Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts 2.djvu/62

 us about again; or the deep water was so narrow and close to the shore that we were obliged to run into and break down at least fifty trees which overhung the water, when we did not cut them off; repeatedly losing a part of our outworks, though the most exposed had been taken in. I could pluck almost any plant on the bank from the boat.

We very frequently got aground, and then drew ourselves along with a windlass and a cable fastened to a tree; or we swung round in the current, and completely blocked up and blockaded the river,—one end of the boat resting on each shore. And yet we would haul ourselves round again with the windlass and cable in an hour or two; though the boat was about one hundred and sixty feet long, and drew some three feet of water,—often water and sand. It was one consolation to know that in such a case we were all the while damming the river, and so raising it. We once ran fairly into a concealed rock, with a shock that aroused all the passengers. We rested there, and the mate went below with a lamp, expecting to find a hole, but he did not. Snags and sawyers were