The Dutch on the Delaware. 



AIGZAG journeys are not to my taste, either as 

 matters of personal experience or as the subject- 

 matter of books ; but I have taken several of late, 

 passing in the most abrupt manner from an island 

 in the river to the college book-stack. 



Buried inches deep in gradually-accumulated 

 soil rest the ruins of an ancient house : buried 

 fathoms deep in the^mouldy pages of forgotten 

 books are the records of stirring times, before 

 Philadelphia was, when there were Dutch on the 

 Delaware. 



Where I have been paddling in my canoe for 

 many months there is a large island. I have been 

 paddling around this, not over it. Like all the 

 others in the river, this little body of fast land is 

 fighting against two great odds, and slowly wast- 

 ing away. An occasional freshet dumps a mass of 

 312 



