A Thousand- Mile Walk 



was enriched with other interweaving species of 

 vines and brightly colored flowers. This is the 

 first truly southern stream I have met. 



At night I reached the home of a young man 

 with whom I had worked in Indiana, Mr. 

 Prater. He was down here on a visit to his 

 father and mother. This was a plain back 

 woods family, living out of sight among knobby 

 timbered hillocks not far from the river. The 

 evening was passed in mixed conversation on 

 southern and northern generalities. 



September 24. Spent this day with Mr. Prater 

 sailing on the Chattahoochee, feasting on 

 grapes that had dropped from the overhanging 

 vines. This remarkable species of wild grape 

 has a stout stem, sometimes five or six inches 

 in diameter, smooth bark and hard wood, quite 

 unlike any other wild or cultivated grapevine 

 that I have seen. The grapes are very large, 

 some of them nearly an inch in diameter, 

 globular and fine flavored. Usually there are 

 but three or four berries in a cluster, and when 

 mature they drop off instead of decaying on 

 [48] 



