Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/102

 in their work to watch our retreating sail. And by this time, indeed, we had become known as a strange craft upon the river, and had acquired the nickname of "the Revenue Cutter." The sound of the timber rolled down the steep banks, or the vision of a distant scow just heaving in sight round a headland, enhances the majestic silence and vastness of Nature. They were the primeval and natural echoes that were awakened. In many parts the Merrimac is as wild and natural as ever, and the shore and surrounding scenery exhibit only the revolutions of Nature. The pine stands up erect on its brink, and the alders and willows fringe its edge; only the beaver and the red man have departed.

Through the din and desultoriness even of a Byzantine noon is seen the fresh and primitive and savage nature in which Scythians and Ethiopians dwell. What is echo? what are light and shade, day and night, ocean and stars, earthquake and eclipse, then? The works of man, which we call art, are swallowed up in immensity. The savage will find his overthrow in the Aegean Sea. On the other hand, there is all the [54]