An Etcher's Voyage of Discovery. 261 



to reserve some considerable part of the afternoon as 

 sacred to utter idleness, and, if a quiet stream is within 

 an easy distance, there you will go and rest. Most men 

 under such circumstances take a rod and fish, but it does 

 not always happen that there is any thing which the dig- 

 nity of manhood may avow an interest in catching. The 

 man who rents a salmon river in Scotland, or even the 

 Englishman whose trout stream is well preserved, may 

 go» forth with the implements of the angler and a con- 

 sciousness of noble aims. But can anybody past boy- 

 hood pretend to take an interest in catching minnows, 

 unless, indeed, he be a Frenchman who has just landed a 

 gouj'011, and is vain of the exploit ? 



It is curious how capable we all are of seeing people 

 and things every day of our lives without being once 

 prompted to ascertain any thing further about them, — 

 whence they come, whither they go, what their past has 

 been, or what may be reserved for them in the future. 

 The inhabitants of great cities, being satiated by the con- 

 tinual sight of innumerable persons and things, have this 

 indifference in the most strongly developed form, but it 

 may be observed in the country with regard to what is 

 most commonly seen there. For instance, brooks and 

 streams are very commonly met with in all northern 

 countries, and therefore very few people ever give a 

 thought to the geography of them, or have any thing 

 beyond a very vague and general notion of their course. 

 The inhabitants of the region through which the stream 

 passes usually know it at bridges and fords, and farmers 

 know it where it eats away the land, and where, in times 



