XXXIII. 



A NEW START FOR THE WOODS — WESTPORT — A NEW 

 ROUTE — A RIDE ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS — A ROUGH 

 ROAD — NIGHT IN A CLEARING — A BREAKFAST OF 

 TROUT THAT ARE FRESH — A NEW STATE OF THINGS 

 — THE WILDERNESS NOTHING WITHOUT SOLITUDE. 



The Woods, July 9th. 

 Dear H -: 



The savage is man's normal state, at least physically, 

 and he is compelled every now and then to go back 

 towards it, if not to it, to recover the lost tone of both 

 mind and body. 



The same cause that sent me the last time to the 

 woods, viz. a shattered nervous system and a disturbed 

 brain, has driven me there again, to find in the untrod- 

 den wilderness that health which all the " poppies and 

 mandragoras of the world " cannot give. The very air 

 of the woods is composed of different ingredients than 



that of the outer world, filling the cells of the lungs with 



13 



