66 Frederick Law Olmsted 



sleeping in a boat or on the ground, and one night on a sloop's 

 transom. Sunday night we camped out at Haddam, below. 

 Made a sq. sail of our tent, and turned in on a blanket under 

 it. It was a most beautiful place, a green grassy dell glen 

 sloping gently up, lofty and picturesque trees opening a way 

 for it back to a most lovely vista. A most charming prospect 

 of our Rhine in front and on either side. Lots of wild pigeons, 

 meteors, owls, sturgeons, mosquitoes, wipporwills, method- 

 ists, and hydrophious quadrupeds to lull us to grassy sleep. 

 We struck our tent and broke up camp at an hour or two 

 before day break, and were till noon working up to the land- 

 ing a few miles above. I believe you will think we didn't do 

 much at Mineralogizing. We went with John and- Rev. 

 Mr. Gilbert to the mines — a rocky hillside, and in an hour or 

 two got a pocket full of tourmalines, garnites and something 

 else (?) and appetites and a glass of brandy for my cholic, 

 because we were too lazy to kindle a fire Sunday morning 

 and eat green apples to kill-hunger. . . . 



Both Frederick Olmsted and his brother were fond of 

 boating, and, in their small sail-boat, had many trips on the 

 Connecticut River and in the Sound, especially during the 

 family's summer visits to Sachem's Head. In spite of the 

 harshness of his experiences on the Chinese voyage, Mr. 

 Olmsted retained his fondness for ships and was wont to 

 hold up the clipper ship as the ideal of beauty in perfect 

 organization for use. 



There is also a reminiscence jotted down in Mr. Olmsted's 

 later days of a trip to Canada in 1846. 



Once on a time my father took me with him on a journey 

 which carried us into Canada. While there we had for several 

 days as a traveling companion an Englishman, animated, 

 amiable, frank and engaging. As I think of our intercourse 

 now, I can see plainly that he looked upon me as a new speci- 

 men and was drawing me out and turning me over with the 

 interest of a naturalist. It is clear also that he got some new 

 ideas from me and often when our conversation was inter- 



