A SUMMER VOYAGE 7 



hint or particle of themselves goes out upon the air. 

 I think there are persons whose spiritual pores are 

 always sealed up, and I presume they have the best 

 time of it. Their hearts never radiate into the 

 void; they do not yearn and sympathize without 

 return; they do not leave themselves by the way- 

 side as the sheep leaves her wool upon the brambles 

 and thorns. 



This branch of the Delaware, so far as I could 

 learn, had never before been descended by a white 

 man in a boat. Rafts of pine and hemlock timber 

 are run down on the spring and fall freshets, but of 

 pleasure-seekers in boats I appeared to be the first. 

 Hence my advent was a surprise to most creatures 

 in the water and out. I surprised the cattle in the 

 field, and those ruminating leg- deep in the water 

 turned their heads at my approach, swallowed their 

 unfinished cuds, and scampered off as if they had 

 seen a spectre. I surprised the fish on their spawn- 

 ing beds and feeding grounds; they scattered, as 

 my shadow glided down upon them, like chickens 

 when a hawk appears. I surprised an ancient fish- 

 erman seated on a spit of gravelly beach, with his 

 back up stream, and leisurely angling in a deep, 

 still eddy, and mumbling to himself. As I slid 

 into the circle of his vision his grip on his pole 

 relaxed, his jaw dropped, and he was too bewil- 

 dered to reply to my salutation for some moments. 

 As I turned a bend in the river I looked back, and 

 saw him hastening away with great precipitation. 

 I presume he had angled there for forty years with- 



