AN OCTOBER ABROAD 137 



Sea, the coast of Wales, and her groups of lofty 

 mountains, in full view nearly all day. The moun 

 tains were in profile like the Catskills viewed from 

 the Hudson below, only it was evident there were 

 no trees or shrubbery upon them, and their summits, 

 on this last day of September, were white with the 

 snow. 



ASHORE 



The first day or half day ashore is, of course, the 

 most novel and exciting; but who, as Mr. Higgin- 

 son says, can describe his sensations and emotions 

 this first half day ? It is a page of travel that has 

 not yet been written. Paradoxical as it may seem, 

 one generally comes out of pickle much fresher than 

 he went in. The sea has given him an enormous 

 appetite for the land. Every one of his senses is 

 like a hungry wolf clamorous to be fed. For my 

 part, I had suddenly emerged from a condition bor 

 dering on that of the hibernating animals a con 

 dition in which I had neither eaten, nor slept, nor 

 thought, nor moved, when I could help it into 

 not only a full, but a keen and joyous, possession of 

 my health and faculties. It was almost a metamor 

 phosis. I was no longer the clod I had been, but a 

 bird exulting in the earth and air, and in the liberty 

 of motion. Then to remember it was a new earth 

 and a new sky that I was beholding, that it was 

 England, the old mother at last, no longer a faith 

 or a fable, but an actual fact there before my eyes 

 and under my feet, why should I not exult ? Go 

 to! I will be indulged. These trees, those fields, 



