than is neceffary for the difcharge of the inland waters.

We paffed many rivers and rivulets,. which commonly ran with a clear fhallow ftream over a hard pebbly bottom. Thefe channels, which feem fo much wider than the water that they convey would naturally require, are formed by the violence of wintry floods, produced by the accumulation of innumerable ftreams that fall in rainy weather from the hills, and bursting away with refiftlefs impetuofity, make themselves a paffage proportionate to their mafs.

Such capricious and temporary waters cannot be expected to produce many fish. The rapidity of the wintry deluge fweeps them away, and the scantinefs of the fummer ftream would hardly fuftain them above the ground. This is the reason why

ina

in fording the northern rivers, no fishes are feen, as in England, wandering in the

water..

Of the hills many may be called with Homer's Ida abundant in fprings, but few can deferve the epithet which he bestows upon Pelion by waving their leaves. They exhibit very little variety; being almost wholly covered with dark heath, and even that seems to be checked in its growth. What is not heath is nakedness, a little diversified by now and then a ftream rushing down the steep. An eye accustomed to flowery paftures and waving harvests is astonished and repelled by this wide extent of hopeless fterility. The appearance is that of matter incapable of form or ufefulness, difmiffed by nature from her care and difinherited of her favours, left in its original elemental ftate, or quickened only with one fullen power of useless vegetation.

It

It will very readily occur, that this uniformity of barrennefs can afford very little amusement to the traveller; that it is eafy to fit at home and conceive rocks and heath, and waterfalls; and that these journeys are useless labours, which neither impregnate the imagination, nor enlarge the understanding. It is true that of far the greater part of things, we muft content ourfelves with fuch knowledge as defcription may exhibit, or analogy fupply; but it is true likewife, that thefe ideas are always incomplete, and that at least, till we have compared them with realities, we do not know them to be juft. As we fee more, we become poffeffed of more certainties, and confequently gain more principles of reafoning, and found a wider bafis of analogy.

Regions mountainous and wild, thinly inhabited, and little cultivated, make a great

great part of the earth, and he that has never seen them, muft live unacquainted with much of the face of nature, and with one of the great fcenes of human existence.

As the day advanced towards noon, we entered a narrow valley not very flowery, but fufficiently verdant. Our guides told us, that the horses could not travel all day without reft or meat, and intreated us to ftop here, because no grafs would be found. in any other place. The request was reafonable and the argument cogent. We therefore willingly difmounted and diverted ourselves as the place gave us opportunity.

I fat down on a bank, fuch as a writer of Romance might have delighted to feign. I had indeed no trees to whisper over my head, but a clear rivulet streamed at

my

my feet. The day was calm, the air soft, and all was rudeness, filence, and folitude. Before me, and on either fide, were high hills, which by hindering the eye from ranging, forced the mind to find entertainment for itself. Whether I spent the hour well I know not; for here I first conceived the thought of this narration.

We were in this place at eafe and by choice, and had no evils to fuffer or to fear; yet the imaginations excited by the view of an unknown and untravelled wildernefs are not fuch as arife in the artificial folitude of parks and gardens, a flattering notion of self-sufficiency, a placid indulgence of voluntary delufions, a fecure expansion of the fancy, or a cool concentration of the mental powers. The phantoms which haunt a defert are want, and mifery, and danger; the evils of dereliction rush upon the thoughts; man is

made