ELEMENTS OF LANDSCAPE 



one stands on the levee at New Orleans 

 and sees the flood of waters coming down 

 from the lap of the continent, he must have 

 a wooden imagination, indeed, if he does not 

 wish to penetrate the country in a dozen 

 states more than a thousand miles away 

 whence these waters come. The early 

 voyageurs who explored the valley of the 

 St. Lawrence were carried forward by this 

 irresistible appetite quite as much as by any 

 holy desire for the conversion of the 

 Indians. Why, even the little brook drives 

 me half insane with its coquetry as it 

 vanishes round the next turn. I long to 

 follow it; and if by good fortune it should 

 be apple-blossom time and I have my hat- 

 band stuck full of trout flies, then I will 

 indeed stifle every other call and follow on 

 from pool to pool as long as I can see the 

 flash of a leaping trout. 



Every river and every brook is beauti- 

 ful, and each in its own individual way. 

 Some critics disparage the muddy Missouri, 

 but they show a provincial £ind undeveloped 

 taste in doing so. Some travelers say the 

 Rhine is a disappointment. May Heaven 

 forgive their hardness of heart! Some peo- 

 ple find little joy in the Hudson; but then, 



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