io6 "Mature Stuoies in Berkshire. 



Winchell's Pond, and the Twin Lakes. But most of 

 all do they neglect — and the oversight is unpardon- 

 able in a nature-lover — the stream which like a silver 

 cord binds the scenes of Berkshire into one volume, 

 the winding Housatonic. As long as this Berkshire 

 river creeps through the meadows, and frets over the 

 rocky shallows, and takes the shadows of overhang- 

 ing cliffs, and plunges through mimic gorges and 

 ravines, it will save the region it adorns from the 

 charge of dulness and endear it to every open eye 

 and ear. He who knows his Berkshire will never 

 omit the praise of the Housatonic. 



Great rivers do not lend themselves to personal 

 affection ; and they are too distributive in their effect 

 to create much of any impression. One could hardly 

 give a comprehensible answer if asked to describe the 

 effect upon his imagination of the Mississippi, or the 

 Amazon, or the Ganges, or the "Nile. And as for loving 

 any of these mighty streams, as one loves the Con- 

 necticut or the Charles, as Englishmen love the 

 Thames or the Dee, the thing is absurd. One 

 might as well try to be fond of the Rocky-Andes 

 system, or to claim the great wheat-plains of the 

 West as his favourite corner for a summer-resort. Lit- 

 tle rivers are the only ones with which one can be 

 on intimate terms, toward which one can be fond 

 and friendly. They admit of comprehensive views. 

 They can be grasped, in a certain unity of impression. 

 A river like the Housatonic is just large enough to be 

 significant, just small enough to challenge friendship. 



