258 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
evident that he could go back through the forest wher¬ 
ever he had been during the day. 
After this rough walking in the dark woods it was an 
agreeable change to glide down the rapid river in the 
canoe once more. This river, which was about the size 
of our Assabet (in Concord), though still very swift, was 
almost perfectly smooth here, and showed a very visible 
declivity, a regularly inclined plane, for several miles, 
like a mirror set a little aslant, on which we coasted 
down. This very obvious regular descent, particularly 
plain when I regarded the water-line against the shores, 
made a singular impression on me, which the swiftness 
of our motion probably enhanced, so that we seemed to 
be gliding down a much steeper declivity than we were, 
and that we could not save ourselves from rapids and 
falls if we should suddenly come to them. My compan¬ 
ion did not perceive this slope, but I have a surveyor’s 
eyes, and I satisfied myself that it was no ocular illusion. 
You could tell at a glance on approaching such a river, 
which way the water flowed, though you might perceive 
no motion. I observed the angle at which a level line 
would strike the surface, and calculated the amount of 
fall in a rod, which did not need to be remarkably great 
to produce this effect. 
It was very exhilarating, and the perfection of trav¬ 
elling, quite unlike floating on our dead Concord River, 
the coasting down this inclined mirror, which was now 
and then gently winding, down a mountain, indeed, be¬ 
tween two evergreen forests, edged with lofty dead 
white pines, sometimes slanted half-way over the stream, 
and destined soon to bridge it. I saw some monsters 
there, nearly destitute of branches, and scarcely dimin¬ 
ishing in diameter for eighty or ninety feet. 
