he
same purpose. To tow an average-sized canal-boat, loaded, requires four
mules, while an empty one is easily drawn by two. It proved most
expeditious as well as convenient not to trouble the lock-master to open
the gates, but to secure his assistance in carrying the canoe along the
tow-path to the end of the lock, which service occupied less than five
minutes. In this way the canoe was carried around seven locks the first
day, and when dusk approached she was sheltered beside a paper shell in
the boat-house of Princeton College Club, which is located on the banks
of the canal about one mile and a half from the city of Princeton.

In this narrow watercourse these indefatigable collegians, under great
disadvantages, drill their crews for the annual intercollegiate
struggle for championship. One Noah Reed provided entertainment for man
and beast at his country inn half a mile from the boat-house, and
thither I repaired for the night.

This day's row of twenty-six miles and a half had been through a hilly
country, abounding in rich farm lands which were well cultivated. The
next morning an officer of the Princeton Bank awaited my coming on the
banks of the sluggish canal. He had taken an early walk from the town to
see the canoe. At Baker's Basin the bridge-tender, a one-legged man,
pressed me to tarry till he could summon the Methodist minister, who had
charged him to notify him of the approach of a paper canoe.

Through all my boat journeys I have remarked that professional men take
more interest in canoe journeys than professional oarsmen; and nearly
all the canoeists of my acquaintance are ministers of the gospel. It is
an innocent way of obtaining relaxation; and opportunities thus offered
the weary clergyman of studying nature in her ever-changing but always
restful moods, must indeed be grateful after being for months in daily
contact with the world, the flesh, and the devil. The tendency of the
present age to liberal ideas permits clergymen in large towns and cities
to drive fast horses, and spend an hour of each day at a harmless game
of billiards, without giving rise to remarks from _his own_
congregation, but let the overworked rector of a _country_ village seek
in his friendly canoe that relief which nature offers to the tired
brain, let him go into the wilderness and live close to his Creator by
studying his works, and a whole community vex him on his return with
"the appearance of the thing." These self-co