252 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
the unseen — omne ignotum pro mirifico —ap- 
plies only to the person nearest to the wonder, 
and for all others is reversed. The larger your 
estimate of the size of your unlanded trout, the 
more derisively small is the guess of your fel- 
low fishermen. As with unseen trout, so with 
waterfalls unvisited ; and Mr. Scott soon found 
that he must inspect his newly christened cas- 
cades again, and take with him witnesses, I 
went as one of these, we having as our guide 
James Merrill, of the Breezy Point House, who 
had long hunted and trapped through all that 
region, and had, many years ago, passed by 
these falls, though he was now by no means 
sure of their precise position. 
It was the hottest day of the summer; the 
breeziness of the hotel which was our rendez- 
vous lay that day in its name only, and the 
mercury on the piazza stood at 85° Fahrenheit 
in the shade. As we had come from Plymouth, 
N. H., in the morning, we could not set off on 
our walk until a little before noon, and must 
stop presently to eat our lunch. When we 
resumed our march, it was still within that 
period of the day when, as the ancients fabled, 
the great god Pan sleeps, and must not be 
awakened, and when even wood-paths are apt 
to be unshaded ; and as we climbed we found 
ourselves zigzagging from side to side, to make 
