264 The Unknown River, 



country not yet conquered for geology ; and an artist 

 likes to sketch in secluded valleys where it is not proba- 

 ble that any artist has been before. On the same prin- 

 ciple a traveller who is fond of boating has an especial 

 pleasure in descending some stream of which it may be 

 safely presumed that nobody ever descended it in a boat. 

 In this especial sense there is much yet to be done 

 in the way of exploration, even in the most known 

 countries. 



No sooner had these ideas formed themselves in the 

 writer's mind, than the little stream by which he was 

 lazily reclining acquired a new importance ; and the low 

 music of its shallows, instead of being, as formerly, the 

 lullaby of Mother Nature, became an awakening call 

 to action, and a promise of joyful change. A thousand 

 scenes rose rapidly before his mind, and the pipe which 

 had languidly yielded half an hour before the tiniest 

 puffs of smoke to the fragrant air now gave dense 

 clouds, in which the smoker saw endless visions. He 

 saw the deep, calm pools under the rich, overhanging 

 foliage where the currents fall asleep together, like tired 

 children that have filled the fields with their merry noise, 

 till weariness fell on their swift limbs, and hushed their 

 happy voices, and laid them in silent sleep under the 

 soft green leaves. He saw the rapids dashing into white 

 foam amongst the rocks, and the kingfisher glancing 

 above them like a sapphire-flash in the sun. He saw 

 the picturesque farms and cottages by the unfrequented 

 shore, the gray, deserted castles, the antique cities, — 

 the remains of a thousand years. And then came the 



