Valley of the Black River. 43 
places where they were thickly crowded together, I 
would stop to take them up and examine them, one 
by one, only to put them carefully down again; 
and sometimes holding one in my hand, I would pour 
out the yellow sand that filled its cavity; and 
watching the shining stream as it fell, only the 
vainest of vain thoughts and conjectures were 
mine. 
