266 The Unknown River. 



CHAPTER II. 



DURING the last few years the noble old art of etch- 

 ing has been revived by many painters. Some 

 of my friends have practised it with distinguished suc- 

 cess, and their example led me to recur to an art which I 

 had first attempted in boyhood, and then neglected for 

 many years. Of the means at my disposal for the illus- 

 tration of the projected voyage none seemed better than 

 etching, as it is the only kind of engraving which can be 

 done directly from Nature, and the only engraving, too, 

 which has enough of the spirit of liberty to harmonize 

 with such a state of mind as that of a wandering canoist. 

 It accepts laborious finish when the artist has time for 

 it, but it also allows of rapid sketching when he is in a 

 hurry. So it was decided that the voyage should be 

 written, and that the illustrations should be etched from 

 Nature on the way. 



All the plates being prepared at home in my own 

 etching-room (nearly sixty of them), I laid them on 

 small drawing-boards, four to each board, and, by means 

 of two very small screws to each plate, fixed them to the 

 board so as to resist any jolting that they might be ex- 

 posed to. There was no necessity to pierce the plates 

 with holes to receive the screws, since, by placing the 

 screws near the edge of the copper, the screw-heads 

 held the plates firmly enough. I had previously tried 



