Towards evening I found a small elevation of land, and there encamped for the night. My little fire appeared like a star on the bosom of ocean. Earth was my couch, and my covering the brilliant canopy of Heaven. After preparing my supper, I slept in peace; but was awakened, at day-light, by a high wind accompanied by rain. Ere I arose, the lofty trees shaken by the tempest seemed ready to fall upon me. During the evening, such was the stillness of the situation, and such the splendour of the firmament, that nothing but fatigue could have checked the current of reflection. How great are the advantages of solitude!—How sublime is the silence of nature's ever active energies! There is something in the very name of wilderness, which charms the ear, and soothes the spirit of man. There is religion in it.—The children of Israel were in the wilderness, and it was a type of this world! They sought too the Land of Promise, and this was a type of Heaven.
The next morning I renewed my exertions. The weather was lowering and cold. I found it necessary to wade through water of the depth of four or five feet, and my clothes were covered with icicles. About noon I arrived at a creek, a little to the east of Charon river,[53] and found much difficulty and danger {103} in crossing it. The channel of the creek was very deep, and its banks overflown, on both sides, for a quarter of a mile. After wading some way, I reached the channel, and by the aid of a fallen tree and some floating logs crossed it; the current, however, was so rapid, that upon the fallen tree lying under the surface, I could scarcely keep upon my feet: a single mis-step would have been fatal.
Immediately after crossing the channel, I found the water about four feet deep; and its depth soon increased
