An Etcher s Voyage of Discovery, 33*1 



unpleasant to make a bed of rushes, and sleep soundly 

 and softly, covered up to the chin with waterproofs to 

 guard one from the dews of the night. Many a poor 

 soldier in the present war, forced to lie on the bare 

 ground, often stony and muddy, would consider these 

 contrivances a luxury. It was something, too, before 

 going to sleep, to look up at the moonlit clouds and the 

 stars in the depths between them. 



several compartments, in the largest of which sits the canoist. All 

 the other compartments are closed. Two of them are kept accessible 

 by movable lids ; one of these is used for provisions and the other for 

 clothing. That for provisions contains eight boxes fitted to each other 

 carefully, in which may be kept the different requisites for a week's 

 voyage, and a complete cooking apparatus. That for clothing con- 

 tains a change of dry clothes, a hammock, &c, and bedding. When 

 night comes the boat is drawn up on the shore, and the tin punt re- 

 moved from the interior of the wooden one. Two light frames are 

 then fixed upright in the wooden punt, and the tin one is easily lifted 

 upon these frames. A double curtain is then fixed all round, and we 

 have a hut with a wooden floor, a metallic roof, and canvas sides. In 

 this hut the hammock is easily suspended. 



This contrivance has been completely realized in every detail, but I 

 have never had an opportunity of using it, because, during the sum- 

 mer of 1870 there was no water in the rivers, and since the beginning 

 of the Prussian War it would be madness to show one's self in any such 

 mysterious-looking invention, as it would set all the -peasants per- 

 fectly mad. In times of sanity and peace it seems to me that nothing 

 could be better adapted for a tour such as that described in these 

 pages. It is unpleasant to have to leave work undone in order to go 

 five or six miles lower down a river to seek for a lodging. Many etch- 

 ings were left unfinished tor that reason in the excursion here narrated, 

 and have consequently been thrown aside. Many subjects remarkably 

 suited for etching had also to be passed without illustration when the 

 weather was not mild enough for a bivouac 



