Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/395

 JBT.40.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 369

going, though not to propose your going also ; but I went at last very suddenly, and could only have written a business letter, if I had tried, when there was no business to be accomplished. I have now returned, and think I have had a quite profitable journey, chiefly from associating with an intelligent Indian. My companion, Edward Hoar, also found his account in it, though he suffered considerably from being obliged to carry unusual loads over wet and rough &quot; carries,&quot; in one instance five miles through a swamp, where the water was fre quently up to our knees, and the fallen timber higher than our heads. He went over the ground three times, not being able to carry all his load at once. This prevented his ascending Ktaadn. Our best nights were those when it rained the hardest, on account of the mosquitoes. I speak of these things, which were not unex pected, merely to account for my not inviting you.

Having returned, I flatter myself that the world appears in some respects a little larger, and not, as usual, smaller and shallower, for having extended my range. I have made a short excursion into the new world which the In dian dwells in, or is. He begins where we leave off. It is worth the while to detect new facul ties in man, he is so much the more divine ;