CHAPTEE XY. 



IN CAMP THE INDIAN GAFFER THE ADVANTAGES 



OF PRESERVED WATERS. 



Here, or in some such devoted solitude, should dwell the 

 Muse and compose a treatise on the worship of the Dryads. 

 [Thoreau. 



Blessed silent groves! O may you be 

 Forever mirth's best nursery! 



May pure contents 



Forever pitch their tents 



Upon these downs, these meeds, these rocks, these mountains, 

 And peace still slumber by the purling fountains, 



Which we may every year . 



Meet, when we come a-fishing here. 



[Sir Henry Wotton. 



UR first camping ground was twelve 

 miles from the mouth of the river 

 and combined all the elements of 

 picturesqueness and grandeur a 

 verdant plain encircled by lofty 

 mountains, only broken by a cleft 

 of sufficient breadth to give egress 

 to the crystal river, whose leaping 

 waters filled our camp with per- 

 petual melody. We reached it, as 

 last year, by canoes which awaited our coming, 

 and of which we instantly availed ourselves to 

 reach our coveted Mecca. I was greatly pleased 

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