THE TEOUT-STKEAM. 333 



that mark its devious course by their greater profusion, 

 ( and the birds of various plume that come to dabble in 

 its waters. All the minor beauties of nature attend its 

 course, and seem like an enchanted procession following 

 its sparkling light. Hope awakens with every new ac- 

 cession of beauty, and as the stream ripples over the un- 

 even surface, we are led on by its delusive melody to 

 more earnest pursuit. The waters soon divide, and, while 

 we are lured by the most apparent flow, they divide again, 

 and reveal their course only by an occasional glimmer. 

 Our feet soon become embedded in mosses and aquatic 

 plants, and we see before us steep declivities covered with 

 spleen worts and enamelled with flowers. The verdure and 

 the glow, the beauty and the magnificence of foliage and 

 vinery and flowers and evergreens clustering at our feet 

 and depending from the trees and cliffs, seem to assure us 

 that we are near the birthplace of the stream. But it is 

 not there ; the urn of the Naiad is still no nearer than 

 ever, and the pleasant gurgling of waters higher up the 

 declivity is but the song of creation, which has had no 

 beginning and will never cease. 



But when we renew our trolling down the stream, 

 in this direction there is sufficient intricacy to excite 

 even the dullest imagination. The stream always seems 

 to take that course which is most difficult to follow, over 

 bogs and through narrow ravines, along under steep rocks 

 embroidered with ferns on the one side, and boulders and 

 gravel heaps on the other. Then it suddenly widens into 

 a broad sheet of water, so shallow that we can only see 

 its sparkle under the tall grass and rushes, variegated with 

 frequent groups of blue iris and clumps of nodding 

 sarracenia. Some plats of tall rushes show by a narrow 

 and irregular parting where the channel of the stream 

 may be traced ; and in order to reach the point where it 

 once more flows over dry land, we remit our task of 



