A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau--Delphi Classics (Illustrated) by Henry David Thoreau
Author:Henry David Thoreau [THOREAU, HENRY DAVID]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Parts Edition 1 of 38 by Delphi Classics
Publisher: Delphi Classics (Parts Edition)
Published: 2017-08-26T00:00:00+00:00
WEDNESDAY
âMan is manâs foe and destiny.â Cotton.
WEDNESDAY.
â * â
Early this morning, as we were rolling up our buffaloes and loading our boat amid the dew, while our embers were still smoking, the masons who worked at the locks, and whom we had seen crossing the river in their boat the evening before while we were examining the rock, came upon us as they were going to their work, and we found that we had pitched our tent directly in the path to their boat. This was the only time that we were observed on our camping-ground. Thus, far from the beaten highways and the dust and din of travel, we beheld the country privately, yet freely, and at our leisure. Other roads do some violence to Nature, and bring the traveller to stare at her, but the river steals into the scenery it traverses without intrusion, silently creating and adorning it, and is as free to come and go as the zephyr.
As we shoved away from this rocky coast, before sunrise, the smaller bittern, the genius of the shore, was moping along its edge, or stood probing the mud for its food, with ever an eye on us, though so demurely at work, or else he ran along over the wet stones like a wrecker in his storm-coat, looking out for wrecks of snails and cockles. Now away he goes, with a limping flight, uncertain where he will alight, until a rod of clear sand amid the alders invites his feet; and now our steady approach compels him to seek a new retreat. It is a bird of the oldest Thalesian school, and no doubt believes in the priority of water to the other elements; the relic of a twilight antediluvian age which yet inhabits these bright American rivers with us Yankees. There is something venerable in this melancholy and contemplative race of birds, which may have trodden the earth while it was yet in a slimy and imperfect state. Perchance their tracks too are still visible on the stones. It still lingers into our glaring summers, bravely supporting its fate without sympathy from man, as if it looked forward to some second advent of which he has no assurance. One wonders if, by its patient study by rocks and sandy capes, it has wrested the whole of her secret from Nature yet. What a rich experience it must have gained, standing on one leg and looking out from its dull eye so long on sunshine and rain, moon and stars! What could it tell of stagnant pools and reeds and dank night-fogs! It would be worth the while to look closely into the eye which has been open and seeing at such hours, and in such solitudes, its dull, yellowish, greenish eye. Methinks my own soul must be a bright invisible green. I have seen these birds stand by the half-dozen together in the shallower water along the shore, with their bills thrust into the mud at the bottom,
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
General | Mid Atlantic |
New England |
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin(5898)
The Plant Paradox by Dr. Steven R. Gundry M.D(2052)
The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel(1932)
Miami by Joan Didion(1885)
DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides Orlando by DK(1820)
Vacationland by John Hodgman(1779)
Trail Magic by Trevelyan Quest Edwards & Hazel Edwards(1764)
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed(1748)
INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer(1732)
The Twilight Saga Collection by Stephenie Meyer(1726)
Nomadland by Jessica Bruder(1692)
Birds of the Pacific Northwest by Shewey John; Blount Tim;(1610)
Portland: Including the Coast, Mounts Hood and St. Helens, and the Santiam River by Paul Gerald(1586)
The Last Flight by Julie Clark(1503)
On Trails by Robert Moor(1486)
Deep South by Paul Theroux(1482)
Trees and Shrubs of the Pacific Northwest by Mark Turner(1433)
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon(1385)
1,000 Places to See in the United States and Canada Before You Die (1,000 Places to See in the United States & Canada Before You) by Patricia Schultz(1303)