A Thousand-Mile Walk 



at once, lumbering along like a loose floating 

 island. But our little schooner, buoyant as a 

 gull, glides up one side and down the other of 

 each wave hill in delightful rhythm. As we 

 advanced the scenery increased in grandeur 

 and beauty. The waves heaved higher and 

 grew wider, with corresponding motion. It 

 was delightful to ride over this unsullied coun- 

 try of ever-changing water, and when looking 

 upward from the shallow vales, or abroad over 

 the round expanse from the tops of the wave 

 hills, I almost forgot at times that the glassy, 

 treeless country was forbidden to walkers. How 

 delightful it would be to ramble over it on foot, 

 enjoying the transparent crystal ground, and 

 the music of its rising and falling hillocks, un- 

 marred by the ropes and spars of a ship; to 

 study the plants of these waving plains and 

 their stream-currents ; to sleep in wild weather 

 in a bed of phosphorescent wave-foam, or briny 

 scented seaweeds ; to see the fishes by night in 

 pathways of phosphorescent light; to walk the 

 glassy plain in calm, with birds and flocks of 

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