desire to get to the sea, like the life of a man who has a purpose

"Too great for haste, too high for rivalry."

The wonder is where all the water comes from. But the river is fed by
more than six thousand square miles of territory. From both sides the
little brooks come dashing in with their supply. At intervals a larger
stream, reaching away back among the mountains like a hand with many
fingers to gather

"The filtered tribute of the rough woodland,"

delivers its generous offering to the main current.

The names of the chief tributaries of the Ristigouche are curious.
There is the headstrong Metapedia, and the crooked Upsalquitch, and the
Patapedia, and the Quatawamkedgwick. These are words at which the
tongue balks at first, but you soon grow used to them and learn to take
anything of five syllables with a rush, as a hunter takes a five-barred
gate, trusting to fortune that you will come down with the accent in the
right place.

For six or seven miles above Metapedia the river has a breadth of about
two hundred yards, and the valley slopes back rather gently to the
mountains on either side. There is a good deal of cultivated land, and
scattered farm-houses appear. The soil is excellent. But it is like a
pearl cast before an obstinate, unfriendly climate. Late frosts prolong
the winter. Early frosts curtail the summer. The only safe crops are
grass, oats, and potatoes. And for half the year all the cattle must
be housed and fed to keep them alive. This lends a melancholy aspect to
agriculture. Most of the farmers look as if they had never seen better
days. With few exceptions they are what a New Englander would call
"slack-twisted and shiftless." Their barns are pervious to the weather,
and their fences fail to connect. Sleds and ploughs rust together beside
the house, and chickens scratch up the front-door yard. In truth, the
people have been somewhat demoralised by the conflicting claims of
different occupations; hunting in the fall, lumbering in the winter
and spring, and working for the American sportsmen in the brief angling
season, are so much more attractive and offer so much larger returns of
ready money, that the tedious toil of farming is neglected. But for all
that, in the bright days of midsummer, these green fields sloping down
to the water, and pastures high up among the trees on the hillsides,
look pleasant from a distance, and give an inhabited air to the
landscape.

At the mouth o