SAD THOUGHTS. 277 



the Amazons. Strange were our feelings as we stood 

 upon the banks of that lonely river. We realized then a 

 full sense of our isolation, and felt, as we never had be- 

 fore, the loneliness of the great wilderness. We scarcely 

 know why, but we always felt more lonely when upon the 

 rivers than when far removed from them in the forest ; 

 perhaps, because we had learned, in our northern land, to 

 associate with rivers the picture of cities and the life of 

 commerce ; and then, when Ave saw the desolateness of 

 these forest-walled rivers, we felt the strangeness of the 

 contrast. 



