proprietors I remember, + whose name bespoke him a descendant of Caledonia's patron saint. He was + fishing in front of his own door when we came up, with our splashing + horses, through the pool; but nothing would do but he must up anchor and + have us away with him into the house to taste his good cheer. And there + were his daughters with their books and needlework, and the photographs + which they had taken pinned up on the wooden walls, among Japanese fans + and bits of bright-coloured stuff in which the soul of woman delights, + and, in a passive, silent way, the soul of man also. Then, after we had + discussed the year's fishing, and the mysteries of the camera, and the + deep question of what makes some negatives too thin and others too thick, + we must go out to see the big salmon which one of the ladies had caught a + few days before, and the large trout swimming about in their cold spring. + It seemed to me, as we went on our way, that there could hardly be a more + wholesome and pleasant summer-life for well-bred young women than this, or + two amusements more innocent and sensible than photography and + fly-fishing. + </p> + <p> + It must be confessed that the horse-yacht as a vehicle of travel is not + remarkable in point of speed. Three miles an hour is not a very rapid rate + of motion. But then, if you are not in a hurry, why should you care to + make haste? + </p> + <p> + The wild desire to be forever racing against old Father Time is one of the + kill-joys of modern life. That ancient traveller is sure to beat you in + the long run, and as long as you are trying to rival him, he will make + your life a burden. But if you will only acknowledge his superiority and + profess that you do not approve of racing after all, he will settle down + quietly beside you and jog along like the most companionable of creatures. + That is a pleasant pilgrimage in which the journey itself is part of the + destination. + </p> + <p> + As soon as one learns to regard the horse-yacht as a sort of moving house, + it appears admirable. There is no dust or smoke, no rumble of wheels, or + shriek of whistles. You are gliding along steadily through an ever-green + world; skirting the silent hills; passing from one side of the river to + the other when the horses have to swim the current to find a good foothold + on the bank. You are on the water, but not at its mercy, for your craft is + not disturbed by the heaving of rude waves, and the serene inhabitants do + not say "I am sick." There is room enough to move about without falling + overboard. You may sleep, or read, or write in your cabin, or sit upon the + floating piazza in an arm-chair and smoke the pipe of peace, while the + cool breeze blows in your face and the musical waves go singing down to + the sea. + </p> + <p> + There was one feature about the boat, which commended itself very strongly + to my mind. It was possible to stand upon the forward deck and do a little + trout-fishing in motion. By watching your chance, when the corner of a + good pool was within easy reach, you could send out a hasty line and + cajole a sea-trout from his hiding-place. It is true that the tow-ropes + and the post made the back cast a little awkward; and the wind sometimes + blew the flies up on the roof of the cabin; but then, with patience and a + short line the thing could be done. I remember a pair of good trout that + rose together just as we were going through a boiling rapid; and it tried + the strength of my split-bamboo rod to bring those fish to the net against + the current and the motion of the boat. + </p> + <p> + When nightfall approached we let go the anchor (to wit, a rope tied to a + large stone on the shore), ate our dinner "with gladness and singleness of + heart" like the early Christians, and slept the sleep of the just, lulled + by the murmuring of the waters, and defended from the insidious attacks of + the mosquito by the breeze blowing down the river and the impregnable + curtains over our beds. At daybreak, long before Favonius and I had + finished our dreams, we were under way again; and when the trampling of + the horses on some rocky shore wakened us, we could see the steep hills + gliding past the windows and hear the rapids dashing against the side of + the boat, and it seemed as if we were still dreaming. + </p> + <p> + At Cross Point, where the river makes a long loop around a narrow + mountain, thin as a saw and crowned on its jagged edge by a rude wooden + cross, we stopped for an hour to try the fishing. It was here that I + hooked two mysterious creatures, each of which took the fly when it was + below the surface, pulled for a few moments in a sullen way and then + apparently melted into nothingness. It will always be a source of regret + to me that the nature of these fish must remain unknown. While they were + on the line it was the general opinion that they were heavy trout; but no + sooner had they departed, than I became firmly convinced, in accordance + with a psychological law which holds good all over the world, that they + were both enormous salmon. Even the Turks have a proverb which says, + "Every fish that escapes appears larger than it is." No one can alter that + conviction, because no one can logically refute it. Our best blessings, + like our largest fish, always depart before we have time to measure them. + </p> + <p> + The Slide Pool is in the wildest and most picturesque part of the river, + about thirty-five miles above Metapedia. The stream, flowing swiftly down + a stretch of rapids between forest-clad hills, runs straight toward the + base of an eminence so precipitous that the trees can hardly find a + foothold upon it, and seem to be climbing up in haste on either side of + the long slide which leads to the summit. The current, barred by the wall + of rock, takes a great sweep to the right, dashing up at first in angry + waves, then falling away in oily curves and eddies, until at last it + sleeps in a black deep, apparently almost motionless, at the foot of the + hill. It was here, on the upper edge of the stream, opposite to the slide, + that we brought our floating camp to anchor for some days. What does one + do in such a watering-place? + </p> + <p> + Let us take a "specimen day." It is early morning, or to be more precise, + about eight of the clock, and the white fog is just beginning to curl and + drift away from the surface of the river. Sooner than this it would be + idle to go out. The preternaturally early bird in his greedy haste may + catch the worm; but the salmon never take the fly until the fog has + lifted; and in this the scientific angler sees, with gratitude, a + remarkable adaptation of the laws of nature to the tastes of man. The + canoes are waiting at the front door. We step into them and push off, + Favonius going up the stream a couple of miles to the mouth of the + Patapedia, and I down, a little shorter distance, to the famous Indian + House Pool. The slim boat glides easily on the current, with a smooth + buoyant motion, quickened by the strokes of the paddles in the bow and the + stern. We pass around two curves in the river and find ourselves at the + head of the pool. Here the man in the stern drops the anchor, just on the + edge of the bar where the rapid breaks over into the deeper water. The + long rod is lifted; the fly unhooked from the reel; a few feet of line + pulled through the rings, and the fishing begins. + </p> + <p> + First cast,—to the right, straight across the stream, about twenty + feet: the current carries the fly down with a semicircular sweep, until it + comes in line with the bow of the canoe. Second cast,—to the left, + straight across the stream, with the same motion: the semicircle is + completed, and the fly hangs quivering for a few seconds at the lowest + point of the arc. Three or four feet of line are drawn from the reel. + Third cast to the right; fourth cast to the left. Then a little more line. + And so, with widening half-circles, the water is covered, gradually and + very carefully, until at length the angler has as much line out as his + two-handed rod can lift and swing. Then the first "drop" is finished; the + man in the stern quietly pulls up the anchor and lets the boat drift down + a few yards; the same process is repeated on the second drop; and so on, + until the end of the run is reached and the fly has passed over all the + good water. This seems like a very regular and somewhat mechanical + proceeding as one describes it, but in the performance it is rendered + intensely interesting by the knowledge that at any moment it is liable to + be interrupted. + </p> + <p> + This morning the interruption comes early. At the first cast of the second + drop, before the fly has fairly lit, a great flash of silver darts from + the waves close by the boat. Usually a salmon takes the fly rather slowly, + carrying it under water before he seizes it in his mouth. But this one is + in no mood for deliberation. He has hooked himself with a rush, and the + line goes whirring madly from the reel as he races down the pool. Keep the + point of the rod low; he must have his own way now. Up with the anchor + quickly, and send the canoe after him, bowman and sternman paddling with + swift strokes. He has reached the deepest water; he stops to think what + has happened to him; we have passed around and below him; and now, with + the current to help us, we can begin to reel in. Lift the point of the + rod, with a strong, steady pull. Put the force of both arms into it. The + tough wood will stand the strain. The fish must be moved; he must come to + the boat if he is ever to be landed. He gives a little and yields slowly + to the pressure. Then suddenly he gives too much, and runs straight toward + us. Reel in now as swiftly as possible, or else he will get a slack on the + line and escape. Now he stops, shakes his head from side to side, and + darts away again across the pool, leaping high out of water. Don't touch + the reel! Drop the point of the rod quickly, for if he falls on the leader + he will surely break it. Another leap, and another! Truly he is "a merry + one," and it will go hard with us to hold him. But those great leaps have + exhausted his strength, and now he follows the rod more easily. The men + push the boat back to the shallow side of the pool until it touches + lightly on the shore. The fish comes slowly in, fighting a little and + making a few short runs; he is tired and turns slightly on his side; but + even yet he is a heavy weight on the line, and it seems a wonder that so + slight a thing as the leader can guide and draw him. Now he is close to + the boat. The boatman steps out on a rock with his gaff. Steadily now and + slowly, lift the rod, bending it backward. A quick sure stroke of the + steel! a great splash! and the salmon is lifted upon the shore. How he + flounces about on the stones. Give him the coup de grace at once, for his + own sake as well as for ours. And now look at him, as he lies there on the + green leaves. Broad back; small head tapering to a point; clean, shining + sides with a few black spots on them; it is a fish fresh-run from the sea, + in perfect condition, and that is the reason why he has given such good + sport. + </p> + <p> + We must try for another before we go back. Again fortune favours us, and + at eleven o'clock we pole up the river to the camp with two good salmon in + the canoe. Hardly have we laid them away in the ice-box, when Favonius + comes dropping down from Patapedia with three fish, one of them a + twenty-four pounder. And so the morning's work is done. + </p> + <p> + In the evening, after dinner, it was our custom to sit out on the deck, + watching the moonlight as it fell softly over the black hills and changed + the river into a pale flood of rolling gold. The fragrant wreaths of smoke + floated lazily away on the faint breeze of night. There was no sound save + the rushing of the water and the crackling of the camp-fire on the shore. + We talked of many things in the heavens above, and the earth beneath, and + the waters under the earth; touching lightly here and there as the spirit + of vagrant converse led us. Favonius has the good sense to talk about + himself occasionally and tell his own experience. The man who will not do + that must always be a dull companion. Modest egoism is the salt of + conversation: you do not want too much of it; but if it is altogether + omitted, everything tastes flat. I remember well the evening when he told + me the story of the Sheep of the Wilderness. + </p> + <p> + "I was ill that summer," said he, "and the doctor had ordered me to go + into the woods, but on no account to go without plenty of fresh meat, + which was essential to my recovery. So we set out into the wild country + north of Georgian Bay, taking a live sheep with us in order to be sure + that the doctor's prescription might be faithfully followed. It was a + young and innocent little beast, curling itself up at my feet in the + canoe, and following me about on shore like a dog. I gathered grass every + day to feed it, and carried it in my arms over the rough portages. It ate + out of my hand and rubbed its woolly head against my leggings. To my + dismay, I found that I was beginning to love it for its own sake and + without any ulterior motives. The thought of killing and eating it became + more and more painful to me, until at length the fatal fascination was + complete, and my trip became practically an exercise of devotion to that + sheep. I carried it everywhere and ministered fondly to its wants. Not for + the world would I have alluded to mutton in its presence. And when we + returned to civilisation I parted from the creature with sincere regret + and the consciousness that I had humoured my affections at the expense of + my digestion. The sheep did not give me so much as a look of farewell, but + fell to feeding on the grass beside the farm-house with an air of placid + triumph." + </p> + <p> + After hearing this touching tale, I was glad that no great intimacy had + sprung up between Favonius and the chickens which we carried in a coop on + the forecastle head, for there is no telling what restrictions his + tender-heartedness might have laid upon our larder. But perhaps a chicken + would not have given such an opening for misplaced affection as a sheep. + There is a great difference in animals in this respect. I certainly never + heard of any one falling in love with a salmon in such a way as to regard + it as a fond companion. And this may be one reason why no sensible person + who has tried fishing has ever been able to see any cruelty in it. + </p> + <p> + Suppose the fish is not caught by an angler, what is his alternative fate? + He will either perish miserably in the struggles of the crowded net, or + die of old age and starvation like the long, lean stragglers which are + sometimes found in the shallow pools, or be devoured by a larger fish, or + torn to pieces by a seal or an otter. Compared with any of these miserable + deaths, the fate of a salmon who is hooked in a clear stream and after a + glorious fight receives the happy despatch at the moment when he touches + the shore, is a sort of euthanasia. And, since the fish was made to be + man's food, the angler who brings him to the table of destiny in the + cleanest, quickest, kindest way is, in fact, his benefactor. + </p> + <p> + There were some days, however, when our benevolent intentions toward the + salmon were frustrated; mornings when they refused to rise, and evenings + when they escaped even the skilful endeavours of Favonius. In vain did he + try every fly in his book, from the smallest "Silver Doctor" to the + largest "Golden Eagle." The "Black Dose" would not move them. The "Durham + Ranger" covered the pool in vain. On days like this, if a stray fish rose, + it was hard to land him, for he was usually but slightly hooked. + </p> + <p> + I remember one of these shy creatures which led me a pretty dance at the + mouth of Patapedia. He came to the fly just at dusk, rising very softly + and quietly, as if he did not really care for it but only wanted to see + what it was like. He went down at once into deep water, and began the most + dangerous and exasperating of all salmon-tactics, moving around in slow + circles and shaking his head from side to side, with sullen pertinacity. + This is called "jigging," and unless it can be stopped, the result is + fatal. + </p> + <p> + I could not stop it. That salmon was determined to jig. He knew more than + I did. + </p> + <p> + The canoe followed him down the pool. He jigged away past all three of the + inlets of the Patapedia, and at last, in the still, deep water below, + after we had laboured with him for half an hour, and brought him near + enough to see that he was immense, he calmly opened his mouth and the fly + came back to me void. That was a sad evening, in which all the + consolations of philosophy were needed. + </p> + <p> + Sunday was a very peaceful day in our camp. In the Dominion of Canada, the + question "to fish or not to fish" on the first day of the week is not left + to the frailty of the individual conscience. The law on the subject is + quite explicit, and says that between six o'clock on Saturday evening and + six o'clock on Monday morning all nets shall be taken up and no one shall + wet a line. The Ristigouche Salmon Club has its guardians stationed all + along the river, and they are quite as inflexible in seeing that their + employers keep this law as the famous sentinel was in refusing to let + Napoleon pass without the countersign. But I do not think that these keen + sportsmen regard it as a hardship; they are quite willing that the fish + should have "an off day" in every week, and only grumble because some of + the net-owners down at the mouth of the river have brought political + influence to bear in their favour and obtained exemption from the rule. + For our part, we were nothing loath to hang up our rods, and make the day + different from other days. + </p> + <p> + In the morning we had a service in the cabin of the boat, gathering a + little congregation of guardians and boatmen, and people from a solitary + farm-house by the river. They came in pirogues—long, narrow boats + hollowed from the trunk of a tree; the black-eyed, brown-faced girls + sitting back to back in the middle of the boat, and the men standing up + bending to their poles. It seemed a picturesque way of travelling, + although none too safe. + </p> + <p> + In the afternoon we sat on deck and looked at the water. What a charm + there is in watching a swift stream! The eye never wearies of following + its curls and eddies, the shadow of the waves dancing over the stones, the + strange, crinkling lines of sunlight in the shallows. There is a sort of + fascination in it, lulling and soothing the mind into a quietude which is + even pleasanter than sleep, and making it almost possible to do that of + which we so often speak, but which we never quite accomplish—"think + about nothing." Out on the edge of the pool, we could see five or six huge + salmon, moving slowly from side to side, or lying motionless like gray + shadows. There was nothing to break the silence except the thin clear + whistle of the white-throated sparrow far back in the woods. This is + almost the only bird-song that one hears on the river, unless you count + the metallic "chr-r-r-r" of the kingfisher as a song. + </p> + <p> + Every now and then one of the salmon in the pool would lazily roll out of + water, or spring high into the air and fall back with a heavy splash. What + is it that makes salmon leap? Is it pain or pleasure? Do they do it to + escape the attack of another fish, or to shake off a parasite that clings + to them, or to practise jumping so that they can ascend the falls when + they reach them, or simply and solely out of exuberant gladness and joy of + living? Any one of these reasons would be enough to account for it on + week-days. On Sunday I am quite sure they do it for the trial of the + fisherman's faith. + </p> + <p> + But how should I tell all the little incidents which made that lazy voyage + so delightful? Favonius was the ideal host, for on water, as well as on + land, he knows how to provide for the liberty as well as for the wants of + his guests. He understands also the fine art of conversation, which + consists of silence as well as speech. And when it comes to angling, Izaak + Walton himself could not have been a more profitable teacher by precept or + example. Indeed, it is a curious thought, and one full of sadness to a + well-constituted mind, that on the Ristigouche "I. W." would have been at + sea, for the beloved father of all fishermen passed through this world + without ever catching a salmon. So ill does fortune match with merit here + below. + </p> + <p> + At last the days of idleness were ended. We could not + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Fold our tents like the Arabs, + and as silently steal away;" +</pre> + <p> + but we took down the long rods, put away the heavy reels, made the canoes + fast to the side of the house, embarked the three horses on the front + deck, and then dropped down with the current, swinging along through the + rapids, and drifting slowly through the still places, now grounding on a + hidden rock, and now sweeping around a sharp curve, until at length we saw + the roofs of Metapedia and the ugly bridge of the railway spanning the + river. There we left our floating house, awkward and helpless, like some + strange relic of the flood, stranded on the shore. And as we climbed the + bank we looked back and wondered whether Noah was sorry when he said + good-bye to his ark. + </p> + <p> + 1888. <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ALPENROSEN AND GOAT'S MILK + </h2> + <p> + "Nay, let me tell you, there be many that have forty times our estates, + that would give the greatest part of it to be healthful and cheerful like + us; who, with the expense of a little money, have ate, and drank, and + laughed, and angled, and sung, and slept securely; and rose next day, and + cast away care, and sung, and laughed, and angled again; which are + blessings rich men cannot purchase with all their money."—IZAAK + WALTON: The Complete Angler. + </p> + <p> + A great deal of the pleasure of life lies in bringing together things + which have no connection. That is the secret of humour—at least so + we are told by the philosophers who explain the jests that other men have + made—and in regard to travel, I am quite sure that it must be + illogical in order to be entertaining. The more contrasts it contains, the + better. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps it was some philosophical reflection of this kind that brought me + to the resolution, on a certain summer day, to make a little journey, as + straight as possible, from the sea-level streets of Venice to the lonely, + lofty summit of a Tyrolese mountain, called, for no earthly reason that I + can discover, the Gross-Venediger. + </p> + <p> + But apart from the philosophy of the matter, which I must confess to + passing over very superficially at the time, there were other and more + cogent reasons for wanting to go from Venice to the Big Venetian. It was + the first of July, and the city on the sea was becoming tepid. A slumbrous + haze brooded over canals and palaces and churches. It was difficult to + keep one's conscience awake to Baedeker and a sense of moral obligation; + Ruskin was impossible, and a picture-gallery was a penance. We floated + lazily from one place to another, and decided that, after all, it was too + warm to go in. The cries of the gondoliers, at the canal corners, grew + more and more monotonous and dreamy. There was danger of our falling fast + asleep and having to pay by the hour for a day's repose in a gondola. If + it grew much warmer, we might be compelled to stay until the following + winter in order to recover energy enough to get away. All the signs of the + times pointed northward, to the mountains, where we should see glaciers + and snow-fields, and pick Alpenrosen, and drink goat's milk fresh from the + real goat. + </p> + <p> + I. + </p> + <p> + The first stage on the journey thither was by rail to Belluno—about + four or five hours. It is a sufficient commentary on railway travel that + the most important thing about it is to tell how many hours it takes to + get from one place to another. + </p> + <p> + We arrived in Belluno at night, and when we awoke the next morning we + found ourselves in a picturesque little city of Venetian aspect, with a + piazza and a campanile and a Palladian cathedral, surrounded on all sides + by lofty hills. We were at the end of the railway and at the beginning of + the Dolomites. + </p> + <p> + Although I have a constitutional aversion to scientific information given + by unscientific persons, such as clergymen and men of letters, I must go + in that direction far enough to make it clear that the word Dolomite does + not describe a kind of fossil, nor a sect of heretics, but a formation of + mountains lying between the Alps and the Adriatic. Draw a diamond on the + map, with Brixen at the northwest corner, Lienz at the northeast, Belluno + at the southeast, and Trent at the southwest, and you will have included + the region of the Dolomites, a country so picturesque, so interesting, so + full of sublime and beautiful scenery, that it is equally a wonder and a + blessing that it has not been long since completely overrun by tourists + and ruined with railways. It is true, the glaciers and snowfields are + limited; the waterfalls are comparatively few and slender, and the rivers + small; the loftiest peaks are little more than ten thousand feet high. + But, on the other hand, the mountains are always near, and therefore + always imposing. Bold, steep, fantastic masses of naked rock, they rise + suddenly from the green and flowery valleys in amazing and endless + contrast; they mirror themselves in the tiny mountain lakes like pictures + in a dream. + </p> + <p> + I believe the guide-book says that they are formed of carbonate of lime + and carbonate of magnesia in chemical composition; but even if this be + true, it need not prejudice any candid observer against them. For the + simple and fortunate fact is that they are built of such stone that wind + and weather, keen frost and melting snow and rushing water have worn and + cut and carved them into a thousand shapes of wonder and beauty. It needs + but little fancy to see in them walls and towers, cathedrals and + campaniles, fortresses and cities, tinged with many hues from pale gray to + deep red, and shining in an air so soft, so pure, so cool, so fragrant, + under a sky so deep and blue and a sunshine so genial, that it seems like + the happy union of Switzerland and Italy. + </p> + <p> + The great highway through this region from south to north is the Ampezzo + road, which was constructed in 1830, along the valleys of the Piave, the + Boite, and the Rienz—the ancient line of travel and commerce between + Venice and Innsbruck. The road is superbly built, smooth and level. Our + carriage rolled along so easily that we forgot and forgave its venerable + appearance and its lack of accommodation for trunks. We had been persuaded + to take four horses, as our luggage seemed too formidable for a single + pair. But in effect our concession to apparent necessity turned out to be + a mere display of superfluous luxury, for the two white leaders did little + more than show their feeble paces, leaving the gray wheelers to do the + work. We had the elevating sense of traveling four-in-hand, however—a + satisfaction to which I do not believe any human being is altogether + insensible. + </p> + <p> + At Longarone we breakfasted for the second time, and entered the narrow + gorge of the Piave. The road was cut out of the face of the rock. Below us + the long lumber-rafts went shooting down the swift river. Above, on the + right, were the jagged crests of Monte Furlon and Premaggiore, which + seemed to us very wonderful, because we had not yet learned how jagged the + Dolomites can be. At Perarolo, where the Boite joins the Piave, there is a + lump of a mountain in the angle between the rivers, and around this we + crawled in long curves until we had risen a thousand feet, and arrived at + the same Hotel Venezia, where we were to dine. + </p> + <p> + While dinner was preparing, the Deacon and I walked up to Pieve di Cadore, + the birthplace of Titian. The house in which the great painter first saw + the colours of the world is still standing, and tradition points out the + very room in which he began to paint. I am not one of those who would + inquire too closely into such a legend as this. The cottage may have been + rebuilt a dozen times since Titian's day; not a scrap of the original + stone or plaster may remain; but beyond a doubt the view that we saw from + the window is the same that Titian saw. Now, for the first time, I could + understand and appreciate the landscape-backgrounds of his pictures. The + compact masses of mountains, the bold, sharp forms, the hanging rocks of + cold gray emerging from green slopes, the intense blue aerial distances—these + all had seemed to be unreal and imaginary—compositions of the + studio. But now I knew that, whether Titian painted out-of-doors, like our + modern impressionists, or not, he certainly painted what he had seen, and + painted it as it is. + </p> + <p> + The graceful brown-eyed boy who showed us the house seemed also to belong + to one of Titian's pictures. As we were going away, the Deacon, for lack + of copper, rewarded him with a little silver piece, a half-lira, in value + about ten cents. A celestial rapture of surprise spread over the child's + face, and I know not what blessings he invoked upon us. He called his + companions to rejoice with him, and we left them clapping their hands and + dancing. + </p> + <p> + Driving after one has dined has always a peculiar charm. The motion seems + pleasanter, the landscape finer than in the morning hours. The road from + Cadore ran on a high level, through sloping pastures, white villages, and + bits of larch forest. In its narrow bed, far below, the river Boite roared + as gently as Bottom's lion. The afternoon sunlight touched the snow-capped + pinnacle of Antelao and the massive pink wall of Sorapis on the right; on + the left, across the valley, Monte Pelmo's vast head and the wild crests + of La Rochetta and Formin rose dark against the glowing sky. The peasants + lifted their hats as we passed, and gave us a pleasant evening greeting. + And so, almost without knowing it, we slipped out of Italy into Austria, + and drew up before a bare, square stone building with the double black + eagle, like a strange fowl split for broiling, staring at us from the + wall, and an inscription to the effect that this was the Royal and + Imperial Austrian Custom-house. + </p> + <p> + The officer saluted us so politely that we felt quite sorry that his duty + required him to disturb our luggage. "The law obliged him to open one + trunk; courtesy forbade him to open more." It was quickly done; and, + without having to make any contribution to the income of His Royal and + Imperial Majesty, Francis Joseph, we rolled on our way, through the + hamlets of Acqua Bona and Zuel, into the Ampezzan metropolis of Cortina, + at sundown. + </p> + <p> + The modest inn called "The Star of Gold" stood facing the public square, + just below the church, and the landlady stood facing us in the doorway, + with an enthusiastic welcome—altogether a most friendly and + entertaining landlady, whose one desire in life seemed to be that we + should never regret having chosen her house instead of "The White Cross," + or "The Black Eagle." + </p> + <p> + "O ja!" she had our telegram received; and would we look at the rooms? + Outlooking on the piazza, with a balcony from which we could observe the + Festa of to-morrow. She hoped they would please us. "Only come in; + accommodate yourselves." + </p> + <p> + It was all as she promised; three little bedrooms, and a little salon + opening on a little balcony; queer old oil-paintings and framed + embroideries and tiles hanging on the walls; spotless curtains, and board + floors so white that it would have been a shame to eat off them without + spreading a cloth to keep them from being soiled. + </p> + <p> + "These are the rooms of the Baron Rothschild when he comes here always in + the summer—with nine horses and nine servants—the Baron + Rothschild of Vienna." + </p> + <p> + I assured her that we did not know the Baron, but that should make no + difference. We would not ask her to reduce the price on account of a + little thing like that. + </p> + <p> + She did not quite grasp this idea, but hoped that we would not find the + pension too dear at a dollar and fifty-seven and a half cents a day each, + with a little extra for the salon and the balcony. "The English people all + please themselves here—there comes many every summer—English + Bishops and their families." + </p> + <p> + I inquired whether there were many Bishops in the house at that moment. + </p> + <p> + "No, just at present—she was very sorry—none." + </p> + <p> + "Well, then," I said, "it is all right. We will take the rooms." + </p> + <p> + Good Signora Barbaria, you did not speak the American language, nor + understand those curious perversions of thought which pass among the + Americans for humour; but you understood how to make a little inn cheerful + and home-like; yours was a very simple and agreeable art of keeping a + hotel. As we sat in the balcony after supper, listening to the capital + playing of the village orchestra, and the Tyrolese songs with which they + varied their music, we thought within ourselves that we were fortunate to + have fallen upon the Star of Gold. + </p> + <p> + II. + </p> + <p> + Cortina lies in its valley like a white shell that has rolled down into a + broad vase of malachite. It has about a hundred houses and seven hundred + inhabitants, a large church and two small ones, a fine stone campanile + with excellent bells, and seven or eight little inns. But it is more + important than its size would signify, for it is the capital of the + district whose lawful title is Magnifica Comunita di Ampezzo—a name + conferred long ago by the Republic of Venice. In the fifteenth century it + was Venetian territory; but in 1516, under Maximilian I., it was joined to + Austria; and it is now one of the richest and most prosperous communes of + the Tyrol. It embraces about thirty-five hundred people, scattered in + hamlets and clusters of houses through the green basin with its four + entrances, lying between the peaks of Tofana, Cristallo, Sorapis, and + Nuvolau. The well-cultivated grain fields and meadows, the smooth alps + filled with fine cattle, the well-built houses with their white stone + basements and balconies of dark brown wood and broad overhanging roofs, + all speak of industry and thrift. But there is more than mere agricultural + prosperity in this valley. There is a fine race of men and women—intelligent, + vigorous, and with a strong sense of beauty. The outer walls of the annex + of the Hotel Aquila Nera are covered with frescoes of marked power and + originality, painted by the son of the innkeeper. The art schools of + Cortina are famous for their beautiful work in gold and silver filigree, + and wood-inlaying. There are nearly two hundred pupils in these schools, + all peasants' children, and they produce results, especially in intarsia, + which are admirable. The village orchestra, of which I spoke a moment ago, + is trained and led by a peasant's son, who has never had a thorough + musical education. It must have at least twenty-five members, and as we + heard them at the Festa they seemed to play with extraordinary accuracy + and expression. + </p> + <p> + This Festa gave us a fine chance to see the people of the Ampezzo all + together. It was the annual jubilation of the district; and from all the + outlying hamlets and remote side valleys, even from the neighbouring vales + of Agordo and Auronzo, across the mountains, and from Cadore, the + peasants, men and women and children, had come in to the Sagro at Cortina. + The piazza—which is really nothing more than a broadening of the + road behind the church—was quite thronged. There must have been + between two and three thousand people. + </p> + <p> + The ceremonies of the day began with general church-going. The people here + are honestly and naturally religious. I have seen so many examples of what + can only be called "sincere and unaffected piety," that I cannot doubt it. + The church, on Cortina's feast-day, was crowded to the doors with + worshippers, who gave every evidence of taking part not only with the + voice, but also with the heart, in the worship. + </p> + <p> + Then followed the public unveiling of a tablet, on the wall of the little + Inn of the Anchor, to the memory of Giammaria Ghedini, the founder of the + art-schools of Cortina. There was music by the band; and an oration by a + native Demosthenes (who spoke in Italian so fluent that it ran through + one's senses like water through a sluice, leaving nothing behind), and an + original Canto sung by the village choir, with a general chorus, in which + they called upon the various mountains to "re-echo the name of the beloved + master John-Mary as a model of modesty and true merit," and wound up with— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Hurrah for John-Mary! Hurrah for his art! + Hurrah for all teachers as skilful as he! + Hurrah for us all, who have now taken part + In singing together in do . . re . . mi." +</pre> + <p> + It was very primitive, and I do not suppose that the celebration was even + mentioned in the newspapers of the great world; but, after all, has not + the man who wins such a triumph as this in the hearts of his own people, + for whom he has made labour beautiful with the charm of art, deserved + better of fame than many a crowned monarch or conquering warrior? We + should be wiser if we gave less glory to the men who have been successful + in forcing their fellow-men to die, and more glory to the men who have + been successful in teaching their fellow-men how to live. + </p> + <p> + But the Festa of Cortina did not remain all day on this high moral plane. + In the afternoon came what our landlady called "allerlei Dummheiten." + There was a grand lottery for the benefit of the Volunteer Fire + Department. The high officials sat up in a green wooden booth in the + middle of the square, and called out the numbers and distributed the + prizes. Then there was a greased pole with various articles of an + attractive character tied to a large hoop at the top—silk aprons, + and a green jacket, and bottles of wine, and half a smoked pig, and a coil + of rope, and a purse. The gallant firemen voluntarily climbed up the pole + as far as they could, one after another, and then involuntarily slid down + again exhausted, each one wiping off a little more of the grease, until at + last the lucky one came who profited by his forerunners' labours, and + struggled to the top to snatch the smoked pig. After that it was easy. + </p> + <p> + Such is success in this unequal world; the man who wipes off the grease + seldom gets the prize. + </p> + <p> + Then followed various games, with tubs of water; and coins fastened to the + bottom of a huge black frying-pan, to be plucked off with the lips; and + pots of flour to be broken with sticks; so that the young lads of the + village were ducked and blackened and powdered to an unlimited extent, + amid the hilarious applause of the spectators. In the evening there was + more music, and the peasants danced in the square, the women quietly and + rather heavily, but the men with amazing agility, slapping the soles of + their shoes with their hands, or turning cartwheels in front of their + partners. At dark the festivities closed with a display of fireworks; + there were rockets and bombs and pin-wheels; and the boys had tiny red and + blue lights which they held until their fingers were burned, just as boys + do in America; and there was a general hush of wonder as a particularly + brilliant rocket swished into the dark sky; and when it burst into a rain + of serpents, the crowd breathed out its delight in a long-drawn + "Ah-h-h-h!" just as the crowd does everywhere. We might easily have + imagined ourselves at a Fourth of July celebration in Vermont, if it had + not been for the costumes. + </p> + <p> + The men of the Ampezzo Valley have kept but little that is peculiar in + their dress. Men are naturally more progressive than women, and therefore + less picturesque. The tide of fashion has swept them into the + international monotony of coat and vest and trousers—pretty much the + same, and equally ugly, all over the world. Now and then you may see a + short jacket with silver buttons, or a pair of knee-breeches; and almost + all the youths wear a bunch of feathers or a tuft of chamois' hair in + their soft green hats. But the women of the Ampezzo—strong, comely, + with golden brown complexions, and often noble faces—are not ashamed + to dress as their grandmothers did. They wear a little round black felt + hat with rolled rim and two long ribbons hanging down at the back. Their + hair is carefully braided and coiled, and stuck through and through with + great silver pins. A black bodice, fastened with silver clasps, is covered + in front with the ends of a brilliant silk kerchief, laid in many folds + around the shoulders. The white shirt-sleeves are very full and fastened + up above the elbow with coloured ribbon. If the weather is cool, the women + wear a short black jacket, with satin yoke and high puffed sleeves. But, + whatever the weather may be, they make no change in the large, full dark + skirts, almost completely covered with immense silk aprons, by preference + light blue. It is not a remarkably brilliant dress, compared with that + which one may still see in some districts of Norway or Sweden, but upon + the whole it suits the women of the Ampezzo wonderfully. + </p> + <p> + For my part, I think that when a woman has found a dress that becomes her, + it is a waste of time to send to Paris for a fashion-plate. + </p> + <p> + III. + </p> + <p> + When the excitement of the Festa had subsided, we were free to abandon + ourselves to the excursions in which the neighbourhood of Cortina abounds, + and to which the guide-book earnestly calls every right-minded traveller. + A walk through the light-green shadows of the larch-woods to the tiny lake + of Ghedina, where we could see all the four dozen trout swimming about in + the clear water and catching flies; a drive to the Belvedere, where there + are superficial refreshments above and profound grottos below; these were + trifles, though we enjoyed them. But the great mountains encircling us on + every side, standing out in clear view with that distinctness and + completeness of vision which is one charm of the Dolomites, seemed to + summon us to more arduous enterprises. Accordingly, the Deacon and I + selected the easiest one, engaged a guide, and prepared for the ascent. + </p> + <p> + Monte Nuvolau is not a perilous mountain. I am quite sure that at my + present time of life I should be unwilling to ascend a perilous mountain + unless there were something extraordinarily desirable at the top, or + remarkably disagreeable at the bottom. Mere risk has lost the attractions + which it once had. As the father of a family I felt bound to abstain from + going for amusement into any place which a Christian lady might not visit + with propriety and safety. Our preparation for Nuvolau, therefore, did not + consist of ropes, ice-irons, and axes, but simply of a lunch and two long + sticks. + </p> + <p> + Our way led us, in the early morning, through the clustering houses of + Lacedel, up the broad, green slope that faces Cortina on the west, to the + beautiful Alp Pocol. Nothing could exceed the pleasure of such a walk in + the cool of the day, while the dew still lies on the short, rich grass, + and the myriads of flowers are at their brightest and sweetest. The + infinite variety and abundance of the blossoms is a continual wonder. They + are sown more thickly than the stars in heaven, and the rainbow itself + does not show so many tints. Here they are mingled like the threads of + some strange embroidery; and there again nature has massed her colours; so + that one spot will be all pale blue with innumerable forget-me-nots, or + dark blue with gentians; another will blush with the delicate pink of the + Santa Lucia or the deeper red of the clover; and another will shine yellow + as cloth of gold. Over all this opulence of bloom the larks were soaring + and singing. I never heard so many as in the meadows about Cortina. There + was always a sweet spray of music sprinkling down out of the sky, where + the singers poised unseen. It was like walking through a shower of melody. + </p> + <p> + From the Alp Pocol, which is simply a fair, lofty pasture, we had our + first full view of Nuvolau, rising bare and strong, like a huge bastion, + from the dark fir-woods. Through these our way led onward now for seven + miles, with but a slight ascent. Then turning off to the left we began to + climb sharply through the forest. There we found abundance of the lovely + Alpenrosen, which do not bloom on the lower ground. Their colour is a + deep, glowing pink, and when a Tyrolese girl gives you one of these + flowers to stick in the band of your hat, you may know that you have found + favour in her eyes. + </p> + <p> + Through the wood the cuckoo was calling—the bird which reverses the + law of good children, and insists on being heard, but not seen. + </p> + <p> + When the forest was at an end we found ourselves at the foot of an alp + which sloped steeply up to the Five Towers of Averau. The effect of these + enormous masses of rock, standing out in lonely grandeur, like the ruins + of some forsaken habitation of giants, was tremendous. Seen from far below + in the valley their form was picturesque and striking; but as we sat + beside the clear, cold spring which gushes out at the foot of the largest + tower, the Titanic rocks seemed to hang in the air above us as if they + would overawe us into a sense of their majesty. We felt it to the full; + yet none the less, but rather the more, could we feel at the same time the + delicate and ethereal beauty of the fringed gentianella and the pale + Alpine lilies scattered on the short turf beside us. + </p> + <p> + We had now been on foot about three hours and a half. The half hour that + remained was the hardest. Up over loose, broken stones that rolled beneath + our feet, up over great slopes of rough rock, up across little fields of + snow where we paused to celebrate the Fourth of July with a brief snowball + fight, up along a narrowing ridge with a precipice on either hand, and so + at last to the summit, 8600 feet above the sea. + </p> + <p> + It is not a great height, but it is a noble situation. For Nuvolau is + fortunately placed in the very centre of the Dolomites, and so commands a + finer view than many a higher mountain. Indeed, it is not from the highest + peaks, according to my experience, that one gets the grandest prospects, + but rather from those of middle height, which are so isolated as to give a + wide circle of vision, and from which one can see both the valleys and the + summits. Monte Rosa itself gives a less imposing view than the Gorner + Grat. + </p> + <p> + It is possible, in this world, to climb too high for pleasure. + </p> + <p> + But what a panorama Nuvolau gave us on that clear, radiant summer morning—a + perfect circle of splendid sight! On one side we looked down upon the Five + Towers; on the other, a thousand feet below, the Alps, dotted with the + huts of the herdsmen, sloped down into the deep-cut vale of Agordo. + Opposite to us was the enormous mass of Tofana, a pile of gray and pink + and saffron rock. When we turned the other way, we faced a group of + mountains as ragged as the crests of a line of fir-trees, and behind them + loomed the solemn head of Pelmo. Across the broad vale of the Boite, + Antelao stood beside Sorapis, like a campanile beside a cathedral, and + Cristallo towered above the green pass of the Three Crosses. Through that + opening we could see the bristling peaks of the Sextenthal. Sweeping + around in a wider circle from that point, we saw, beyond the Durrenstein, + the snow-covered pile of the Gross-Glockner; the crimson bastions of the + Rothwand appeared to the north, behind Tofana; then the white slopes that + hang far away above the Zillerthal; and, nearer, the Geislerspitze, like + five fingers thrust into the air; behind that, the distant Oetzthaler + Mountain, and just a single white glimpse of the highest peak of the + Ortler by the Engadine; nearer still we saw the vast fortress of the Sella + group and the red combs of the Rosengarten; Monte Marmolata, the Queen of + the Dolomites, stood before us revealed from base to peak in a bridal + dress of snow; and southward we looked into the dark rugged face of La + Civetta, rising sheer out of the vale of Agordo, where the Lake of Alleghe + slept unseen. It was a sea of mountains, tossed around us into a myriad of + motionless waves, and with a rainbow of colours spread among their hollows + and across their crests. The cliffs of rose and orange and silver gray, + the valleys of deepest green, the distant shadows of purple and melting + blue, and the dazzling white of the scattered snow-fields seemed to shift + and vary like the hues on the inside of a shell. And over all, from peak + to peak, the light, feathery clouds went drifting lazily and slowly, as if + they could not leave a scene so fair. + </p> + <p> + There is barely room on the top of Nuvolau for the stone shelter-hut which + a grateful Saxon baron has built there as a sort of votive offering for + the recovery of his health among the mountains. As we sat within and ate + our frugal lunch, we were glad that he had recovered his health, and glad + that he had built the hut, and glad that we had come to it. In fact, we + could almost sympathise in our cold, matter-of-fact American way with the + sentimental German inscription which we read on the wall:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Von Nuvolau's hohen Wolkenstufen + Lass mich, Natur, durch deine Himmel rufen— + An deiner Brust gesunde, wer da krank! + So wird zum Volkerdank mein Sachsendank. +</pre> + <p> + We refrained, however, from shouting anything through Nature's heaven, but + went lightly down, in about three hours, to supper in the Star of Gold. + </p> + <p> + IV. + </p> + <p> + When a stern necessity forces one to leave Cortina, there are several ways + of departure. We selected the main highway for our trunks, but for + ourselves the Pass of the Three Crosses; the Deacon and the Deaconess in a + mountain waggon, and I on foot. It should be written as an axiom in the + philosophy of travel that the easiest way is best for your luggage, and + the hardest way is best for yourself. + </p> + <p> + All along the rough road up to the Pass, we had a glorious outlook + backward over the Val d' Ampezzo, and when we came to the top, we looked + deep down into the narrow Val Buona behind Sorapis. I do not know just + when we passed the Austrian border, but when we came to Lake Misurina we + found ourselves in Italy again. My friends went on down the valley to + Landro, but I in my weakness, having eaten of the trout of the lake for + dinner, could not resist the temptation of staying over-night to catch one + for breakfast. + </p> + <p> + It was a pleasant failure. The lake was beautiful, lying on top of the + mountain like a bit of blue sky, surrounded by the peaks of Cristallo, + Cadino, and the Drei Zinnen. It was a happiness to float on such celestial + waters and cast the hopeful fly. The trout were there; they were large; I + saw them; they also saw me; but, alas! I could not raise them. Misurina + is, in fact, what the Scotch call "a dour loch," one of those places which + are outwardly beautiful, but inwardly so demoralised that the trout will + not rise. + </p> + <p> + When we came ashore in the evening, the boatman consoled me with the story + of a French count who had spent two weeks there fishing, and only caught + one fish. I had some thoughts of staying thirteen days longer, to rival + the count, but concluded to go on the next morning, over Monte Pian and + the Cat's Ladder to Landro. + </p> + <p> + The view from Monte Pian is far less extensive than that from Nuvolau; but + it has the advantage of being very near the wild jumble of the Sexten + Dolomites. The Three Shoemakers and a lot more of sharp and ragged fellows + are close by, on the east; on the west, Cristallo shows its fine little + glacier, and Rothwand its crimson cliffs; and southward Misurina gives to + the view a glimpse of water, without which, indeed, no view is complete. + Moreover, the mountain has the merit of being, as its name implies, quite + gentle. I met the Deacon and the Deaconess at the top, they having walked + up from Landro. And so we crossed the boundary line together again, seven + thousand feet above the sea, from Italy into Austria. There was no + custom-house. + </p> + <p> + The way down, by the Cat's Ladder, I travelled alone. The path was very + steep and little worn, but even on the mountain-side there was no danger + of losing it, for it had been blazed here and there, on trees and stones, + with a dash of blue paint. This is the work of the invaluable DOAV—which + is, being interpreted, the German-Austrian Alpine Club. The more one + travels in the mountains, the more one learns to venerate this beneficent + society, for the shelter-huts and guide-posts it has erected, and the + paths it has made and marked distinctly with various colours. The Germans + have a genius for thoroughness. My little brown guide-book, for example, + not only informed me through whose back yard I must go to get into a + certain path, but it told me that in such and such a spot I should find + quite a good deal (ziemlichviel) of Edelweiss, and in another a small + echo; it advised me in one valley to take provisions and dispense with a + guide, and in another to take a guide and dispense with provisions, adding + varied information in regard to beer, which in my case was useless, for I + could not touch it. To go astray under such auspices would be worse than + inexcusable. + </p> + <p> + Landro we found a very different place from Cortina. Instead of having a + large church and a number of small hotels, it consists entirely of one + large hotel and a very tiny church. It does not lie in a broad, open + basin, but in a narrow valley, shut in closely by the mountains. The + hotel, in spite of its size, is excellent, and a few steps up the valley + is one of the finest views in the Dolomites. To the east opens a deep, + wild gorge, at the head of which the pinnacles of the Drei Zinnen are + seen; to the south the Durrensee fills the valley from edge to edge, and + reflects in its pale waters the huge bulk of Monte Cristallo. It is such a + complete picture, so finished, so compact, so balanced, that one might + think a painter had composed it in a moment of inspiration. But no painter + ever laid such colours on his canvas as those which are seen here when the + cool evening shadows have settled upon the valley, all gray and green, + while the mountains shine above in rosy Alpenglow, as if transfigured with + inward fire. + </p> + <p> + There is another lake, about three miles north of Landro, called the + Toblacher See, and there I repaired the defeat of Misurina. The trout at + the outlet, by the bridge, were very small, and while the old fisherman + was endeavouring to catch some of them in his new net, which would not + work, I pushed my boat up to the head of the lake, where the stream came + in. The green water was amazingly clear, but the current kept the fish + with their heads up stream; so that one could come up behind them near + enough for a long cast, without being seen. As my fly lighted above them + and came gently down with the ripple, I saw the first fish turn and rise + and take it. A motion of the wrist hooked him, and he played just as + gamely as a trout in my favourite Long Island pond. How different the + colour, though, as he came out of the water. This fellow was all silvery, + with light pink spots on his sides. I took seven of his companions, in + weight some four pounds, and then stopped because the evening light was + failing. + </p> + <p> + How pleasant it is to fish in such a place and at such an hour! The + novelty of the scene, the grandeur of the landscape, lend a strange charm + to the sport. But the sport itself is so familiar that one feels at home—the + motion of the rod, the feathery swish of the line, the sight of the rising + fish—it all brings back a hundred woodland memories, and thoughts of + good fishing comrades, some far away across the sea, and, perhaps, even + now sitting around the forest camp-fire in Maine or Canada, and some with + whom we shall keep company no more until we cross the greater ocean into + that happy country whither they have preceded us. + </p> + <p> + V. + </p> + <p> + Instead of going straight down the valley by the high road, a drive of an + hour, to the railway in the Pusterthal, I walked up over the mountains to + the east, across the Platzwiesen, and so down through the Pragserthal. In + one arm of the deep fir-clad vale are the Baths of Alt-Prags, famous for + having cured the Countess of Gorz of a violent rheumatism in the fifteenth + century. It is an antiquated establishment, and the guests, who were + walking about in the fields or drinking their coffee in the balcony, had a + fifteenth century look about them—venerable but slightly ruinous. + But perhaps that was merely a rheumatic result. + </p> + <p> + All the waggons in the place were engaged. It is strange what an + aggravating effect this state of affairs has upon a pedestrian who is bent + upon riding. I did not recover my delight in the scenery until I had + walked about five miles farther, and sat down on the grass, beside a + beautiful spring, to eat my lunch. + </p> + <p> + What is there in a little physical rest that has such magic to restore the + sense of pleasure? A few moments ago nothing pleased you—the bloom + was gone from the peach; but now it has come back again—you wonder + and admire. Thus cheerful and contented I trudged up the right arm of the + valley to the Baths of Neu-Prags, less venerable, but apparently more + popular than Alt-Prags, and on beyond them, through the woods, to the + superb Pragser-Wildsee, a lake whose still waters, now blue as sapphire + under the clear sky, and now green as emerald under gray clouds, sleep + encircled by mighty precipices. Could anything be a greater contrast with + Venice? There the canals alive with gondolas, and the open harbour bright + with many-coloured sails; here, the hidden lake, silent and lifeless, save + when + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "A leaping fish + Sends through the tarn a lonely cheer." +</pre> + <p> + Tired, and a little foot-sore, after nine hours' walking, I came into the + big railway hotel at Toblach that night. There I met my friends again, and + parted from them and the Dolomites the next day, with regret. For they + were "stepping westward;" but in order to get to the Gross-Venediger I + must make a detour to the east, through the Pusterthal, and come up + through the valley of the Isel to the great chain of mountains called the + Hohe Tauern. + </p> + <p> + At the junction of the Isel and the Drau lies the quaint little city of + Lienz, with its two castles—the square, double-towered one in the + town, now transformed into the offices of the municipality, and the huge + mediaeval one on a hill outside, now used as a damp restaurant and dismal + beer-cellar. I lingered at Lienz for a couple of days, in the ancient + hostelry of the Post. The hallways were vaulted like a cloister, the walls + were three feet thick, the kitchen was in the middle of the house on the + second floor, so that I looked into it every time I came from my room, and + ordered dinner direct from the cook. But, so far from being displeased + with these peculiarities, I rather liked the flavour of them; and then, in + addition, the landlady's daughter, who was managing the house, was a + person of most engaging manners, and there was trout and grayling fishing + in a stream near by, and the neighbouring church of Dolsach contained the + beautiful picture of the Holy Family, which Franz Defregger painted for + his native village. + </p> + <p> + The peasant women of Lienz have one very striking feature in their dress—a + black felt hat with a broad, stiff brim and a high crown, smaller at the + top than at the base. It looks a little like the traditional head-gear of + the Pilgrim Fathers, exaggerated. There is a solemnity about it which is + fatal to feminine beauty. + </p> + <p> + I went by the post-waggon, with two slow horses and ten passengers, + fifteen miles up the Iselthal, to Windisch-Matrei, a village whose early + history is lost in the mist of antiquity, and whose streets are pervaded + with odours which must have originated at the same time with the village. + One wishes that they also might have shared the fate of its early history. + But it is not fair to expect too much of a small place, and + Windisch-Matrei has certainly a beautiful situation and a good inn. There + I took my guide—a wiry and companionable little man, whose + occupation in the lower world was that of a maker and merchant of hats—and + set out for the Pragerhutte, a shelter on the side of the Gross-Venediger. + </p> + <p> + The path led under the walls of the old Castle of Weissenstein, and then + in steep curves up the cliff which blocks the head of the valley, and + along a cut in the face of the rock, into the steep, narrow Tauernthal, + which divides the Glockner group from the Venediger. How entirely + different it was from the region of the Dolomites! There the variety of + colour was endless and the change incessant; here it was all green grass + and trees and black rocks, with glimpses of snow. There the highest + mountains were in sight constantly; here they could only be seen from + certain points in the valley. There the streams played but a small part in + the landscape; here they were prominent, the main river raging and foaming + through the gorge below, while a score of waterfalls leaped from the + cliffs on either side and dashed down to join it. + </p> + <p> + The peasants, men, women and children, were cutting the grass in the + perpendicular fields; the woodmen were trimming and felling the trees in + the fir-forests; the cattle-tenders were driving their cows along the + stony path, or herding them far up on the hillsides. It was a lonely + scene, and yet a busy one; and all along the road was written the history + of the perils and hardships of the life which now seemed so peaceful and + picturesque under the summer sunlight. + </p> + <p> + These heavy crosses, each covered with a narrow, pointed roof and + decorated with a rude picture, standing beside the path, or on the bridge, + or near the mill—what do they mean? They mark the place where a + human life has been lost, or where some poor peasant has been delivered + from a great peril, and has set up a memorial of his gratitude. + </p> + <p> + Stop, traveller, as you pass by, and look at the pictures. They have + little more of art than a child's drawing on a slate; but they will teach + you what it means to earn a living in these mountains. They tell of the + danger that lurks on the steep slopes of grass, where the mowers have to + go down with ropes around their waists, and in the beds of the streams + where the floods sweep through in the spring, and in the forests where the + great trees fall and crush men like flies, and on the icy bridges where a + slip is fatal, and on the high passes where the winter snowstorm blinds + the eyes and benumbs the limbs of the traveller, and under the cliffs from + which avalanches slide and rocks roll. They show you men and women falling + from waggons, and swept away by waters, and overwhelmed in land-slips. In + the corner of the picture you may see a peasant with the black cross above + his head—that means death. Or perhaps it is deliverance that the + tablet commemorates—and then you will see the miller kneeling beside + his mill with a flood rushing down upon it, or a peasant kneeling in his + harvest-field under an inky-black cloud, or a landlord beside his inn in + flames, or a mother praying beside her sick children; and above appears an + angel, or a saint, or the Virgin with her Child. + </p> + <p> + Read the inscriptions, too, in their quaint German. Some of them are as + humourous as the epitaphs in New England graveyards. I remember one which + ran like this: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Here lies Elias Queer, + Killed in his sixtieth year; + Scarce had he seen the light of day + When a waggon-wheel crushed his life away. +</pre> + <p> + And there is another famous one which says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Here perished the honoured and virtuous maiden, + G.V. + + This tablet was erected by her only son. +</pre> + <p> + But for the most part a glance at these Marterl und Taferl, which are so + frequent on all the mountain-roads of the Tyrol, will give you a strange + sense of the real pathos of human life. If you are a Catholic, you will + not refuse their request to say a prayer for the departed; if you are a + Protestant, at least it will not hurt you to say one for those who still + live and suffer and toil among such dangers. + </p> + <p> + After we had walked for four hours up the Tauernthal, we came to the + Matreier-Tauernhaus, an inn which is kept open all the year for the + shelter of travellers over the high pass that crosses the mountain-range + at this point, from north to south. There we dined. It was a bare, rude + place, but the dish of juicy trout was garnished with flowers, each fish + holding a big pansy in its mouth, and as the maid set them down before me + she wished me "a good appetite," with the hearty old-fashioned Tyrolese + courtesy which still survives in these remote valleys. It is pleasant to + travel in a land where the manners are plain and good. If you meet a + peasant on the road he says, "God greet you!" if you give a child a couple + of kreuzers he folds his hands and says, "God reward you!" and the maid + who lights you to bed says, "Goodnight, I hope you will sleep well!" + </p> + <p> + Two hours more of walking brought us through Ausser-gschloss and + Inner-gschloss, two groups of herdsmen's huts, tenanted only in summer, at + the head of the Tauernthal. Midway between them lies a little chapel, cut + into the solid rock for shelter from the avalanches. This lofty vale is + indeed rightly named; for it is shut off from the rest of the world. The + portal is a cliff down which the stream rushes in foam and thunder. On + either hand rises a mountain wall. Within, the pasture is fresh and green, + sprinkled with Alpine roses, and the pale river flows swiftly down between + the rows of dark wooden houses. At the head of the vale towers the + Gross-Venediger, with its glaciers and snow-fields dazzling white against + the deep blue heaven. The murmur of the stream and the tinkle of the + cow-bells and the jodelling of the herdsmen far up the slopes, make the + music for the scene. + </p> + <p> + The path from Gschloss leads straight up to the foot of the dark pyramid + of the Kesselkopf, and then in steep endless zig-zags along the edge of + the great glacier. I saw, at first, the pinnacles of ice far above me, + breaking over the face of the rock; then, after an hour's breathless + climbing, I could look right into the blue crevasses; and at last, after + another hour over soft snow-fields and broken rocks, I was at the + Pragerhut, perched on the shoulder of the mountain, looking down upon the + huge river of ice. + </p> + <p> + It was a magnificent view under the clear light of evening. Here in front + of us, the Venediger with all his brother-mountains clustered about him; + behind us, across the Tauern, the mighty chain of the Glockner against the + eastern sky. + </p> + <p> + This is the frozen world. Here the Winter, driven back into his + stronghold, makes his last stand against the Summer, in perpetual + conflict, retreating by day to the mountain-peak, but creeping back at + night in frost and snow to regain a little of his lost territory, until at + last the Summer is wearied out, and the Winter sweeps down again to claim + the whole valley for his own. + </p> + <p> + VI. + </p> + <p> + In the Pragerhut I found mountain comfort. There were bunks along the wall + of the guest-room, with plenty of blankets. There was good store of eggs, + canned meats, and nourishing black bread. The friendly goats came bleating + up to the door at nightfall to be milked. And in charge of all this luxury + there was a cheerful peasant-wife with her brown-eyed daughter, to + entertain travellers. It was a pleasant sight to see them, as they sat + down to their supper with my guide; all three bowed their heads and said + their "grace before meat," the guide repeating the longer prayer and the + mother and daughter coming in with the responses. I went to bed with a + warm and comfortable feeling about my heart. It was a good ending for the + day. In the morning, if the weather remained clear, the alarm-clock was to + wake us at three for the ascent to the summit. + </p> + <p> + But can it be three o'clock already. The gibbous moon still hangs in the + sky and casts a feeble light over the scene. Then up and away for the + final climb. How rough the path is among the black rocks along the ridge! + Now we strike out on the gently rising glacier, across the crust of snow, + picking our way among the crevasses, with the rope tied about our waists + for fear of a fall. How cold it is! But now the gray light of morning + dawns, and now the beams of sunrise shoot up behind the Glockner, and now + the sun itself glitters into sight. The snow grows softer as we toil up + the steep, narrow comb between the Gross-Venediger and his neighbour the + Klein-Venediger. At last we have reached our journey's end. See, the whole + of the Tyrol is spread out before us in wondrous splendour, as we stand on + this snowy ridge; and at our feet the Schlatten glacier, like a long, + white snake, curls down into the valley. + </p> + <p> + There is still a little peak above us; an overhanging horn of snow which + the wind has built against the mountain-top. I would like to stand there, + just for a moment. The guide protests it would be dangerous, for if the + snow should break it would be a fall of a thousand feet to the glacier on + the northern side. But let us dare the few steps upward. How our feet + sink! Is the snow slipping? Look at the glacier! What is happening? It is + wrinkling and curling backward on us, serpent-like. Its head rises far + above us. All its icy crests are clashing together like the ringing of a + thousand bells. We are falling! I fling out my arm to grasp the guide—and + awake to find myself clutching a pillow in the bunk. The alarm-clock is + ringing fiercely for three o'clock. A driving snow-storm is beating + against the window. The ground is white. Peer through the clouds as I may, + I cannot even catch a glimpse of the vanished Gross-Venediger. + </p> + <p> + 1892. <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + AU LARGE + </h2> + <p> + "Wherever we strayed, the same tranquil leisure enfolded us; day followed + day in an order unbroken and peaceful as the unfolding of the flowers and + the silent march of the stars. Time no longer ran like the few sands in a + delicate hour-glass held by a fragile human hand, but like a majestic + river fed by fathomless seas. . . . We gave ourselves up to the sweetness + of that unmeasured life, without thought of yesterday or to-morrow; we + drank the cup to-day held to our lips, and knew that so long as we were + athirst that draught would not be denied us."—HAMILTON W. MABIE: + Under the Trees. + </p> + <p> + There is magic in words, surely, and many a treasure besides Ali Baba's is + unlocked with a verbal key. Some charm in the mere sound, some association + with the pleasant past, touches a secret spring. The bars are down; the + gate open; you are made free of all the fields of memory and fancy—by + a word. + </p> + <p> + Au large! Envoyez au large! is the cry of the Canadian voyageurs as they + thrust their paddles against the shore and push out on the broad lake for + a journey through the wilderness. Au large! is what the man in the bow + shouts to the man in the stern when the birch canoe is running down the + rapids, and the water grows too broken, and the rocks too thick, along the + river-bank. Then the frail bark must be driven out into the very centre of + the wild current, into the midst of danger to find safety, dashing, like a + frightened colt, along the smooth, sloping lane bordered by white fences + of foam. + </p> + <p> + Au large! When I hear that word, I hear also the crisp waves breaking on + pebbly beaches, and the big wind rushing through innumerable trees, and + the roar of headlong rivers leaping down the rocks, I see long reaches of + water sparkling in the sun, or sleeping still between evergreen walls + beneath a cloudy sky; and the gleam of white tents on the shore; and the + glow of firelight dancing through the woods. I smell the delicate + vanishing perfume of forest flowers; and the incense of rolls of + birch-bark, crinkling and flaring in the camp-fire; and the soothing odour + of balsam-boughs piled deep for woodland beds—the veritable and only + genuine perfume of the land of Nod. The thin shining veil of the Northern + lights waves and fades and brightens over the night sky; at the sound of + the word, as at the ringing of a bell, the curtain rises. Scene, the + Forest of Arden; enter a party of hunters. + </p> + <p> + It was in the Lake St. John country, two hundred miles north of Quebec, + that I first heard my rustic incantation; and it seemed to fit the region + as if it had been made for it. This is not a little pocket wilderness like + the Adirondacks, but something vast and primitive. You do not cross it, + from one railroad to another, by a line of hotels. You go into it by one + river as far as you like, or dare; and then you turn and come back again + by another river, making haste to get out before your provisions are + exhausted. The lake itself is the cradle of the mighty Saguenay: an inland + sea, thirty miles across and nearly round, lying in the broad limestone + basin north of the Laurentian Mountains. The southern and eastern shores + have been settled for twenty or thirty years; and the rich farm-land + yields abundant crops of wheat and oats and potatoes to a community of + industrious habitants, who live in little modern villages, named after the + saints and gathered as closely as possible around big gray stone churches, + and thank the good Lord that he has given them a climate at least four or + five degrees milder than Quebec. A railroad, built through a region of + granite hills, which will never be tamed to the plough, links this + outlying settlement to the civilised world; and at the end of the railroad + the Hotel Roberval, standing on a hill above the lake, offers to the + pampered tourist electric lights, and spring-beds, and a wide veranda from + which he can look out across the water into the face of the wilderness. + </p> + <p> + Northward and westward the interminable forest rolls away to the shores of + Hudson's Bay and the frozen wastes of Labrador. It is an immense solitude. + A score of rivers empty into the lake; little ones like the Pikouabi and + La Pipe, and middle-sized ones like the Ouiatehouan and La Belle Riviere, + and big ones like the Mistassini and the Peribonca; and each of these + streams is the clue to a labyrinth of woods and waters. The canoe-man who + follows it far enough will find himself among lakes that are not named on + any map; he will camp on virgin ground, and make the acquaintance of + unsophisticated fish; perhaps even, like the maiden in the fairy-tale, he + will meet with the little bear, and the middle-sized bear, and the great + big bear. + </p> + <p> + Damon and I set out on such an expedition shortly after the nodding lilies + in the Connecticut meadows had rung the noon-tide bell of summer, and when + the raspberry bushes along the line of the Quebec and Lake St. John + Railway had spread their afternoon collation for birds and men. At + Roberval we found our four guides waiting for us, and the steamboat took + us all across the lake to the Island House, at the northeast corner. There + we embarked our tents and blankets, our pots and pans, and bags of flour + and potatoes and bacon and other delicacies, our rods and guns, and last, + but not least, our axes (without which man in the woods is a helpless + creature), in two birch-bark canoes, and went flying down the Grande + Decharge. + </p> + <p> + It is a wonderful place, this outlet of Lake St. John. All the floods of + twenty rivers are gathered here, and break forth through a net of islands + in a double stream, divided by the broad Ile d'Alma, into the Grande + Decharge and the Petite Decharge. The southern outlet is small, and flows + somewhat more quietly at first. But the northern outlet is a huge + confluence and tumult of waters. You see the set of the tide far out in + the lake, sliding, driving, crowding, hurrying in with smooth currents and + swirling eddies, toward the corner of escape. By the rocky cove where the + Island House peers out through the fir-trees, the current already has a + perceptible slope. It begins to boil over hidden stones in the middle, and + gurgles at projecting points of rock. A mile farther down there is an + islet where the stream quickens, chafes, and breaks into a rapid. Behind + the islet it drops down in three or four foaming steps. On the outside it + makes one long, straight rush into a line of white-crested standing waves. + </p> + <p> + As we approached, the steersman in the first canoe stood up to look over + the course. The sea was high. Was it too high? The canoes were heavily + loaded. Could they leap the waves? There was a quick talk among the guides + as we slipped along, undecided which way to turn. Then the question seemed + to settle itself, as most of these woodland questions do, as if some + silent force of Nature had the casting-vote. "Sautez, sautez!" cried + Ferdinand, "envoyez au large!" In a moment we were sliding down the smooth + back of the rapid, directly toward the first big wave. The rocky shore + went by us like a dream; we could feel the motion of the earth whirling + around with us. The crest of the billow in front curled above the bow of + the canoe. "Arret', arret', doucement!" A swift stroke of the paddle + checked the canoe, quivering and prancing like a horse suddenly reined in. + The wave ahead, as if surprised, sank and flattened for a second. The + canoe leaped through the edge of it, swerved to one side, and ran gayly + down along the fringe of the line of billows, into quieter water. + </p> + <p> + Every one feels the exhilaration of such a descent. I know a lady who + almost cried with fright when she went down her first rapid, but before + the voyage was ended she was saying:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Count that day lost whose low, descending sun + Sees no fall leaped, no foaming rapid run." +</pre> + <p> + It takes a touch of danger to bring out the joy of life. + </p> + <p> + Our guides began to shout, and joke each other, and praise their canoes. + </p> + <p> + "You grazed that villain rock at the corner," said Jean; "didn't you know + where it was?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes, after I touched it," cried Ferdinand; "but you took in a bucket of + water, and I suppose your m'sieu' is sitting on a piece of the river. Is + it not?" + </p> + <p> + This seemed to us all a very merry jest, and we laughed with the same + inextinguishable laughter which a practical joke, according to Homer, + always used to raise in Olympus. It is one of the charms of life in the + woods that it brings back the high spirits of boyhood and renews the youth + of the world. Plain fun, like plain food, tastes good out-of-doors. Nectar + is the sweet sap of a maple-tree. Ambrosia is only another name for + well-turned flapjacks. And all the immortals, sitting around the table of + golden cedar-slabs, make merry when the clumsy Hephaistos, playing the + part of Hebe, stumbles over a root and upsets the plate of cakes into the + fire. + </p> + <p> + The first little rapid of the Grande Decharge was only the beginning. Half + a mile below we could see the river disappear between two points of rock. + There was a roar of conflict, and a golden mist hanging in the air, like + the smoke of battle. All along the place where the river sank from sight, + dazzling heads of foam were flashing up and falling back, as if a horde of + water-sprites were vainly trying to fight their way up to the lake. It was + the top of the grande chute, a wild succession of falls and pools where no + boat could live for a moment. We ran down toward it as far as the water + served, and then turned off among the rocks on the left hand, to take the + portage. + </p> + <p> + These portages are among the troublesome delights of a journey in the + wilderness. To the guides they mean hard work, for everything, including + the boats, must be carried on their backs. The march of the canoes on dry + land is a curious sight. Andrew Marvell described it two hundred years ago + when he was poetizing beside the little river Wharfe in Yorkshire:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "And now the salmon-fishers moist + Their leathern boats begin to hoist, + And like antipodes in shoes + Have shod their heads in their canoes. + How tortoise-like, but none so slow, + These rational amphibii go!" +</pre> + <p> + But the sportsman carries nothing, except perhaps his gun, or his rod, or + his photographic camera; and so for him the portage is only a pleasant + opportunity to stretch his legs, cramped by sitting in the canoe, and to + renew his acquaintance with the pretty things that are in the woods. + </p> + <p> + We sauntered along the trail, Damon and I, as if school were out and would + never keep again. How fresh and tonic the forest seemed as we plunged into + its bath of shade. There were our old friends the cedars, with their roots + twisted across the path; and the white birches, so trim in youth and so + shaggy in age; and the sociable spruces and balsams, crowding close + together, and interlacing their arms overhead. There were the little + springs, trickling through the moss; and the slippery logs laid across the + marshy places; and the fallen trees, cut in two and pushed aside,—for + this was a much-travelled portage. + </p> + <p> + Around the open spaces, the tall meadow-rue stood dressed in robes of + fairy white and green. The blue banners of the fleur-de-lis were planted + beside the springs. In shady corners, deeper in the wood, the fragrant + pyrola lifted its scape of clustering bells, like a lily of the valley + wandered to the forest. When we came to the end of the portage, a perfume + like that of cyclamens in Tyrolean meadows welcomed us, and searching + among the loose grasses by the water-side we found the exquisite purple + spikes of the lesser fringed orchis, loveliest and most ethereal of all + the woodland flowers save one. And what one is that? Ah, my friend, it is + your own particular favourite, the flower, by whatever name you call it, + that you plucked long ago when you were walking in the forest with your + sweetheart,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Im wunderschonen Monat Mai + Als alle Knospen sprangen." +</pre> + <p> + We launched our canoes again on the great pool at the foot of the first + fall,—a broad sweep of water a mile long and half a mile wide, full + of eddies and strong currents, and covered with drifting foam. There was + the old campground on the point, where I had tented so often with my lady + Greygown, fishing for ouananiche, the famous land-locked salmon of Lake + St. John. And there were the big fish, showing their back fins as they + circled lazily around in the eddies, as if they were waiting to play with + us. But the goal of our day's journey was miles away, and we swept along + with the stream, now through a rush of quick water, boiling and foaming, + now through a still place like a lake, now through + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Fairy crowds + Of islands, that together lie, + As quietly as spots of sky + Among the evening clouds." +</pre> + <p> + The beauty of the shores was infinitely varied, and unspoiled by any sign + of the presence of man. We met no company except a few king-fishers, and a + pair of gulls who had come up from the sea to spend the summer, and a + large flock of wild ducks, which the guides call "Betseys," as if they + were all of the gentler sex. In such a big family of girls we supposed + that a few would not be missed, and Damon bagged two of the tenderest for + our supper. + </p> + <p> + In the still water at the mouth of the Riviere Mistook, just above the + Rapide aux Cedres, we went ashore on a level wooded bank to make our first + camp and cook our dinner. Let me try to sketch our men as they are busied + about the fire. + </p> + <p> + They are all French Canadians of unmixed blood, descendants of the men who + came to New France with Samuel de Champlain, that incomparable old + woodsman and life-long lover of the wilderness. Ferdinand Larouche is our + chef—there must be a head in every party for the sake of harmony—and + his assistant is his brother Francois. Ferdinand is a stocky little + fellow, a "sawed off" man, not more than five feet two inches tall, but + every inch of him is pure vim. He can carry a big canoe or a + hundred-weight of camp stuff over a mile portage without stopping to take + breath. He is a capital canoe-man, with prudence enough to balance his + courage, and a fair cook, with plenty of that quality which is wanting in + the ordinary cook of commerce—good humour. Always joking, whistling, + singing, he brings the atmosphere of a perpetual holiday along with him. + His weather-worn coat covers a heart full of music. He has two talents + which make him a marked man among his comrades. He plays the fiddle to the + delight of all the balls and weddings through the country-side; and he + speaks English to the admiration and envy of the other guides. But like + all men of genius he is modest about his accomplishments. "H'I not spik + good h'English—h'only for camp—fishin', cookin', dhe voyage—h'all + dhose t'ings." The aspirates puzzle him. He can get though a slash of + fallen timber more easily than a sentence full of "this" and "that." + Sometimes he expresses his meaning queerly. He was telling me once about + his farm, "not far off here, in dhe Riviere au Cochon, river of dhe pig, + you call 'im. H'I am a widow, got five sons, t'ree of dhem are girls." But + he usually ends by falling back into French, which, he assures you, you + speak to perfection, "much better than the Canadians; the French of Paris + in short—M'sieu' has been in Paris?" Such courtesy is born in the + blood, and is irresistible. You cannot help returning the compliment and + assuring him that his English is remarkable, good enough for all practical + purposes, better than any of the other guides can speak. And so it is. + </p> + <p> + Francois is a little taller, a little thinner, and considerably quieter + than Ferdinand. He laughs loyally at his brother's jokes, and sings the + response to his songs, and wields a good second paddle in the canoe. + </p> + <p> + Jean—commonly called Johnny—Morel is a tall, strong man of + fifty, with a bushy red beard that would do credit to a pirate. But when + you look at him more closely, you see that he has a clear, kind blue eye + and a most honest, friendly face under his slouch hat. He has travelled + these woods and waters for thirty years, so that he knows the way through + them by a thousand familiar signs, as well as you know the streets of the + city. He is our pathfinder. + </p> + <p> + The bow paddle in his canoe is held by his son Joseph, a lad not quite + fifteen, but already as tall, and almost as strong as a man. "He is yet of + the youth," said Johnny, "and he knows not the affairs of the camp. This + trip is for him the first—it is his school—but I hope he will + content you. He is good, M'sieu', and of the strongest for his age. I have + educated already two sons in the bow of my canoe. The oldest has gone to + Pennsylvanie; he peels the bark there for the tanning of leather. The + second had the misfortune of breaking his leg, so that he can no longer + kneel to paddle. He has descended to the making of shoes. Joseph is my + third pupil. And I have still a younger one at home waiting to come into + my school." + </p> + <p> + A touch of family life like that is always refreshing, and doubly so in + the wilderness. For what is fatherhood at its best, everywhere, but the + training of good men to take the teacher's place when his work is done? + Some day, when Johnny's rheumatism has made his joints a little stiffer + and his eyes have lost something of their keenness, he will be wielding + the second paddle in the boat, and going out only on the short and easy + trips. It will be young Joseph that steers the canoe through the dangerous + places, and carries the heaviest load over the portages, and leads the way + on the long journeys. + </p> + <p> + It has taken me longer to describe our men than it took them to prepare + our frugal meal: a pot of tea, the woodsman's favourite drink, (I never + knew a good guide that would not go without whisky rather than without + tea,) a few slices of toast and juicy rashers of bacon, a kettle of boiled + potatoes, and a relish of crackers and cheese. We were in a hurry to be + off for an afternoon's fishing, three or four miles down the river, at the + Ile Maligne. + </p> + <p> + The island is well named, for it is the most perilous place on the river, + and has a record of disaster and death. The scattered waters of the + Discharge are drawn together here into one deep, narrow, powerful stream, + flowing between gloomy shores of granite. In mid-channel the wicked island + shows its scarred and bristling head, like a giant ready to dispute the + passage. The river rushes straight at the rocky brow, splits into two + currents, and raves away on both sides of the island in a double chain of + furious falls and rapids. + </p> + <p> + In these wild waters we fished with immense delight and fair success, + scrambling down among the huge rocks along the shore, and joining the + excitement of an Alpine climb with the placid pleasures of angling. At + nightfall we were at home again in our camp, with half a score of + onananiche, weighing from one to four pounds each. + </p> + <p> + Our next day's journey was long and variegated. A portage of a mile or two + across the Ile d'Alma, with a cart to haul our canoes and stuff, brought + us to the Little Discharge, down which we floated for a little way, and + then hauled through the village of St. Joseph to the foot of the Carcajou, + or Wildcat Falls. A mile of quick water was soon passed, and we came to + the junction of the Little Discharge with the Grand Discharge at the point + where the picturesque club-house stands in a grove of birches beside the + big Vache Caille Falls. It is lively work crossing the pool here, when the + water is high and the canoes are heavy; but we went through the labouring + seas safely, and landed some distance below, at the head of the Rapide + Gervais, to eat our lunch. The water was too rough to run down with loaded + boats, so Damon and I had to walk about three miles along the river-bank, + while the men went down with the canoes. + </p> + <p> + On our way beside the rapids, Damon geologised, finding the marks of + ancient glaciers, and bits of iron-ore, and pockets of sand full of + infinitesimal garnets, and specks of gold washed from the primitive + granite; and I fished, picking up a pair of ouananiche in foam-covered + nooks among the rocks. The swift water was almost passed when we embarked + again and ran down the last slope into a long deadwater. + </p> + <p> + The shores, at first bold and rough, covered with dense thickets of + second-growth timber, now became smoother and more fertile. Scattered + farms, with square, unpainted houses, and long, thatched barns, began to + creep over the hills toward the river. There was a hamlet, called St. + Charles, with a rude little church and a campanile of logs. The cure, + robed in decent black and wearing a tall silk hat of the vintage of 1860, + sat on the veranda of his trim presbytery, looking down upon us, like an + image of propriety smiling at Bohemianism. Other craft appeared on the + river. A man and his wife paddling an old dugout, with half a dozen + children packed in amidships a crew of lumbermen, in a sharp-nosed bateau, + picking up stray logs along the banks; a couple of boatloads of young + people returning merrily from a holiday visit; a party of berry-pickers in + a flat-bottomed skiff; all the life of the country-side was in evidence on + the river. We felt quite as if we had been "in the swim" of society, when + at length we reached the point where the Riviere des Aunes came tumbling + down a hundred-foot ladder of broken black rocks. There we pitched our + tents in a strip of meadow by the water-side, where we could have the + sound of the falls for a slumber-song all night and the whole river for a + bath at sunrise. + </p> + <p> + A sparkling draught of crystal weather was poured into our stirrup-cup in + the morning, as we set out for a drive of fifteen miles across country to + the Riviere a l'Ours, a tributary of the crooked, unnavigable river of + Alders. The canoes and luggage were loaded on a couple of charrettes, or + two-wheeled carts. But for us and the guides there were two quatre-roues, + the typical vehicles of the century, as characteristic of Canada as the + carriole is of Norway. It is a two-seated buckboard, drawn by one horse, + and the back seat is covered with a hood like an old-fashioned poke + bonnet. The road is of clay and always rutty. It runs level for a while, + and then jumps up a steep ridge and down again, or into a deep gully and + out again. The habitant's idea of good driving is to let his horse slide + down the hill and gallop up. This imparts a spasmodic quality to the + motion, like Carlyle's style. + </p> + <p> + The native houses are strung along the road. The modern pattern has a + convex angle in the roof, and dormer-windows; it is a rustic adaptation of + the Mansard. The antique pattern, which is far more picturesque, has a + concave curve in the roof, and the eaves project like eyebrows, shading + the flatness of the face. Paint is a rarity. The prevailing colour is the + soft gray of weather-beaten wood. Sometimes, in the better class of + houses, a gallery is built across the front and around one side, and a + square of garden is fenced in, with dahlias and hollyhocks and marigolds, + and perhaps a struggling rosebush, and usually a small patch of tobacco + growing in one corner. Once in a long while you may see a balm-of-Gilead + tree, or a clump of sapling poplars, planted near the door. + </p> + <p> + How much better it would have been if the farmer had left a few of the + noble forest-trees to shade his house. But then, when the farmer came into + the wilderness he was not a farmer, he was first of all a wood-chopper. He + regarded the forest as a stubborn enemy in possession of his land. He + attacked it with fire and axe and exterminated it, instead of keeping a + few captives to hold their green umbrellas over his head when at last his + grain fields should be smiling around him and he should sit down on his + doorstep to smoke a pipe of home-grown tobacco. + </p> + <p> + In the time of adversity one should prepare for prosperity. I fancy there + are a good many people unconsciously repeating the mistake of the Canadian + farmer—chopping down all the native growths of life, clearing the + ground of all the useless pretty things that seem to cumber it, + sacrificing everything to utility and success. We fell the last green tree + for the sake of raising an extra hill of potatoes; and never stop to think + what an ugly, barren place we may have to sit in while we eat them. The + ideals, the attachments—yes, even the dreams of youth are worth + saving. For the artificial tastes with which age tries to make good their + loss grow very slowly and cast but a slender shade. + </p> + <p> + Most of the Canadian farmhouses have their ovens out-of-doors. We saw them + everywhere; rounded edifices of clay, raised on a foundation of logs, and + usually covered with a pointed roof of boards. They looked like little + family chapels—and so they were; shrines where the ritual of the + good housewife was celebrated, and the gift of daily bread, having been + honestly earned, was thankfully received. + </p> + <p> + At one house we noticed a curious fragment of domestic economy. Half a pig + was suspended over the chimney, and the smoke of the summer fire was + turned to account in curing the winter's meat. I guess the children of + that family had a peculiar fondness for the parental roof-tree. We saw + them making mud-pies in the road, and imagined that they looked lovingly + up at the pendent porker, outlined against the sky,—a sign of + promise, prophetic of bacon. + </p> + <p> + About noon the road passed beyond the region of habitation into a barren + land, where blueberries were the only crop, and partridges took the place + of chickens. Through this rolling gravelly plain, sparsely wooded and + glowing with the tall magenta bloom of the fireweed, we drove toward the + mountains, until the road went to seed and we could follow it no longer. + Then we took to the water and began to pole our canoes up the River of the + Bear. It was a clear, amber-coloured stream, not more than ten or fifteen + yards wide, running swift and strong, over beds of sand and rounded + pebbles. The canoes went wallowing and plunging up the narrow channel, + between thick banks of alders, like clumsy sea-monsters. All the grace + with which they move under the strokes of the paddle, in large waters, was + gone. They looked uncouth and predatory, like a pair of seals that I once + saw swimming far up the river Ristigouche in chase of fish. From the bow + of each canoe the landing-net stuck out as a symbol of destruction—after + the fashion of the Dutch admiral who nailed a broom to his masthead. But + it would have been impossible to sweep the trout out of that little river + by any fair method of angling, for there were millions of them; not large, + but lively, and brilliant, and fat; they leaped in every bend of the + stream. We trailed our flies, and made quick casts here and there, as we + went along. It was fishing on the wing. And when we pitched our tents in a + hurry at nightfall on the low shore of Lac Sale, among the bushes where + firewood was scarce and there were no sapins for the beds, we were + comforted for the poorness of the camp-ground by the excellence of the + trout supper. + </p> + <p> + It was a bitter cold night for August. There was a skin of ice on the + water-pail at daybreak. We were glad to be up and away for an early start. + The river grew wilder and more difficult. There were rapids, and ruined + dams built by the lumbermen years ago. At these places the trout were + larger, and so plentiful that it was easy to hook two at a cast. It came + on to rain furiously while we were eating our lunch. But we did not seem + to mind it any more than the fish did. Here and there the river was + completely blocked by fallen trees. The guides called it bouchee, + "corked," and leaped out gayly into the water with their axes to "uncork" + it. We passed through some pretty lakes, unknown to the map-makers, and + arrived, before sundown, at the Lake of the Bear, where we were to spend a + couple of days. The lake was full of floating logs, and the water, raised + by the heavy rains and the operations of the lumbermen, was several feet + above its usual level. Nature's landing-places were all blotted out, and + we had to explore halfway around the shore before we could get out + comfortably. We raised the tents on a small shoulder of a hill, a few rods + above the water; and a glorious camp-fire of birch logs soon made us + forget our misery as though it had not been. + </p> + <p> + The name of the Lake of the Beautiful Trout made us desire to visit it. + The portage was said to be only fifty acres long (the arpent is the + popular measure of distance here), but it passed over a ridge of newly + burned land, and was so entangled with ruined woods and desolate of birds + and flowers that it seemed to us at least five miles. The lake was + charming—a sheet of singularly clear water, of a pale green tinge, + surrounded by wooded hills. In the translucent depths trout and pike live + together, but whether in peace or not I cannot tell. Both of them grow to + an enormous size, but the pike are larger and have more capacious jaws. + One of them broke my tackle and went off with a silver spoon in his mouth, + as if he had been born to it. Of course the guides vowed that they saw him + as he passed under the canoe, and declared that he must weigh thirty or + forty pounds. The spectacles of regret always magnify. + </p> + <p> + The trout were coy. We took only five of them, perfect specimens of the + true Salvelinus fontinalis, with square tails, and carmine spots on their + dark, mottled sides; the largest weighed three pounds and three-quarters, + and the others were almost as heavy. + </p> + <p> + On our way back to the camp we found the portage beset by innumerable and + bloodthirsty foes. There are four grades of insect malignity in the woods. + The mildest is represented by the winged idiot that John Burroughs' little + boy called a "blunderhead." He dances stupidly before your face, as if + lost in admiration, and finishes his pointless tale by getting in your + eye, or down your throat. The next grade is represented by the midges. + "Bite 'em no see 'em," is the Indian name for these invisible atoms of + animated pepper which settle upon you in the twilight and make your skin + burn like fire. But their hour is brief, and when they depart they leave + not a bump behind. One step lower in the scale we find the mosquito, or + rather he finds us, and makes his poisoned mark upon our skin. But after + all, he has his good qualities. The mosquito is a gentlemanly pirate. He + carries his weapon openly, and gives notice of an attack. He respects the + decencies of life, and does not strike below the belt, or creep down the + back of your neck. But the black fly is at the bottom of the moral scale. + He is an unmitigated ruffian, the plug-ugly of the woods. He looks like a + tiny, immature house-fly, with white legs as if he must be innocent. But, + in fact, he crawls like a serpent and bites like a dog. No portion of the + human frame is sacred from his greed. He takes his pound of flesh + anywhere, and does not scruple to take the blood with it. As a rule you + can defend yourself, to some degree, against him, by wearing a head-net, + tying your sleeves around your wrists and your trousers around your + ankles, and anointing yourself with grease, flavoured with pennyroyal, for + which cleanly and honest scent he has a coarse aversion. But sometimes, + especially on burned land, about the middle of a warm afternoon, when a + rain is threatening, the horde of black flies descend in force and fury + knowing that their time is short. Then there is no escape. Suits of chain + armour, Nubian ointments of far-smelling potency, would not save you. You + must do as our guides did on the portage, submit to fate and walk along in + heroic silence, like Marco Bozzaris "bleeding at every pore,"—or do + as Damon and I did, break into ejaculations and a run, until you reach a + place where you can light a smudge and hold your head over it. + </p> + <p> + "And yet," said my comrade, as we sat coughing and rubbing our eyes in the + painful shelter of the smoke, "there are worse trials than this in the + civilised districts: social enmities, and newspaper scandals, and + religious persecutions. The blackest fly I ever saw is the Reverend + ——-" but here his voice was fortunately choked by a fit of + coughing. + </p> + <p> + A couple of wandering Indians—descendants of the Montagnais, on + whose hunting domain we were travelling—dropped in at our camp that + night as we sat around the fire. They gave us the latest news about the + portages on our further journey; how far they had been blocked with fallen + trees, and whether the water was high or low in the rivers—just as a + visitor at home would talk about the effect of the strikes on the stock + market, and the prospects of the newest organization of the non-voting + classes for the overthrow of Tammany Hall. Every phase of civilisation or + barbarism creates its own conversational currency. The weather, like the + old Spanish dollar, is the only coin that passes everywhere. + </p> + <p> + But our Indians did not carry much small change about them. They were + dark, silent chaps, soon talked out; and then they sat sucking their pipes + before the fire, (as dumb as their own wooden effigies in front of a + tobacconist's shop,) until the spirit moved them, and they vanished in + their canoe down the dark lake. Our own guides were very different. They + were as full of conversation as a spruce-tree is of gum. When all + shallower themes were exhausted they would discourse of bears and canoes + and lumber and fish, forever. After Damon and I had left the fire and + rolled ourselves in the blankets in our own tent, we could hear the men + going on and on with their simple jests and endless tales of adventure, + until sleep drowned their voices. + </p> + <p> + It was the sound of a French chanson that woke us early on the morning of + our departure from the Lake of the Bear. A gang of lumbermen were bringing + a lot of logs through the lake. Half-hidden in the cold gray mist that + usually betokens a fine day, and wet to the waist from splashing about + after their unwieldy flock, these rough fellows were singing at their work + as cheerfully as a party of robins in a cherry-tree at sunrise. It was + like the miller and the two girls whom Wordsworth saw dancing in their + boats on the Thames: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "They dance not for me, + Yet mine is their glee! + Thus pleasure is spread through the earth + In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find; + Thus a rich loving-kindness, redundantly kind, + Moves all nature to gladness and mirth." +</pre> + <p> + But our later thoughts of the lumbermen were not altogether grateful, when + we arrived that day, after a mile of portage, at the little Riviere + Blanche, upon which we had counted to float us down to Lac Tchitagama, and + found that they had stolen all its water to float their logs down the Lake + of the Bear. The poor little river was as dry as a theological novel. + There was nothing left of it except the bed and the bones; it was like a + Connecticut stream in the middle of August. All its pretty secrets were + laid bare; all its music was hushed. The pools that lingered among the + rocks seemed like big tears; and the voice of the forlorn rivulets that + trickled in here and there, seeking the parent stream, was a voice of + weeping and complaint. + </p> + <p> + For us the loss meant a hard day's work, scrambling over slippery stones, + and splashing through puddles, and forcing a way through the tangled + thickets on the bank, instead of a pleasant two hours' run on a swift + current. We ate our dinner on a sandbank in what was once the middle of a + pretty pond; and entered, as the sun was sinking, a narrow wooded gorge + between the hills, completely filled by a chain of small lakes, where + travelling became easy and pleasant. The steep shores, clothed with cedar + and black spruce and dark-blue fir-trees, rose sheer from the water; the + passage from lake to lake was a tiny rapid a few yards long, gurgling + through mossy rocks; at the foot of the chain there was a longer rapid, + with a portage beside it. We emerged from the dense bush suddenly and + found ourselves face to face with Lake Tchitagama. + </p> + <p> + How the heart expands at such a view! Nine miles of shining water lay + stretched before us, opening through the mountains that guarded it on both + sides with lofty walls of green and gray, ridge over ridge, point beyond + point, until the vista ended in + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "You orange sunset waning slow." +</pre> + <p> + At a moment like this one feels a sense of exultation. It is a new + discovery of the joy of living. And yet, my friend and I confessed to each + other, there was a tinge of sadness, an inexplicable regret mingled with + our joy. Was it the thought of how few human eyes had even seen that + lovely vision? Was it the dim foreboding that we might never see it again? + Who can explain the secret pathos of Nature's loveliness? It is a touch of + melancholy inherited from our mother Eve. It is an unconscious memory of + the lost Paradise. It is the sense that even if we should find another + Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly, nor stay in it forever. + </p> + <p> + Our first camp on Tchitagama was at the sunrise end of the lake, in a bay + paved with small round stones, laid close together and beaten firmly down + by the waves. There, and along the shores below, at the mouth of a little + river that foamed in over a ledge of granite, and in the shadow of cliffs + of limestone and feldspar, we trolled and took many fish: pike of enormous + size, fresh-water sharks, devourers of nobler game, fit only to kill and + throw away; huge old trout of six or seven pounds, with broad tails and + hooked jaws, fine fighters and poor food; stupid, wide-mouthed chub—ouitouche, + the Indians call them—biting at hooks that were not baited for them; + and best of all, high-bred onananiche, pleasant to capture and delicate to + eat. + </p> + <p> + Our second camp was on a sandy point at the sunset end of the lake—a + fine place for bathing, and convenient to the wild meadows and blueberry + patches, where Damon went to hunt for bears. He did not find any; but once + he heard a great noise in the bushes, which he thought was a bear; and he + declared that he got quite as much excitement out of it as if it had had + four legs and a mouthful of teeth. + </p> + <p> + He brought back from one of his expeditions an Indian letter, which he had + found in a cleft stick by the river. It was a sheet of birch-bark with a + picture drawn on it in charcoal; five Indians in a canoe paddling up the + river, and one in another canoe pointing in another direction; we read it + as a message left by a hunting party, telling their companions not to go + on up the river, because it was already occupied, but to turn off on a + side stream. + </p> + <p> + There was a sign of a different kind nailed to an old stump behind our + camp. It was the top of a soap-box, with an inscription after this + fashion: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + A.D. MEYER & B. LEVIT + Soap Mfrs. N. Y. + CAMPED HERE JULY 18— + 1 TROUT 17 12 POUNDS. II OUAN + ANISHES 18 12 POUNDS. ONE + PIKE 147 12 LBS. +</pre> + <p> + There was a combination of piscatorial pride and mercantile enterprise in + this quaint device, that took our fancy. It suggested also a curious + question of psychology in regard to the inhibitory influence of horses and + fish upon the human nerve of veracity. We named the place "Point Ananias." + </p> + <p> + And yet, in fact, it was a wild and lonely spot, and not even the Hebrew + inscription could spoil the sense of solitude that surrounded us when the + night came, and the storm howled across the take, and the darkness + encircled us with a wall that only seemed the more dense and impenetrable + as the firelight blazed and leaped within the black ring. + </p> + <p> + "How far away is the nearest house, Johnny?" + </p> + <p> + "I don't know; fifty miles, I suppose." + </p> + <p> + "And what would you do if the canoes were burned, or if a tree fell and + smashed them?" + </p> + <p> + "Well, I'd say a Pater noster, and take bread and bacon enough for four + days, and an axe, and plenty of matches, and make a straight line through + the woods. But it wouldn't be a joke, M'sieu', I can tell you." + </p> + <p> + The river Peribonca, into which Lake Tchitagama flows without a break, is + the noblest of all the streams that empty into Lake St. John. It is said + to be more than three hundred miles long, and at the mouth of the lake it + is perhaps a thousand feet wide, flowing with a deep, still current + through the forest. The dead-water lasted for several miles; then the + river sloped into a rapid, spread through a net of islands, and broke over + a ledge in a cataract. Another quiet stretch was followed by another fall, + and so on, along the whole course of the river. + </p> + <p> + We passed three of these falls in the first day's voyage (by portages so + steep and rough that an Adirondack guide would have turned gray at the + sight of them), and camped at night just below the Chute du Diable, where + we found some ouananiche in the foam. Our tents were on an islet, and all + around we saw the primeval, savage beauty of a world unmarred by man, + </p> + <p> + The river leaped, shouting, down its double stairway of granite, rejoicing + like a strong man to run a race. The after-glow in the western sky + deepened from saffron to violet among the tops of the cedars, and over the + cliffs rose the moonlight, paling the heavens but glorifying the earth. + There was something large and generous and untrammelled in the scene, + recalling one of Walt Whitman's rhapsodies:— + </p> + <p> + "Earth of departed sunsets! Earth of the mountains misty-topped! Earth of + the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue! Earth of shine + and dark, mottling the tide of the river!" + </p> + <p> + All the next day we went down with the current. Regiments of black spruce + stood in endless files like grenadiers, each tree capped with a thick tuft + of matted cones and branches. Tall white birches leaned out over the + stream, Narcissus-like, as if to see their own beauty in the moving + mirror. There were touches of colour on the banks, the ragged pink flowers + of the Joe-Pye-weed (which always reminds me of a happy, good-natured + tramp), and the yellow ear-drops of the jewel-weed, and the intense blue + of the closed gentian, that strange flower which, like a reticent heart, + never opens to the light. Sometimes the river spread out like a lake, + between high bluffs of sand fully a mile apart; and again it divided into + many channels, winding cunningly down among the islands as if it were + resolved to slip around the next barrier of rock without a fall. There + were eight of these huge natural dams in the course of that day's journey. + Sometimes we followed one of the side canals, and made the portage at a + distance from the main cataract; and sometimes we ran with the central + current to the very brink of the chute, darting aside just in time to + escape going over. At the foot of the last fall we made our camp on a + curving beach of sand, and spent the rest of the afternoon in fishing. + </p> + <p> + It was interesting to see how closely the guides could guess at the weight + of the fish by looking at them. The ouananiche are much longer in + proportion to their weight than trout, and a novice almost always + overestimates them. But the guides were not deceived. "This one will weigh + four pounds and three-quarters, and this one four pounds, but that one not + more than three pounds; he is meagre, M'sieu', BUT he is meagre." When we + went ashore and tried the spring balance (which every angler ought to + carry with him, as an aid to his conscience), the guides guess usually + proved to be within an ounce or two of the fact. Any one of the senses can + be educated to do the work of the others. The eyes of these experienced + fishermen were as sensitive to weight as if they had been made to use as + scales. + </p> + <p> + Below the last fall the Peribonca flows for a score of miles with an + unbroken, ever-widening stream, through low shores of forest and bush and + meadow. Near its mouth the Little Peribonca joins it, and the immense + flood, nearly two miles wide, pours into Lake St. John. Here we saw the + first outpost of civilisation—a huge unpainted storehouse, where + supplies are kept for the lumbermen and the new settlers. Here also we + found the tiny, lame steam launch that was to carry us back to the Hotel + Roberval. Our canoes were stowed upon the roof of the cabin, and we + embarked for the last stage of our long journey. + </p> + <p> + As we came out of the river-mouth, the opposite shore of the lake was + invisible, and a stiff "Nor'wester" was rolling big waves across the bar. + It was like putting out into the open sea. The launch laboured and puffed + along for four or five miles, growing more and more asthmatic with every + breath. Then there was an explosion in the engine-room. Some necessary + part of the intestinal machinery had blown out. There was a moment of + confusion. The captain hurried to drop the anchor, and the narrow craft + lay rolling in the billows. + </p> + <p> + What to do? The captain shrugged his shoulders like a Frenchman. "Wait + here, I suppose." But how long? "Who knows? Perhaps till to-morrow; + perhaps the day after. They will send another boat to look for us in the + course of time." + </p> + <p> + But the quarters were cramped; the weather looked ugly; if the wind should + rise, the cranky launch would not be a safe cradle for the night. Damon + and I preferred the canoes, for they at least would float if they were + capsized. So we stepped into the frail, buoyant shells of bark once more, + and danced over the big waves toward the shore. We made a camp on a + wind-swept point of sand, and felt like shipwrecked mariners. But it was a + gilt-edged shipwreck. For our larder was still full, and as if to provide + us with the luxuries as well as the necessities of life, Nature had spread + an inexhaustible dessert of the largest and most luscious blueberries + around our tents. + </p> + <p> + After supper, strolling along the beach, we debated the best way of + escape; whether to send one of our canoes around the eastern shore of the + lake that night, to meet the steamer at the Island House and bring it to + our rescue; or to set out the next morning, and paddle both canoes around + the western end of the lake, thirty miles, to the Hotel Roberval. While we + were talking, we came to a dry old birch-tree, with ragged, curling bark. + "Here is a torch," cried Damon, "to throw light upon the situation." He + touched a match to it, and the flames flashed up the tall trunk until it + was transformed into a pillar of fire. But the sudden illumination burned + out, and our counsels were wrapt again in darkness and uncertainty, when + there came a great uproar of steam-whistles from the lake. They must be + signalling for us. What could it mean? + </p> + <p> + We fired our guns, leaped into a canoe, leaving two of the guides to break + camp, and paddled out swiftly into the night. It seemed an endless + distance before we found the feeble light where the crippled launch was + tossing at anchor. The captain shouted something about a larger steamboat + and a raft of logs, out in the lake, a mile or two beyond. Presently we + saw the lights, and the orange glow of the cabin windows. Was she coming, + or going, or standing still? We paddled on as fast as we could, shouting + and firing off a revolver until we had no more cartridges. We were + resolved not to let that mysterious vessel escape us, and threw ourselves + with energy into the novel excitement of chasing a steamboat in the dark. + </p> + <p> + Then the lights began to swing around; the throbbing of paddle-wheels grew + louder and louder; she was evidently coming straight toward us. At that + moment it flashed upon us that, while she had plenty of lights, we had + none! We were lying, invisible, right across her track. The character of + the steamboat chase was reversed. We turned and fled, as the guides say, a + quatre pattes, into illimitable space, trying to get out of the way of our + too powerful friend. It makes considerable difference, in the voyage of + life, whether you chase the steamboat, or the steamboat chases you. + </p> + <p> + Meantime our other canoe had approached unseen. The steamer passed safely + between the two boats, slackening speed as the pilot caught our loud + halloo! She loomed up above us like a man-of-war, and as we climbed the + ladder to the main-deck we felt that we had indeed gotten out of the + wilderness. My old friend, Captain Savard, made us welcome. He had been + sent out, much to his disgust, to catch a runaway boom of logs and tow it + back to Roberval; it would be an all night affair; but we must take + possession of his stateroom and make ourselves comfortable; he would + certainly bring us to the hotel in time for breakfast. So he went off on + the upper deck, and we heard him stamping about and yelling to his crew as + they struggled to get their unwieldy drove of six thousand logs in motion. + </p> + <p> + All night long we assisted at the lumbermen's difficult enterprise. We + heard the steamer snorting and straining at her clumsy, stubborn convoy. + The hoarse shouts of the crew, disguised in a mongrel dialect which made + them (perhaps fortunately) less intelligible and more forcible, mingled + with our broken dreams. + </p> + <p> + But it was, in fact, a fitting close of our voyage. For what were we + doing? It was the last stage of the woodman's labour. It was the gathering + of a wild herd of the houses and churches and ships and bridges that grow + in the forests, and bringing them into the fold of human service. I wonder + how often the inhabitant of the snug Queen Anne cottage in the suburbs + remembers the picturesque toil and varied hardship that it has cost to hew + and drag his walls and floors and pretty peaked roofs out of the + backwoods. It might enlarge his home, and make his musings by the winter + fireside less commonplace, to give a kindly thought now and then to the + long chain of human workers through whose hands the timber of his house + has passed, since it first felt the stroke of the axe in the snow-bound + winter woods, and floated, through the spring and summer, on far-off lakes + and little rivers, au large. + </p> + <p> + 1894. <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TROUT-FISHING IN THE TRAUN + </h2> + <p> + "Those who wish to forget painful thoughts do well to absent themselves + for a time from the ties and objects that recall them; but we can be said + only to fulfil our destiny in the place that gave us birth. I should on + this account like well enough to spend the whole of my life in travelling + abroad if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at + home."—WILLIAM HAZLITT: On Going a Journey. + </p> + <p> + The peculiarity of trout-fishing in the Traun is that one catches + principally grayling. But in this it resembles some other pursuits which + are not without their charm for minds open to the pleasures of the + unexpected—for example, reading George Borrow's The Bible in Spain + with a view to theological information, or going to the opening night at + the Academy of Design with the intention of looking at pictures. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, there are really trout in the Traun, rari nantes in gurgite; and + in some places more than in others; and all of high spirit, though few of + great size. Thus the angler has his favourite problem: Given an unknown + stream and two kinds of fish, the one better than the other; to find the + better kind, and determine the hour at which they will rise. This is + sport. + </p> + <p> + As for the little river itself, it has so many beauties that one does not + think of asking whether it has any faults. Constant fulness, and crystal + clearness, and refreshing coolness of living water, pale green like the + jewel that is called aqua marina, flowing over beds of clean sand and bars + of polished gravel, and dropping in momentary foam from rocky ledges, + between banks that are shaded by groves of fir and ash and poplar, or + through dense thickets of alder and willow, or across meadows of smooth + verdure sloping up to quaint old-world villages—all these are + features of the ideal little river. + </p> + <p> + I have spoken of these personal qualities first, because a truly moral + writer ought to make more of character than of position. A good river in a + bad country would be more worthy of affection than a bad river in a good + country. But the Traun has also the advantages of an excellent worldly + position. For it rises all over the Salzkammergut, the summer + hunting-ground of the Austrian Emperor, and flows through that most + picturesque corner of his domain from end to end. Under the desolate + cliffs of the Todtengebirge on the east, and below the shining ice-fields + of the Dachstein on the south, and from the green alps around St. Wolfgang + on the west, the translucent waters are gathered in little tarns, and shot + through roaring brooks, and spread into lakes of wondrous beauty, and + poured through growing streams, until at last they are all united just + below the summer villa of his Kaiserly and Kingly Majesty, Francis Joseph, + and flow away northward, through the rest of his game-preserve, into the + Traunsee. It is an imperial playground, and such as I would consent to + hunt the chamois in, if an inscrutable Providence had made me a kingly + kaiser, or even a plain king or an unvarnished kaiser. But, failing this, + I was perfectly content to spend a few idle days in fishing for trout and + catching grayling, at such times and places as the law of the Austrian + Empire allowed. + </p> + <p> + For it must be remembered that every stream in these over-civilised + European countries belongs to somebody, by purchase or rent. And all the + fish in the stream are supposed to belong to the person who owns or rents + it. They do not know their master's voice, neither will they follow when + he calls. But they are theoretically his. To this legal fiction the + untutored American must conform. He must learn to clothe his natural + desires in the raiment of lawful sanction, and take out some kind of a + license before he follows his impulse to fish. + </p> + <p> + It was in the town of Aussee, at the junction of the two highest branches + of the Traun, that this impulse came upon me, mildly irresistible. The + full bloom of mid-July gayety in that ancient watering-place was dampened, + but not extinguished, by two days of persistent and surprising showers. I + had exhausted the possibilities of interest in the old Gothic church, and + felt all that a man should feel in deciphering the mural tombstones of the + families who were exiled for their faith in the days of the Reformation. + The throngs of merry Hebrews from Vienna and Buda-Pesth, amazingly arrayed + as mountaineers and milk-maids, walking up and down the narrow streets + under umbrellas, had Cleopatra's charm of an infinite variety; but custom + staled it. The woodland paths, winding everywhere through the plantations + of fir-trees and provided with appropriate names on wooden labels, and + benches for rest and conversation at discreet intervals, were too moist + for even the nymphs to take delight in them. The only creatures that + suffered nothing by the rain were the two swift, limpid Trauns, racing + through the woods, like eager and unabashed lovers, to meet in the middle + of the village. They were as clear, as joyous, as musical as if the sun + were shining. The very sight of their opalescent rapids and eddying pools + was an invitation to that gentle sport which is said to have the merit of + growing better as the weather grows worse. + </p> + <p> + I laid this fact before the landlord of the hotel of the Erzherzog Johann, + as poetically as I could, but he assured me that it was of no consequence + without an invitation from the gentleman to whom the streams belonged; and + he had gone away for a week. The landlord was such a good-natured person, + and such an excellent sleeper, that it was impossible to believe that he + could have even the smallest inaccuracy upon his conscience. So I bade him + farewell, and took my way, four miles through the woods, to the lake from + which one of the streams flowed. + </p> + <p> + It was called the Grundlsee. As I do not know the origin of the name, I + cannot consistently make any moral or historical reflections upon it. But + if it has never become famous, it ought to be, for the sake of a cozy and + busy little Inn, perched on a green hill beside the lake and overlooking + the whole length of it, from the groups of toy villas at the foot to the + heaps of real mountains at the head. This Inn kept a thin but happy + landlord, who provided me with a blue license to angle, for the + inconsiderable sum of fifteen cents a day. This conferred the right of + fishing not only in the Grundlsee, but also in the smaller tarn of + Toplitz, a mile above it, and in the swift stream which unites them. It + all coincided with my desire as if by magic. A row of a couple of miles to + the head of the lake, and a walk through the forest, brought me to the + smaller pond; and as the afternoon sun was ploughing pale furrows through + the showers, I waded out on a point of reeds and cast the artful fly in + the shadow of the great cliffs of the Dead Mountains. + </p> + <p> + It was a fit scene for a lone fisherman. But four sociable tourists + promptly appeared to act as spectators and critics. Fly-fishing usually + strikes the German mind as an eccentricity which calls for remonstrance. + After one of the tourists had suggestively narrated the tale of seven + trout which he had caught in another lake, WITH WORMS, on the previous + Sunday, they went away for a row, (with salutations in which politeness + but thinly veiled their pity,) and left me still whipping the water in + vain. Nor was the fortune of the day much better in the stream below. It + was a long and wet wade for three fish too small to keep. I came out on + the shore of the lake, where I had left the row-boat, with empty bag and a + feeling of damp discouragement. + </p> + <p> + There was still an hour or so of daylight, and a beautiful place to fish + where the stream poured swirling out into the lake. A rise, and a large + one, though rather slow, awakened my hopes. Another rise, evidently made + by a heavy fish, made me certain that virtue was about to be rewarded. The + third time the hook went home. I felt the solid weight of the fish against + the spring of the rod, and that curious thrill which runs up the line and + down the arm, changing, somehow or other, into a pleasurable sensation of + excitement as it reaches the brain. But it was only for a moment; and then + came that foolish, feeble shaking of the line from side to side which + tells the angler that he has hooked a great, big, leather-mouthed chub—a + fish which Izaak Walton says "the French esteem so mean as to call him Un + Vilain." Was it for this that I had come to the country of Francis Joseph? + </p> + <p> + I took off the flies and put on one of those phantom minnows which have + immortalised the name of a certain Mr. Brown. The minnow swung on a long + line as the boat passed back and forth across the current, once, twice, + three times—and on the fourth circle there was a sharp strike. The + rod bent almost double, and the reel sang shrilly to the first rush of the + fish. He ran; he doubled; he went to the bottom and sulked; he tried to go + under the boat; he did all that a game fish can do, except leaping. After + twenty minutes he was tired enough to be lifted gently into the boat by a + hand slipped around his gills, and there he was, a lachsforelle of three + pounds' weight: small pointed head; silver sides mottled with dark spots; + square, powerful tail and large fins—a fish not unlike the + land-locked salmon of the Saguenay, but more delicate. + </p> + <p> + Half an hour later he was lying on the grass in front of the Inn. The + waiters paused, with their hands full of dishes, to look at him; and the + landlord called his guests, including my didactic tourists, to observe the + superiority of the trout of the Grundlsee. The maids also came to look; + and the buxom cook, with her spotless apron and bare arms akimbo, was + drawn from her kitchen, and pledged her culinary honour that such a + pracht-kerl should be served up in her very best style. The angler who is + insensible to this sort of indirect flattery through his fish does not + exist. Even the most indifferent of men thinks more favourably of people + who know a good trout when they see it, and sits down to his supper with + kindly feelings. Possibly he reflects, also, upon the incident as a hint + of the usual size of the fish in that neighbourhood. He remembers that he + may have been favoured in this case beyond his deserts by good-fortune, + and resolving not to put too heavy a strain upon it, considers the next + place where it would be well for him to angle. + </p> + <p> + Hallstatt is about ten miles below Aussee. The Traun here expands into a + lake, very dark and deep, shut in by steep and lofty mountains. The + railway runs along the eastern shore. On the other side, a mile away, you + see the old town, its white houses clinging to the cliff like lichens to + the face of a rock. The guide-book calls it "a highly original situation." + But this is one of the cases where a little less originality and a little + more reasonableness might be desired, at least by the permanent + inhabitants. A ledge under the shadow of a precipice makes a trying winter + residence. The people of Hallstatt are not a blooming race: one sees many + dwarfs and cripples among them. But to the summer traveller the place + seems wonderfully picturesque. Most of the streets are flights of steps. + The high-road has barely room to edge itself through among the old houses, + between the window-gardens of bright flowers. On the hottest July day the + afternoon is cool and shady. The gay, little skiffs and long, open + gondolas are flitting continually along the lake, which is the main street + of Hallstatt. + </p> + <p> + The incongruous, but comfortable, modern hotel has a huge glass veranda, + where you can eat your dinner and observe human nature in its transparent + holiday disguises. I was much pleased and entertained by a family, or + confederacy, of people attired as peasants—the men with feathered + hats, green stockings, and bare knees—the women with bright skirts, + bodices, and silk neckerchiefs—who were always in evidence, rowing + gondolas with clumsy oars, meeting the steamboat at the wharf several + times a day, and filling the miniature garden of the hotel with rustic + greetings and early Salzkammergut attitudes. After much conjecture, I + learned that they were the family and friends of a newspaper editor from + Vienna. They had the literary instinct for local colour. + </p> + <p> + The fishing at Hallstatt is at Obertraun. There is a level stretch of land + above the lake, where the river flows peaceably, and the fish have leisure + to feed and grow. It is leased to a peasant, who makes a business of + supplying the hotels with fish. He was quite willing to give permission to + an angler; and I engaged one of his sons, a capital young fellow, whose + natural capacities for good fellowship were only hampered by a most + extraordinary German dialect, to row me across the lake, and carry the net + and a small green barrel full of water to keep the fish alive, according + to the custom of the country. The first day we had only four trout large + enough to put into the barrel; the next day I think there were six; the + third day, I remember very well, there were ten. They were pretty + creatures, weighing from half a pound to a pound each, and coloured as + daintily as bits of French silk, in silver gray with faint pink spots. + </p> + <p> + There was plenty to do at Hallstatt in the mornings. An hour's walk from + the town there was a fine waterfall, three hundred feet high. On the side + of the mountain above the lake was one of the salt-mines for which the + region is celebrated. It has been worked for ages by many successive + races, from the Celt downward. Perhaps even the men of the Stone Age knew + of it, and came hither for seasoning to make the flesh of the cave-bear + and the mammoth more palatable. Modern pilgrims are permitted to explore + the long, wet, glittering galleries with a guide, and slide down the + smooth wooden rollers which join the different levels of the mines. This + pastime has the same fascination as sliding down the balusters; and it is + said that even queens and princesses have been delighted with it. This is + a touching proof of the fundamental simplicity and unity of our human + nature. + </p> + <p> + But by far the best excursion from Hallstatt was an all-day trip to the + Zwieselalp—a mountain which seems to have been especially created as + a point of view. From the bare summit you look right into the face of the + huge, snowy Dachstein, with the wild lake of Gosau gleaming at its foot; + and far away on the other side your vision ranges over a confusion of + mountains, with all the white peaks of the Tyrol stretched along the + horizon. Such a wide outlook as this helps the fisherman to enjoy the + narrow beauties of his little rivers. No sport is at its best without + interruption and contrast. To appreciate wading, one ought to climb a + little on odd days. + </p> + <p> + Isehl is about ten or twelve miles below Hallstatt, in the valley of the + Traun. It is the fashionable summer-resort of Austria. I found it in the + high tide of amusement. The shady esplanade along the river was crowded + with brave women and fair men, in gorgeous raiment; the hotels were + overflowing; and there were various kinds of music and entertainments at + all hours of day and night. But all this did not seem to affect the + fishing. + </p> + <p> + The landlord of the Konigin Elizabeth, who is also the Burgomaster and a + gentleman of varied accomplishments and no leisure, kindly furnished me + with a fishing license in the shape of a large pink card. There were many + rules printed upon it: "All fishes under nine inches must be gently + restored to the water. No instrument of capture must be used except the + angle in the hand. The card of legitimation must be produced and exhibited + at the polite request of any of the keepers of the river." Thus duly + authorised and instructed, I sallied forth to seek my pastime according to + the law. + </p> + <p> + The easiest way, in theory, was to take the afternoon train up the river + to one of the villages, and fish down a mile or two in the evening, + returning by the eight o'clock train. But in practice the habits of the + fish interfered seriously with the latter part of this plan. + </p> + <p> + On my first day I had spent several hours in the vain effort to catch + something better than small grayling. The best time for the trout was just + approaching, as the broad light faded from the stream; already they were + beginning to feed, when I looked up from the edge of a pool and saw the + train rattling down the valley below me. Under the circumstances the only + thing to do was to go on fishing. It was an even pool with steep banks, + and the water ran through it very straight and swift, some four feet deep + and thirty yards across. As the tail-fly reached the middle of the water, + a fine trout literally turned a somersault over it, but without touching + it. At the next cast he was ready, taking it with a rush that carried him + into the air with the fly in his mouth. He weighed three-quarters of a + pound. The next one was equally eager in rising and sharp in playing, and + the third might have been his twin sister or brother. So, after casting + for hours and taking nothing in the most beautiful pools, I landed three + trout from one unlikely place in fifteen minutes. That was because the + trout's supper-time had arrived. So had mine. I walked over to the + rambling old inn at Goisern, sought the cook in the kitchen and persuaded + her, in spite of the lateness of the hour, to boil the largest of the fish + for my supper, after which I rode peacefully back to Ischl by the eleven + o'clock train. + </p> + <p> + For the future I resolved to give up the illusory idea of coming home by + rail, and ordered a little one-horse carriage to meet me at some point on + the high-road every evening at nine o'clock. In this way I managed to + cover the whole stream, taking a lower part each day, from the lake of + Hallstatt down to Ischl. + </p> + <p> + There was one part of the river, near Laufen, where the current was very + strong and waterfally, broken by ledges of rock. Below these it rested in + long, smooth reaches, much beloved by the grayling. There was no + difficulty in getting two or three of them out of each run. + </p> + <p> + The grayling has a quaint beauty. His appearance is aesthetic, like a fish + in a pre-raphaelite picture. His colour, in midsummer, is a golden gray, + darker on the back, and with a few black spots just behind his gills, like + patches put on to bring out the pallor of his complexion. He smells of + wild thyme when he first comes out of the water, wherefore St. Ambrose of + Milan complimented him in courtly fashion "Quid specie tua gratius? Quid + odore fragrantius? Quod mella fragrant, hoc tuo corpore spiras." But the + chief glory of the grayling is the large iridescent fin on his back. You + see it cutting the water as he swims near the surface; and when you have + him on the bank it arches over him like a rainbow. His mouth is under his + chin, and he takes the fly gently, by suction. He is, in fact, and to + speak plainly, something of a sucker; but then he is a sucker idealised + and refined, the flower of the family. Charles Cotton, the ingenious young + friend of Walton, was all wrong in calling the grayling "one of the + deadest-hearted fishes in the world." He fights and leaps and whirls, and + brings his big fin to bear across the force of the current with a variety + of tactics that would put his more aristocratic fellow-citizen, the trout, + to the blush. Twelve of these pretty fellows, with a brace of good trout + for the top, filled my big creel to the brim. And yet, such is the inborn + hypocrisy of the human heart that I always pretended to myself to be + disappointed because there were not more trout, and made light of the + grayling as a thing of naught. + </p> + <p> + The pink fishing license did not seem to be of much use. Its exhibition + was demanded only twice. Once a river guardian, who was walking down the + stream with a Belgian Baron and encouraging him to continue fishing, + climbed out to me on the end of a long embankment, and with proper + apologies begged to be favoured with a view of my document. It turned out + that his request was a favour to me, for it discovered the fact that I had + left my fly-book, with the pink card in it, beside an old mill, a quarter + of a mile up the stream. + </p> + <p> + Another time I was sitting beside the road, trying to get out of a very + long, wet, awkward pair of wading-stockings, an occupation which is + unfavourable to tranquillity of mind, when a man came up to me in the dusk + and accosted me with an absence of politeness which in German amounted to + an insult. + </p> + <p> + "Have you been fishing?" + </p> + <p> + "Why do you want to know?" + </p> + <p> + "Have you any right to fish?" + </p> + <p> + "What right have you to ask?" + </p> + <p> + "I am a keeper of the river. Where is your card?" + </p> + <p> + "It is in my pocket. But pardon my curiosity, where is YOUR card?" + </p> + <p> + This question appeared to paralyse him. He had probably never been asked + for his card before. He went lumbering off in the darkness, muttering "My + card? Unheard of! MY card!" + </p> + <p> + The routine of angling at Ischl was varied by an excursion to the Lake of + St. Wolfgang and the Schafberg, an isolated mountain on whose rocky horn + an inn has been built. It stands up almost like a bird-house on a pole, + and commands a superb prospect; northward, across the rolling plain and + the Bavarian forest; southward, over a tumultuous land of peaks and + precipices. There are many lovely lakes in sight; but the loveliest of all + is that which takes its name from the old saint who wandered hither from + the country of the "furious Franks" and built his peaceful hermitage on + the Falkenstein. What good taste some of those old saints had! + </p> + <p> + There is a venerable church in the village, with pictures attributed to + Michael Wohlgemuth, and a chapel which is said to mark the spot where St. + Wolfgang, who had lost his axe far up the mountain, found it, like + Longfellow's arrow, in an oak, and "still unbroke." The tree is gone, so + it was impossible to verify the story. But the saint's well is there, in a + pavilion, with a bronze image over it, and a profitable inscription to the + effect that the poorer pilgrims, "who have come unprovided with either + money or wine, should be jolly well contented to find the water so fine." + There is also a famous echo farther up the lake, which repeats six + syllables with accuracy. It is a strange coincidence that there are just + six syllables in the name of "der heilige Wolfgang." But when you + translate it into English, the inspiration of the echo seems to be less + exact. The sweetest thing about St. Wolfgang was the abundance of purple + cyclamens, clothing the mountain meadows, and filling the air with + delicate fragrance like the smell of lilacs around a New England farmhouse + in early June. + </p> + <p> + There was still one stretch of the river above Ischl left for the last + evening's sport. I remember it so well: the long, deep place where the + water ran beside an embankment of stone, and the big grayling poised on + the edge of the shadow, rising and falling on the current as a kite rises + and falls on the wind and balances back to the same position; the murmur + of the stream and the hissing of the pebbles underfoot in the rapids as + the swift water rolled them over and over; the odour of the fir-trees, and + the streaks of warm air in quiet places, and the faint whiffs of + wood-smoke wafted from the houses, and the brown flies dancing heavily up + and down in the twilight; the last good pool, where the river was divided, + the main part making a deep, narrow curve to the right, and the lesser + part bubbling into it over a bed of stones with half-a-dozen tiny + waterfalls, with a fine trout lying at the foot of each of them and rising + merrily as the white fly passed over him—surely it was all very + good, and a memory to be grateful for. And when the basket was full, it + was pleasant to put off the heavy wading-shoes and the long + rubber-stockings, and ride homeward in an open carriage through the fresh + night air. That is as near to sybaritic luxury as a man should care to + come. + </p> + <p> + The lights in the cottages are twinkling like fire-flies, and there are + small groups of people singing and laughing down the road. The honest + fisherman reflects that this world is only a place of pilgrimage, but + after all there is a good deal of cheer on the journey, if it is made with + a contented heart. He wonders who the dwellers in the scattered houses may + be, and weaves romances out of the shadows on the curtained windows. The + lamps burning in the wayside shrines tell him stories of human love and + patience and hope, and of divine forgiveness. Dream-pictures of life float + before him, tender and luminous, filled with a vague, soft atmosphere in + which the simplest outlines gain a strange significance. They are like + some of Millet's paintings—"The Sower," or "The Sheepfold,"—there + is very little detail in them but sometimes a little means so much. + </p> + <p> + Then the moon slips up into the sky from behind the hills, and the + fisherman begins to think of home, and of the foolish, fond old rhymes + about those whom the moon sees far away, and the stars that have the power + to fulfil wishes—as if the celestial bodies knew or cared anything + about our small nerve-thrills which we call affection and desires! But if + there were Some One above the moon and stars who did know and care, Some + One who could see the places and the people that you and I would give so + much to see, Some One who could do for them all of kindness that you and I + fain would do, Some One able to keep our beloved in perfect peace and + watch over the little children sleeping in their beds beyond the sea—what + then? Why, then, in the evening hour, one might have thoughts of home that + would go across the ocean by way of heaven, and be better than dreams, + almost as good as prayers. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + AT THE SIGN OF THE BALSAM BOUGH + </h2> + <p> + "Come live with me, and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove + That valleys, groves, or hills, or field, Or woods and steepy mountains + yield. + </p> + <p> + "There we will rest our sleepy heads, And happy hearts, on balsam beds; + And every day go forth to fish In foamy streams for ouananiche." + </p> + <p> + Old Song with a new Ending. + </p> + <p> + It has been asserted, on high philosophical authority, that woman is a + problem. She is more; she is a cause of problems to others. This is not a + theoretical statement. It is a fact of experience. + </p> + <p> + Every year, when the sun passes the summer solstice, the + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Two souls with but a single thought," +</pre> + <p> + of whom I am so fortunate as to be one, are summoned by that portion of + our united mind which has at once the right of putting the question and of + casting the deciding vote, to answer this conundrum: How can we go abroad + without crossing the ocean, and abandon an interesting family of children + without getting completely beyond their reach, and escape from the + frying-pan of housekeeping without falling into the fire of the summer + hotel? This apparently insoluble problem we usually solve by going to camp + in Canada. + </p> + <p> + It is indeed a foreign air that breathes around us as we make the + harmless, friendly voyage from Point Levis to Quebec. The boy on the + ferry-boat, who cajoles us into buying a copy of Le Moniteur containing + last month's news, has the address of a true though diminutive Frenchman. + The landlord of the quiet little inn on the outskirts of the town welcomes + us with Gallic effusion as well-known guests, and rubs his hands genially + before us, while he escorts us to our apartments, groping secretly in his + memory to recall our names. When we walk down the steep, quaint streets to + revel in the purchase of moccasins and water-proof coats and camping + supplies, we read on a wall the familiar but transformed legend, L'enfant + pleurs, il veut son Camphoria, and remember with joy that no infant who + weeps in French can impose any responsibility upon us in these days of our + renewed honeymoon. + </p> + <p> + But the true delight of the expedition begins when the tents have been set + up, in the forest back of Lake St. John, and the green branches have been + broken for the woodland bed, and the fire has been lit under the open sky, + and, the livery of fashion being all discarded, I sit down at a log table + to eat supper with my lady Greygown. Then life seems simple and amiable + and well worth living. Then the uproar and confusion of the world die away + from us, and we hear only the steady murmur of the river and the low voice + of the wind in the tree-tops. Then time is long, and the only art that is + needful for its enjoyment is short and easy. Then we taste true comfort, + while we lodge with Mother Green at the Sign of the Balsam Bough. + </p> + <p> + I. UNDER THE WHITE BIRCHES. + </p> + <p> + Men may say what they will in praise of their houses, and grow eloquent + upon the merits of various styles of architecture, but, for our part, we + are agreed that there is nothing to be compared with a tent. It is the + most venerable and aristocratic form of human habitation. Abraham and + Sarah lived in it, and shared its hospitality with angels. It is exempt + from the base tyranny of the plumber, the paper-hanger, and the gas-man. + It is not immovably bound to one dull spot of earth by the chains of a + cellar and a system of water-pipes. It has a noble freedom of locomotion. + It follows the wishes of its inhabitants, and goes with them, a travelling + home, as the spirit moves them to explore the wilderness. At their + pleasure, new beds of wild flowers surround it, new plantations of trees + overshadow it, and new avenues of shining water lead to its ever-open + door. What the tent lacks in luxury it makes up in liberty: or rather let + us say that liberty itself is the greatest luxury. + </p> + <p> + Another thing is worth remembering—a family which lives in a tent + never can have a skeleton in the closet. + </p> + <p> + But it must not be supposed that every spot in the woods is suitable for a + camp, or that a good tenting-ground can be chosen without knowledge and + forethought. One of the requisites, indeed, is to be found everywhere in + the St. John region; for all the lakes and rivers are full of clear, cool + water, and the traveller does not need to search for a spring. But it is + always necessary to look carefully for a bit of smooth ground on the + shore, far enough above the water to be dry, and slightly sloping, so that + the head of the bed may be higher than the foot. Above all, it must be + free from big stones and serpentine roots of trees. A root that looks no + bigger that an inch-worm in the daytime assumes the proportions of a + boa-constrictor at midnight—when you find it under your hip-bone. + There should also be plenty of evergreens near at hand for the beds. + Spruce will answer at a pinch; it has an aromatic smell; but it is too + stiff and humpy. Hemlock is smoother and more flexible; but the spring + soon wears out of it. The balsam-fir, with its elastic branches and thick + flat needles, is the best of all. A bed of these boughs a foot deep is + softer than a mattress and as fragrant as a thousand Christmas-trees. Two + things more are needed for the ideal camp-ground—an open situation, + where the breeze will drive away the flies and mosquitoes, and an + abundance of dry firewood within easy reach. Yes, and a third thing must + not be forgotten; for, says my lady Greygown: + </p> + <p> + "I shouldn't feel at home in camp unless I could sit in the door of the + tent and look out across flowing water." + </p> + <p> + All these conditions are met in our favourite camping place below the + first fall in the Grande Decharge. A rocky point juts out into the rivet + and makes a fine landing for the canoes. There is a dismantled + fishing-cabin a few rods back in the woods, from which we can borrow + boards for a table and chairs. A group of cedars on the lower edge of the + point opens just wide enough to receive and shelter our tent. At a good + distance beyond ours, the guides' tent is pitched; and the big camp-fire + burns between the two dwellings. A pair of white-birches lift their leafy + crowns far above us, and after them we name the place Le Camp aux + Bouleaux. + </p> + <p> + "Why not call trees people?—since, if you come to live among them + year after year, you will learn to know many of them personally, and an + attachment will grow up between you and them individually." So writes that + Doctor Amabilis of woodcraft, W. C. Prime, in his book, Among the Northern + Hills, and straightway launches forth into eulogy on the white-birch. And + truly it is an admirable, lovable, and comfortable tree, beautiful to look + upon and full of various uses. Its wood is strong to make paddles and axe + handles, and glorious to burn, blazing up at first with a flashing flame, + and then holding the fire in its glowing heart all through the night. Its + bark is the most serviceable of all the products of the wilderness. In + Russia, they say, it is used in tanning, and gives its subtle, sacerdotal + fragrance to Russia leather. But here, in the woods, it serves more + primitive ends. It can be peeled off in a huge roll from some giant tree + and fashioned into a swift canoe to carry man over the waters. It can be + cut into square sheets to roof his shanty in the forest. It is the paper + on which he writes his woodland despatches, and the flexible material + which he bends into drinking-cups of silver lined with gold. A thin strip + of it wrapped around the end of a candle and fastened in a cleft stick + makes a practicable chandelier. A basket for berries, a horn to call the + lovelorn moose through the autumnal woods, a canvas on which to draw the + outline of great and memorable fish—all these and many other + indispensable luxuries are stored up for the skilful woodsman in the birch + bark. + </p> + <p> + Only do not rob or mar the tree, unless you really need what it has to + give you. Let it stand and grow in virgin majesty, ungirdled and + unscarred, while the trunk becomes a firm pillar of the forest temple, and + the branches spread abroad a refuge of bright green leaves for the birds + of the air. Nature never made a more excellent piece of handiwork. "And + if," said my lady Greygown, "I should ever become a dryad, I would choose + to be transformed into a white-birch. And then, when the days of my life + were numbered, and the sap had ceased to flow, and the last leaf had + fallen, and the dry bark hung around me in ragged curls and streamers, + some wandering hunter would come in the wintry night and touch a lighted + coal to my body, and my spirit would flash up in a fiery chariot into the + sky." + </p> + <p> + The chief occupation of our idle days on the Grande Decharge was fishing. + Above the camp spread a noble pool, more than two miles in circumference, + and diversified with smooth bays and whirling eddies, sand beaches and + rocky islands. The river poured into it at the head, foaming and raging + down a long chute, and swept out of it just in front of our camp in a + merry, musical rapid. It was full of fish of various kinds—long-nosed + pickerel, wall-eyed pike, and stupid chub. But the prince of the pool was + the fighting ouananiche, the little salmon of St. John. + </p> + <p> + Here let me chant thy praise, thou noblest and most high-minded fish, the + cleanest feeder, the merriest liver, the loftiest leaper, and the bravest + warrior of all creatures that swim! Thy cousin, the trout, in his purple + and gold with crimson spots, wears a more splendid armour than thy russet + and silver mottled with black, but thine is the kinglier nature. His + courage and skill compared with thine + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine." +</pre> + <p> + The old salmon of the sea who begot thee, long ago, in these inland + waters, became a backslider, descending again to the ocean, and grew gross + and heavy with coarse feeding. But thou, unsalted salmon of the foaming + floods, not landlocked, as men call thee, but choosing of thine own + free-will to dwell on a loftier level, in the pure, swift current of a + living stream, hast grown in grace and risen to a higher life. Thou art + not to be measured by quantity, but by quality, and thy five pounds of + pure vigour will outweigh a score of pounds of flesh less vitalised by + spirit. Thou feedest on the flies of the air, and thy food is transformed + into an aerial passion for flight, as thou springest across the pool, + vaulting toward the sky. Thine eyes have grown large and keen by peering + through the foam, and the feathered hook that can deceive thee must be + deftly tied and delicately cast. Thy tail and fins, by ceaseless conflict + with the rapids, have broadened and strengthened, so that they can flash + thy slender body like a living arrow up the fall. As Lancelot among the + knights, so art thou among the fish, the plain-armoured hero, the sunburnt + champion of all the water-folk. + </p> + <p> + Every morning and evening, Greygown and I would go out for ouananiche, and + sometimes we caught plenty and sometimes few, but we never came back + without a good catch of happiness. There were certain places where the + fish liked to stay. For example, we always looked for one at the lower + corner of a big rock, very close to it, where he could poise himself + easily on the edge of the strong downward stream. Another likely place was + a straight run of water, swift, but not too swift, with a sunken stone in + the middle. The ouananiche does not like crooked, twisting water. An even + current is far more comfortable, for then he discovers just how much + effort is needed to balance against it, and keeps up the movement + mechanically, as if he were half asleep. But his favourite place is under + one of the floating islands of thick foam that gather in the corners below + the falls. The matted flakes give a grateful shelter from the sun, I + fancy, and almost all game-fish love to lie in the shade; but the chief + reason why the onananiche haunt the drifting white mass is because it is + full of flies and gnats, beaten down by the spray of the cataract, and + sprinkled all through the foam like plums in a cake. To this natural + confection the little salmon, lurking in his corner, plays the part of + Jack Horner all day long, and never wearies. + </p> + <p> + "See that belle brou down below there!" said Ferdinand, as we scrambled + over the huge rocks at the foot of the falls; "there ought to be salmon + there en masse." Yes, there were the sharp noses picking out the + unfortunate insects, and the broad tails waving lazily through the foam as + the fish turned in the water. At this season of the year, when summer is + nearly ended, and every ouananiche in the Grande Decharge has tasted + feathers and seen a hook, it is useless to attempt to delude them with the + large gaudy flies which the fishing-tackle-maker recommends. There are + only two successful methods of angling now. The first of these I tried, + and by casting delicately with a tiny brown trout-fly tied on a gossamer + strand of gut, captured a pair of fish weighing about three pounds each. + They fought against the spring of the four-ounce rod for nearly half an + hour before Ferdinand could slip the net around them. But there was + another and a broader tail still waving disdainfully on the outer edge of + the foam. "And now," said the gallant Ferdinand, "the turn is to madame, + that she should prove her fortune—attend but a moment, madame, while + I seek the sauterelle." + </p> + <p> + This was the second method: the grasshopper was attached to the hook, and + casting the line well out across the pool, Ferdinand put the rod into + Greygown's hands. She stood poised upon a pinnacle of rock, like patience + on a monument, waiting for a bite. It came. There was a slow, gentle pull + at the line, answered by a quick jerk of the rod, and a noble fish flashed + into the air. Four pounds and a half at least! He leaped again and again, + shaking the drops from his silvery sides. He rushed up the rapids as if he + had determined to return to the lake, and down again as if he had changed + his plans and determined to go to the Saguenay. He sulked in the deep + water and rubbed his nose against the rocks. He did his best to treat that + treacherous grasshopper as the whale served Jonah. But Greygown, through + all her little screams and shouts of excitement, was steady and sage. She + never gave the fish an inch of slack line; and at last he lay glittering + on the rocks, with the black St. Andrew's crosses clearly marked on his + plump sides, and the iridescent spots gleaming on his small, shapely head. + "Une belle!" cried Ferdinand, as he held up the fish in triumph, "and it + is madame who has the good fortune. She understands well to take the large + fish—is it not?" Greygown stepped demurely down from her pinnacle, + and as we drifted down the pool in the canoe, under the mellow evening + sky, her conversation betrayed not a trace of the pride that a victorious + fisherman would have shown. On the contrary, she insisted that angling was + an affair of chance—which was consoling, though I knew it was not + altogether true—and that the smaller fish were just as pleasant to + catch and better to eat, after all. For a generous rival, commend me to a + woman. And if I must compete, let it be with one who has the grace to + dissolve the bitter of defeat in the honey of a mutual + self-congratulation. + </p> + <p> + We had a garden, and our favourite path through it was the portage leading + around the falls. We travelled it very frequently, making an excuse of + idle errands to the steamboat-landing on the lake, and sauntering along + the trail as if school were out and would never keep again. It was the + season of fruits rather than of flowers. Nature was reducing the + decorations of her table to make room for the banquet. She offered us + berries instead of blossoms. + </p> + <p> + There were the light coral clusters of the dwarf cornel set in whorls of + pointed leaves; and the deep blue bells of the Clintonia borealis (which + the White Mountain people call the bear-berry, and I hope the name will + stick, for it smacks of the woods, and it is a shame to leave so free and + wild a plant under the burden of a Latin name); and the gray, + crimson-veined berries for which the Canada Mayflower had exchanged its + feathery white bloom; and the ruby drops of the twisted stalk hanging like + jewels along its bending stem. On the three-leaved table which once + carried the gay flower of the wake-robin, there was a scarlet lump like a + red pepper escaped to the forest and run wild. The partridge-vine was full + of rosy provision for the birds. The dark tiny leaves of the creeping + snow-berry were all sprinkled over with delicate drops of spicy foam. + There were few belated raspberries, and, if we chose to go out into the + burnt ground, we could find blueberries in plenty. + </p> + <p> + But there was still bloom enough to give that festal air without which the + most abundant feast seems coarse and vulgar. The pale gold of the + loosestrife had faded, but the deeper yellow of the goldenrod had begun to + take its place. The blue banners of the fleur-de-lis had vanished from + beside the springs, but the purple of the asters was appearing. Closed + gentians kept their secret inviolate, and bluebells trembled above the + rocks. The quaint pinkish-white flowers of the turtle-head showed in wet + places, and instead of the lilac racemes of the purple-fringed orchis, + which had disappeared with midsummer, we found now the slender braided + spikes of the lady's-tresses, latest and lowliest of the orchids, pale and + pure as nuns of the forest, and exhaling a celestial fragrance. There is a + secret pleasure in finding these delicate flowers in the rough heart of + the wilderness. It is like discovering the veins of poetry in the + character of a guide or a lumberman. And to be able to call the plants by + name makes them a hundredfold more sweet and intimate. Naming things is + one of the oldest and simplest of human pastimes. Children play at it with + their dolls and toy animals. In fact, it was the first game ever played on + earth, for the Creator who planted the garden eastward in Eden knew well + what would please the childish heart of man, when He brought all the + new-made creatures to Adam, "to see what he would call them." + </p> + <p> + Our rustic bouquet graced the table under the white-birches, while we sat + by the fire and watched our four men at the work of the camp—Joseph + and Raoul chopping wood in the distance; Francois slicing juicy rashers + from the flitch of bacon; and Ferdinand, the chef, heating the frying-pan + in preparation for supper. + </p> + <p> + "Have you ever thought," said Greygown, in a contented tone of voice, + "that this is the only period of our existence when we attain to the + luxury of a French cook?" + </p> + <p> + "And one with the grand manner, too," I replied, "for he never fails to + ask what it is that madame desires to eat to-day, as if the larder of + Lucullus were at his disposal, though he knows well enough that the only + choice lies between broiled fish and fried fish, or bacon with eggs and a + rice omelet. But I like the fiction of a lordly ordering of the repast. + How much better it is than having to eat what is flung before you at a + summer boarding-house by a scornful waitress!" + </p> + <p> + "Another thing that pleases me," continued my lady, "is the + unbreakableness of the dishes. There are no nicks in the edges of the best + plates here; and, oh! it is a happy thing to have a home without + bric-a-brac. There is nothing here that needs to be dusted." + </p> + <p> + "And no engagements for to-morrow," I ejaculated. "Dishes that can't be + broken, and plans that can—that's the ideal of housekeeping." + </p> + <p> + "And then," added my philosopher in skirts, "it is certainly refreshing to + get away from all one's relations for a little while." + </p> + <p> + "But how do you make that out?" I asked, in mild surprise. "What are you + going to do with me?" + </p> + <p> + "Oh," said she, with a fine air of independence, "I don't count you. You + are not a relation, only a connection by marriage." + </p> + <p> + "Well, my dear," I answered, between the meditative puffs of my pipe, "it + is good to consider the advantages of our present situation. We shall soon + come into the frame of mind of the Sultan of Morocco when he camped in the + Vale of Rabat. The place pleased him so well that he staid until the very + pegs of his tent took root and grew up into a grove of trees around his + pavilion." + </p> + <p> + II. KENOGAMI. + </p> + <p> + The guides were a little restless under the idle regime of our lazy camp, + and urged us to set out upon some adventure. Ferdinand was like the + uncouth swain in Lycidas. Sitting upon the bundles of camp equipage on the + shore, and crying,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new," +</pre> + <p> + he led us forth to seek the famous fishing grounds on Lake Kenogami. + </p> + <p> + We skirted the eastern end of Lake St. John in our two canoes, and pushed + up La Belle Riviere to Hebertville, where all the children turned out to + follow our procession through the village. It was like the train that + tagged after the Pied Piper of Hamelin. We embarked again, surrounded by + an admiring throng, at the bridge where the main street crossed a little + stream, and paddled up it, through a score of back yards and a stretch of + reedy meadows, where the wild and tame ducks fed together, tempting the + sportsman to sins of ignorance. We crossed the placid Lac Vert, and after + a carry of a mile along the high-road toward Chicoutimi, turned down a + steep hill and pitched our tents on a crescent of silver sand, with the + long, fair water of Kenogami before us. + </p> + <p> + It is amazing to see how quickly these woodsmen can make a camp. Each one + knew precisely his share of the enterprise. One sprang to chop a dry + spruce log into fuel for a quick fire, and fell a harder tree to keep us + warm through the night. Another stripped a pile of boughs from a balsam + for the beds. Another cut the tent-poles from a neighbouring thicket. + Another unrolled the bundles and made ready the cooking utensils. As if by + magic, the miracle of the camp was accomplished.— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The bed was made, the room was fit, + By punctual eve the stars were lit"— +</pre> + <p> + but Greygown always insists upon completing that quotation from Stevenson + in her own voice; for this is the way it ends,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "When we put up, my ass and I, + At God's green caravanserai." +</pre> + <p> + Our permanent camp was another day's voyage down the lake, on a beach + opposite the Point Ausable. There the water was contracted to a narrow + strait, and in the swift current, close to the point, the great trout had + fixed their spawning-bed from time immemorial. It was the first week in + September, and the magnates of the lake were already assembling—the + Common Councilmen and the Mayor and the whole Committee of Seventy. There + were giants in that place, rolling lazily about, and chasing each other on + the surface of the water. "Look, M'sieu'!" cried Francois, in excitement, + as we lay at anchor in the gray morning twilight; "one like a horse has + just leaped behind us; I assure you, big like a horse!" + </p> + <p> + But the fish were shy and dour. Old Castonnier, the guardian of the lake, + lived in his hut on the shore, and flogged the water, early and late, + every day with his home-made flies. He was anchored in his dugout close + beside us, and grinned with delight as he saw his over-educated trout + refuse my best casts. "They are here, M'sieu', for you can see them," he + said, by way of discouragement, "but it is difficult to take them. Do you + not find it so?" + </p> + <p> + In the back of my fly-book I discovered a tiny phantom minnow—a + dainty affair of varnished silk, as light as a feather—and quietly + attached it to the leader in place of the tail-fly. Then the fun began. + </p> + <p> + One after another the big fish dashed at that deception, and we played and + netted them, until our score was thirteen, weighing altogether thirty-five + pounds, and the largest five pounds and a half. The guardian was mystified + and disgusted. He looked on for a while in silence, and then pulled up + anchor and clattered ashore. He must have made some inquiries and + reflections during the day, for that night he paid a visit to our camp. + After telling bear stories and fish stories for an hour or two by the + fire, he rose to depart, and tapping his forefinger solemnly upon my + shoulder, delivered himself as follows:— + </p> + <p> + "You can say a proud thing when you go home, M'sieu'—that you have + beaten the old Castonnier. There are not many fishermen who can say that. + But," he added, with confidential emphasis, "c'etait votre sacre p'tit + poisson qui a fait cela." + </p> + <p> + That was a touch of human nature, my rusty old guardian, more welcome to + me than all the morning's catch. Is there not always a "confounded little + minnow" responsible for our failures? Did you ever see a school-boy tumble + on the ice without stooping immediately to re-buckle the strap of his + skates? And would not Ignotus have painted a masterpiece if he could have + found good brushes and a proper canvas? Life's shortcomings would be + bitter indeed if we could not find excuses for them outside of ourselves. + And as for life's successes—well, it is certainly wholesome to + remember how many of them are due to a fortunate position and the proper + tools. + </p> + <p> + Our tent was on the border of a coppice of young trees. It was pleasant to + be awakened by a convocation of birds at sunrise, and to watch the shadows + of the leaves dance out upon our translucent roof of canvas. + </p> + <p> + All the birds in the bush are early, but there are so many of them that it + is difficult to believe that every one can be rewarded with a worm. Here + in Canada those little people of the air who appear as transient guests of + spring and autumn in the Middle States, are in their summer home and + breeding-place. Warblers, named for the magnolia and the myrtle, + chestnut-sided, bay-breasted, blue-backed, and black-throated, flutter and + creep along the branches with simple lisping music. Kinglets, ruby-crowned + and golden-crowned, tiny, brilliant sparks of life, twitter among the + trees, breaking occasionally into clearer, sweeter songs. Companies of + redpolls and crossbills pass chirping through the thickets, busily seeking + their food. The fearless, familiar chickadee repeats his name merrily, + while he leads his family to explore every nook and cranny of the wood. + Cedar wax-wings, sociable wanderers, arrive in numerous flocks. The + Canadians call them "recollets," because they wear a brown crest of the + same colour as the hoods of the monks who came with the first settlers to + New France. They are a songless tribe, although their quick, reiterated + call as they take to flight has given them the name of chatterers. The + beautiful tree-sparrows and the pine-siskins are more melodious, and the + slate-coloured juncos, flitting about the camp, are as garrulous as + chippy-birds. All these varied notes come and go through the tangle of + morning dreams. And now the noisy blue-jay is calling "Thief—thief—thief!" + in the distance, and a pair of great pileated woodpeckers with crimson + crests are laughing loudly in the swamp over some family joke. But listen! + what is that harsh creaking note? It is the cry of the Northern shrike, of + whom tradition says that he catches little birds and impales them on sharp + thorns. At the sound of his voice the concert closes suddenly and the + singers vanish into thin air. The hour of music is over; the commonplace + of day has begun. And there is my lady Greygown, already up and dressed, + standing by the breakfast-table and laughing at my belated appearance. + </p> + <p> + But the birds were not our only musicians at Kenogami. French Canada is + one of the ancestral homes of song. Here you can still listen to those + quaint ballads which were sung centuries ago in Normandie and Provence. "A + la Claire Fontaine," "Dans Paris y a-t-une Brune plus Belle que le Jour," + "Sur le Pont d'Avignon," "En Roulant ma Boule," "La Poulette Grise," and a + hundred other folk-songs linger among the peasants and voyageurs of these + northern woods. You may hear + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre— + Mironton, mironton, mirontaine," +</pre> + <p> + and + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Isabeau s'y promene + Le long de son jardin," +</pre> + <p> + chanted in the farmhouse or the lumber shanty, to the tunes which have + come down from an unknown source, and never lost their echo in the hearts + of the people. + </p> + <p> + Our Ferdinand was a perfect fountain of music. He had a clear tenor voice, + and solaced every task and shortened every voyage with melody. "A song, + Ferdinand, a jolly song," the other men would say, as the canoes went + sweeping down the quiet lake. And then the leader would strike up a + well-known air, and his companions would come in on the refrain, keeping + time with the stroke of their paddles. Sometimes it would be a merry + ditty: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "My father had no girl but me, + And yet he sent me off to sea; + Leap, my little Cecilia." +</pre> + <p> + Or perhaps it was: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "I've danced so much the livelong day,— + Dance, my sweetheart, let's be gay,— + I've fairly danced my shoes away,— + Till evening. + Dance, my pretty, dance once more; + Dance, until we break the floor." +</pre> + <p> + But more frequently the song was touched with a plaintive pleasant + melancholy. The minstrel told how he had gone into the woods and heard the + nightingale, and she had confided to him that lovers are often unhappy. + The story of La Belle Francoise was repeated in minor cadences—how + her sweetheart sailed away to the wars, and when he came back the village + church bells were ringing, and he said to himself that Francoise had been + faithless, and the chimes were for her marriage; but when he entered the + church it was her funeral that he saw, for she had died of love. It is + strange how sorrow charms us when it is distant and visionary. Even when + we are happiest we enjoy making music + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Of old, unhappy, far-off things." +</pre> + <p> + "What is that song which you are singing, Ferdinand?" asks the lady, as + she hears him humming behind her in the canoe. + </p> + <p> + "Ah, madame, it is the chanson of a young man who demands of his blonde + why she will not marry him. He says that he has waited long time, and the + flowers are falling from the rose-tree, and he is very sad." + </p> + <p> + "And does she give a reason?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes, madame—that is to say, a reason of a certain sort; she + declares that she is not quite ready; he must wait until the rose-tree + adorns itself again." + </p> + <p> + "And what is the end—do they get married at last?" + </p> + <p> + "But I do not know, madame. The chanson does not go so far. It ceases with + the complaint of the young man. And it is a very uncertain affair—this + affair of the heart—is it not?" + </p> + <p> + Then, as if he turned from such perplexing mysteries to something plain + and sure and easy to understand, he breaks out into the jolliest of all + Canadian songs: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "My bark canoe that flies, that flies, + Hola! my bark canoe!" +</pre> + <p> + III. THE ISLAND POOL. + </p> + <p> + Among the mountains there is a gorge. And in the gorge there is a river. + And in the river there is a pool. And in the pool there is an island. And + on the island, for four happy days, there was a camp. + </p> + <p> + It was by no means an easy matter to establish ourselves in that lonely + place. The river, though not remote from civilisation, is practically + inaccessible for nine miles of its course by reason of the steepness of + its banks, which are long, shaggy precipices, and the fury of its current, + in which no boat can live. We heard its voice as we approached through the + forest, and could hardly tell whether it was far away or near. + </p> + <p> + There is a perspective of sound as well as of sight, and one must have + some idea of the size of a noise before one can judge of its distance. A + mosquito's horn in a dark room may seem like a trumpet on the battlements; + and the tumult of a mighty stream heard through an unknown stretch of + woods may appear like the babble of a mountain brook close at hand. + </p> + <p> + But when we came out upon the bald forehead of a burnt cliff and looked + down, we realised the grandeur and beauty of the unseen voice that we had + been following. A river of splendid strength went leaping through the + chasm five hundred feet below us, and at the foot of two snow-white falls, + in an oval of dark topaz water, traced with curves of floating foam, lay + the solitary island. + </p> + <p> + The broken path was like a ladder. "How shall we ever get down?" sighed + Greygown, as we dropped from rock to rock; and at the bottom she looked up + sighing, "I know we never can get back again." There was not a foot of + ground on the shores level enough for a tent. Our canoe ferried us over, + two at a time, to the island. It was about a hundred paces long, composed + of round, coggly stones, with just one patch of smooth sand at the lower + end. There was not a tree left upon it larger than an alder-bush. The + tent-poles must be cut far up on the mountain-sides, and every bough for + our beds must be carried down the ladder of rocks. But the men were gay at + their work, singing like mocking-birds. After all, the glow of life comes + from friction with its difficulties. If we cannot find them at home, we + sally abroad and create them, just to warm up our mettle. + </p> + <p> + The ouananiche in the island pool were superb, astonishing, incredible. We + stood on the cobble-stones at the upper end, and cast our little flies + across the sweeping stream, and for three days the fish came crowding in + to fill the barrel of pickled salmon for our guides' winter use; and the + score rose,—twelve, twenty-one, thirty-two; and the size of the + "biggest fish" steadily mounted—four pounds, four and a half, five, + five and three-quarters. "Precisely almost six pounds," said Ferdinand, + holding the scales; "but we may call him six, M'sieu', for if it had been + to-morrow that we had caught him, he would certainly have gained the other + ounce." And yet, why should I repeat the fisherman's folly of writing down + the record of that marvellous catch? We always do it, but we know that it + is a vain thing. Few listen to the tale, and none accept it. Does not + Christopher North, reviewing the Salmonia of Sir Humphry Davy, mock and + jeer unfeignedly at the fish stories of that most reputable writer? But, + on the very next page, old Christopher himself meanders on into a perilous + narrative of the day when he caught a whole cart-load of trout in a + Highland loch. Incorrigible, happy inconsistency! Slow to believe others, + and full of sceptical inquiry, fond man never doubts one thing—that + somewhere in the world a tribe of gentle readers will be discovered to + whom his fish stories will appear credible. + </p> + <p> + One of our days on the island was Sunday—a day of rest in a week of + idleness. We had a few books; for there are some in existence which will + stand the test of being brought into close contact with nature. Are not + John Burroughs' cheerful, kindly essays full of woodland truth and + companionship? Can you not carry a whole library of musical philosophy in + your pocket in Matthew Arnold's volume of selections from Wordsworth? And + could there be a better sermon for a Sabbath in the wilderness than Mrs. + Slosson's immortal story of Fishin' Jimmy? + </p> + <p> + But to be very frank about the matter, the camp is not stimulating to the + studious side of my mind. Charles Lamb, as usual, has said what I feel: "I + am not much a friend to out-of-doors reading. I cannot settle my spirits + to it." + </p> + <p> + There are blueberries growing abundantly among the rocks—huge + clusters of them, bloomy and luscious as the grapes of Eshcol. The + blueberry is nature's compensation for the ruin of forest fires. It grows + best where the woods have been burned away and the soil is too poor to + raise another crop of trees. Surely it is an innocent and harmless + pleasure to wander along the hillsides gathering these wild fruits, as the + Master and His disciples once walked through the fields and plucked the + ears of corn, never caring what the Pharisees thought of that new way of + keeping the Sabbath. + </p> + <p> + And here is a bed of moss beside a dashing rivulet, inviting us to rest + and be thankful. Hark! There is a white-throated sparrow, on a little tree + across the river, whistling his afternoon song + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "In linked sweetness long drawn out." +</pre> + <p> + Down in Maine they call him the Peabody-bird, because his notes sound to + them like Old man—Peabody, peabody, peabody. In New Brunswick the + Scotch settlers say that he sings Lost—lost—Kennedy, kennedy, + kennedy. But here in his northern home I think we can understand him + better. He is singing again and again, with a cadence that never wearies, + "Sweet—sweet—Canada, canada, canada!" The Canadians, when they + came across the sea, remembering the nightingale of southern France, + baptised this little gray minstrel their rossignol, and the country + ballads are full of his praise. Every land has its nightingale, if we only + have the heart to hear him. How distinct his voice is—how personal, + how confidential, as if he had a message for us! + </p> + <p> + There is a breath of fragrance on the cool shady air beside our little + stream, that seems familiar. It is the first week of September. Can it be + that the twin-flower of June, the delicate Linnaea borealis, is blooming + again? Yes, here is the threadlike stem lifting its two frail pink bells + above the bed of shining leaves. How dear an early flower seems when it + comes back again and unfolds its beauty in a St. Martin's summer! How + delicate and suggestive is the faint, magical odour! It is like a renewal + of the dreams of youth. + </p> + <p> + "And need we ever grow old?" asked my lady Greygown, as she sat that + evening with the twin-flower on her breast, watching the stars come out + along the edge of the cliffs, and tremble on the hurrying tide of the + river. "Must we grow old as well as gray? Is the time coming when all life + will be commonplace and practical, and governed by a dull 'of course'? + Shall we not always find adventures and romances, and a few blossoms + returning, even when the season grows late?" + </p> + <p> + "At least," I answered, "let us believe in the possibility, for to doubt + it is to destroy it. If we can only come back to nature together every + year, and consider the flowers and the birds, and confess our faults and + mistakes and our unbelief under these silent stars, and hear the river + murmuring our absolution, we shall die young, even though we live long: we + shall have a treasure of memories which will be like the twin-flower, + always a double blossom on a single stem, and carry with us into the + unseen world something which will make it worth while to be immortal." + </p> + <p> + 1894. <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A SONG AFTER SUNDOWN + </h2> + <p> + "There's no music like a little river's. It plays the same tune (and + that's the favourite) over and over again, and yet does not weary of it + like men fiddlers. It takes the mind out of doors; and though we should be + grateful for good houses, there is, after all, no house like god's + out-of-doors. And lastly, sir, it quiets a man down like saying his + prayers."—ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: Prince Otto. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE WOOD-NOTES OF THE VEERY + </h2> + <p> + The moonbeams over Arno's vale in silver flood were pouring, When first I + heard the nightingale a long-lost love deploring: So passionate, so full + of pain, it sounded strange and eerie, I longed to hear a simpler strain, + the wood-notes of the veery. + </p> + <p> + The laverock sings a bonny lay, above the Scottish heather, It sprinkles + from the dome of day like light and love together; He drops the golden + notes to greet his brooding mate, his dearie; I only know one song more + sweet, the vespers of the veery. + </p> + <p> + In English gardens green and bright, and rich in fruity treasure, I've + heard the blackbird with delight repeat his merry measure; The ballad was + a lively one, the tune was loud and cheery, And yet with every setting sun + I listened for the veery. + </p> + <p> + O far away, and far away, the tawny thrush is singing, New England woods + at close of day with that clear chant are ringing; And when my light of + life is low, and heart and flesh are weary, I fain would hear, before I + go, the wood-notes of the veery. + </p> + <p> + 1895. <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Rivers, by Henry van Dyke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE RIVERS *** + +***** This file should be named 1562-h.htm or 1562-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/1562/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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