Song Birds and Water Fowl 
farther shore, and not having posted himself 
for that year as to the arrangement of the ever- 
shifting sandbars, made us reach ground be- 
fore we got to land, so that we came to a dead 
standstill, ‘‘ docked in sand.’’ We stuck fast 
until the brilliant thought struck the two boys 
to lighten the boat by jumping overboard ; but 
they were too young to weigh much, and the 
boat didn’t budge an inch. Then they pushed 
and pried, and threw the ballast into the bow, 
and sent me after it, so that finally we slid off, 
and intwo minutes were gently perching on 
another bar, whereupon all hands except my- 
self went overboard again. My hesitation to 
do the same was not because I was afraid of 
water, but I had already paid my passage, and 
proposed to go over dry-shod, if it took all 
night. I learned a good lesson, however, in 
submarine topography, bumping around on the 
various sand-bars for an hour or two; but at 
last by some accident we drifted into the chan- 
nel, and came to shore. 
The first impression on reaching land was 
ominous and disheartening. The mere absence 
of civilization makes no solitude for me; _ but 
here everything was helter-skelter, half savage 
and half civilized, neither nature nor art. A 
184 
