298 Union Bay 



for frogs or snakes sunning themselves on the banks. Fog 

 blurred action, limited the workable area, and consequently 

 made less demand on one's attention. Fog reduced necessity 

 for action because it prevented any anticipation of action. 

 There was an impulse just to drift. 



But I did not forget that there was real danger from fog; a 

 real reason why one must always mistrust it. Even in the bay 

 there was the possibility of a careless capsize which would 

 send the boat adrift in the haze and leave me floundering in 

 a sea of muck. I thought of how helplessly I could grope 

 about if there were no sounds to guide me. It made me un- 

 derstand how people who had lost their vision could never 

 have any real feeling of certainty. No good for them to light 

 the single match or to turn on a flash for the one look which 

 would instantly give a bearing. Their darkness never could 

 be resolved— it was a constantly enveloping medium. There 

 must always be a feeling that, regardless of all safeguards, 

 times would come when they would find themselves in a ter- 

 rifying nothingness in which they must helplessly stumble. 

 Whether the space was great or small they would have no 

 way of measuring it, nor of taking action if they measured it. 

 Flat space or edge of chasm, how difficult to know the dif- 

 ference. 



I ate some sandwiches and found that I felt much more 

 comfortable. I decided that fogs were irritating and certainly 

 slowed things up, but they could be managed as long as con- 

 ditions were under control. That appeared to be the impor- 

 tant point in contact with this condition, for its obscurity 

 could be a cruel and relentless factor if circumstances were 

 unfavorable. If, instead of being in the compactness and the 

 security of the marsh, I was far from land on a great lake, or 

 on tidal water where currents ran swiftly and rocks reared 

 their sharp tops, then any lack of visibility might put me in 

 great peril. The difficulties of flying would be more grave 

 than of boating. I thought of the man who flew about in the 



