A Thousand-Mile Walk 
was enriched with other interweaving species of 
vines and brightly colored flowers. This is the 
first truly southern stream I have met. 
At night I reached the home of a young man 
with whom IJ had worked in Indiana, Mr. 
Prater. He was down here on a visit to his 
father and mother. This was a plain back- 
woods family, living out of sight among knobby 
timbered hillocks not far from the river. The 
evening was passed in mixed conversation on 
southern and northern generalities. 
September 24. Spent this day with Mr. Prater 
sailing on the Chattahoochee, feasting on 
grapes that had dropped from the overhanging 
vines. This remarkable species of wild grape 
has a stout stem, sometimes five or six inches 
in diameter, smooth bark and hard wood, quite 
unlike any other wild or cultivated grapevine 
that I have seen. The grapes are very large, 
some of them nearly an inch in diameter, 
globular and fine flavored. Usually there are 
but three or four berries in a cluster, and when 
mature they drop off instead of decaying on 
[ 48 ] 
