, 



golden fleece of commerce at every point 

 along its shores ; and of the countless Jasons 

 who make the voyage few return empty- 

 handed. Hour after hour the white sails 

 fly in mysterious and changing lines, mes- 

 sengers of wealth and trade and pleasure, 

 whose voyages are no sooner ended than 

 they begin again. It is this wealth of 

 action and achievement which makes the 

 names of great rivers sonorous as the 

 voices of the centuries; the Nile, the 

 Danube, the Rhine, the Hudson how 

 weighty are these words with associations 

 old as history and deep as the human 

 heart. 



The rivers are the great channels through 

 which the ceaseless interchange of the 

 elements goes on ; they unite the heart of 

 the continents and the solitary places of the 

 mountains with the universal sea which 

 washes all shores and beats its melancholy 

 refrain at either pole. Into their currents 

 the hills and uplands pour their streams ; 

 to them the little rivulets come laughing 

 and singing down from their sources in the 

 105 







