330 The Unknown River. 



way embankment, and when the water flows over it in 

 one smooth sheet, it would be delightful to glide down 

 it in a canoe. Unfortunately, however, there are rude 

 stones at the bottom, which would give the adventurer a 

 most unpleasant reception. I got amongst these stones 

 in the dark, and had plenty of trouble with them, — the 

 last inconvenience of that kind in the course of the 

 voyage. 



There was a comfortable inn at Gueugnon — well, 

 comfortable is perhaps hardly the word for any French 

 inn of that class ; but these things go by comparison, and, 

 after lodging in peasants' cottages amongst the hills, it 

 seemed quite stately and luxurious to sit at dinner in 

 the evening with two candles in tall candlesticks on the 

 table, and an attentive waiter at one's elbow. 



The etching opposite shows the way in which I used 

 to have to seek for a lodging when belated ; and it was 

 always disagreeable to me, mainly on account of the 

 necessary yet almost impossible explanations. How 

 can you make a peasant understand your purposes in 

 an artistic excursion of any kind ? How, especially, 

 can you make him understand such purposes when 

 complicated with the amusement of canoing ? 



On a fine night it was positively more agreeable to 

 sleep in the canoe, in the manner represented at the 

 close of the chapter. Since then the author has invent- 

 ed much more luxurious arrangements ; * but it was not 



* This alludes to a contrivance by which a hut and a punt are united 

 in one construction. During the day, the punt, which is of wood, 

 contains a second punt of tinned iron. The iron punt is divided into 



