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diff --git a/1562.txt b/1562.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..051e314 --- /dev/null +++ b/1562.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6030 @@ +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] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE RIVERS *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +LITTLE RIVERS + +A BOOK OF ESSAYS IN PROFITABLE IDLENESS + + +by Henry Van Dyke + + +"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." + +COL. ROBERT VENABLES, The Experienc'd Angler, 1662. + + + + +DEDICATION + + 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. + + + +CONTENTS + + I. Prelude + + II. Little Rivers + + III. A Leaf of Spearmint + + IV. Ampersand + + V. A Handful of Heather + + VI. The Ristigouche from a Horse-Yacht + + VII. Alpenrosen and Goat's-Milk + + VIII. Au Large + + IX. Trout-Fishing in the Traun + + X. At the sign of the Balsam Bough + + XI. A Song after Sundown + + + + +PRELUDE + + +AN ANGLER'S WISH IN TOWN + + 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. + + + 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? + + + 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! + + + '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. + + + + +LITTLE RIVERS + + +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 + + "Over the hills and far away." + +For real company and friendship, there is nothing outside of the animal +kingdom that is comparable to a river. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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 + + "most silver flow + Of subtle-paced counsel in distress." + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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: + + 'Parvula, pumilio, [Greek text omitted], tota merum sal.'" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Go out to the Beaver-kill + + "In the tassel-time of spring," + +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. + +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!" + +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!" + +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!" + +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: + + "A soft and lulling sound is heard + Of streams inaudible by day." + +And Tennyson, in the valley of Cauteretz, tells of the river + + "Deepening his voice with deepening of the night." + +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, + + "Orb within orb, intricate, wonderful." + +Other bird-songs can be translated into words, but not this. There is no +interpretation. It is music,--as Sidney Lanier defines it,-- + + "Love in search of a word." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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, + + "With here and there a lusty trout, + And here and there a grayling." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +1895. + + + + +A LEAF OF SPEARMINT + +RECOLLECTIONS OF A BOY AND A ROD. + + +"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. + + +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. + +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! + +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. + + +I. + + +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. + +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. + +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, + + "Photographically lined + On the tablets of your mind." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +"For pity's sake, don't lose him! There he is among the roots of the +blue flag." + +"I've got him! How cold he is--how slippery--how pretty! Just like a +piece of rainbow!" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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). + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +II. + + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +III. + + +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. + +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. + +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? + +"Waugh-ho! Waugh-ho-o-o-o!" + +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: + +"Whoo! whoo! whoo cooks for you all?" + +Enos puts the bottle down, with a grunt, and creeps off to his tent. + +"De debbil in dat owl," he mutters. "How he know I cook for dis camp? +How he know 'bout dat bottle? Ugh!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +1895. + + + + +AMPERSAND + + +"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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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 + + "Flowing with a smooth brown current." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +Thus it is with mountains, as perhaps with men, a mark of superior +dignity to be naturally bald. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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! + +1895. + + + + +A HANDFUL OF HEATHER + + +"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. + + +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. + +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. + + +I. + +BELL-HEATHER. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +II. + +COMMON HEATHER. + + +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. + +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: + +"Young man, do ye no ken it's the Sawbath Day?" + +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? + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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." + +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. + +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'." + +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." + +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. + +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." + + +III. + +WHITE HEATHER. + + +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 + + "Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, + + "An ancient home of peace." + +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. + +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, + + "Doth work like madness in the brain;" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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:-- + + +"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." + + +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." + +1893. + + + + +THE RISTIGOUCHE FROM A HORSE-YACHT + + +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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 + + "Too great for haste, too high for rivalry." + +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 + + "The filtered tribute of the rough woodland," + +delivers its generous offering to the main current. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +I could not stop it. That salmon was determined to jig. He knew more +than I did. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +At last the days of idleness were ended. We could not + + "Fold our tents like the Arabs, + and as silently steal away;" + +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. + +1888. + + + + +ALPENROSEN AND GOAT'S MILK + + +"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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +I. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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." + +I inquired whether there were many Bishops in the house at that moment. + +"No, just at present--she was very sorry--none." + +"Well, then," I said, "it is all right. We will take the rooms." + +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. + + +II. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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-- + + "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." + +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. + +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. + +Such is success in this unequal world; the man who wipes off the grease +seldom gets the prize. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +III. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Through the wood the cuckoo was calling--the bird which reverses the law +of good children, and insists on being heard, but not seen. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +It is possible, in this world, to climb too high for pleasure. + +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. + +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:-- + + 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. + +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. + + +IV. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +V. + + +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. + +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. + +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 + + "A leaping fish + Sends through the tarn a lonely cheer." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + + 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. + +And there is another famous one which says: + + Here perished the honoured and virtuous maiden, + G.V. + + This tablet was erected by her only son. + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +VI. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +1892. + + + + +AU LARGE + + +"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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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:-- + + "Count that day lost whose low, descending sun + Sees no fall leaped, no foaming rapid run." + +It takes a touch of danger to bring out the joy of life. + +Our guides began to shout, and joke each other, and praise their canoes. + +"You grazed that villain rock at the corner," said Jean; "didn't you +know where it was?" + +"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?" + +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. + +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. + +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:-- + + "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!" + +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. + +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. + +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,-- + + "Im wunderschonen Monat Mai + Als alle Knospen sprangen." + +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 + + "Fairy crowds + Of islands, that together lie, + As quietly as spots of sky + Among the evening clouds." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + + "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." + +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. + +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. + +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 + + "You orange sunset waning slow." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + + 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. + +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." + +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. + +"How far away is the nearest house, Johnny?" + +"I don't know; fifty miles, I suppose." + +"And what would you do if the canoes were burned, or if a tree fell and +smashed them?" + +"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." + +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. + +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, + +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:-- + + +"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!" + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +1894. + + + + +TROUT-FISHING IN THE TRAUN + + +"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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Have you been fishing?" + +"Why do you want to know?" + +"Have you any right to fish?" + +"What right have you to ask?" + +"I am a keeper of the river. Where is your card?" + +"It is in my pocket. But pardon my curiosity, where is YOUR card?" + +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!" + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +AT THE SIGN OF THE BALSAM BOUGH + + +"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. + +"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." + +Old Song with a new Ending. + + +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. + +Every year, when the sun passes the summer solstice, the + + "Two souls with but a single thought," + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +I. + +UNDER THE WHITE BIRCHES. + + +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. + +Another thing is worth remembering--a family which lives in a tent never +can have a skeleton in the closet. + +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: + +"I shouldn't feel at home in camp unless I could sit in the door of the +tent and look out across flowing water." + +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. + +"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. + +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." + +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. + +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 + + "Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"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?" + +"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!" + +"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." + +"And no engagements for to-morrow," I ejaculated. "Dishes that can't be +broken, and plans that can--that's the ideal of housekeeping." + +"And then," added my philosopher in skirts, "it is certainly refreshing +to get away from all one's relations for a little while." + +"But how do you make that out?" I asked, in mild surprise. "What are you +going to do with me?" + +"Oh," said she, with a fine air of independence, "I don't count you. You +are not a relation, only a connection by marriage." + +"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." + + +II. + +KENOGAMI. + + +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,-- + + "To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new," + +he led us forth to seek the famous fishing grounds on Lake Kenogami. + +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. + +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.-- + + "The bed was made, the room was fit, + By punctual eve the stars were lit"-- + +but Greygown always insists upon completing that quotation from +Stevenson in her own voice; for this is the way it ends,-- + + "When we put up, my ass and I, + At God's green caravanserai." + +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!" + +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?" + +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. + +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:-- + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 + + "Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre-- + Mironton, mironton, mirontaine," + +and + + "Isabeau s'y promene + Le long de son jardin," + +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. + +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: + + "My father had no girl but me, + And yet he sent me off to sea; + Leap, my little Cecilia." + +Or perhaps it was: + + "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." + +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 + + "Of old, unhappy, far-off things." + +"What is that song which you are singing, Ferdinand?" asks the lady, as +she hears him humming behind her in the canoe. + +"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." + +"And does she give a reason?" + +"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." + +"And what is the end--do they get married at last?" + +"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?" + +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: + + "My bark canoe that flies, that flies, + Hola! my bark canoe!" + +III. + +THE ISLAND POOL. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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." + +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. + +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 + + "In linked sweetness long drawn out." + +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! + +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. + +"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?" + +"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." + + +1894. + + + + +A SONG AFTER SUNDOWN + + +"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. + + + + +THE WOOD-NOTES OF THE VEERY + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +1895. + + + + + +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.txt or 1562.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 + +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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