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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
Class
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THIS FIRST EDITION OF WALT WHITMAN'S DIARY IN CANADA
IS LIMITED TO FIVE HUNDRED COPIES
WALT WHITMAN'S DIARY IN CANADA
WALT WHITMAN'S DIARY IN CANADA
WITH EXTRACTS FROM
OTHER OF HIS DIARIES AND
LITERARY NOTE-BOOKS
EDITED BY WILLIAM SLOANE KENNEDY
BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY MCMIV
UNIVfRi
COPYHIGHT, 1904, BY
WILLIAM SLOANE KENNEDY Entered at Stationers' Hall
Published November, 1904
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
EDITOR'S PREFACE
THE transcribing of these out-door notes from the worn and time-stained fragments of paper (backs of letters, home-made note-books, etc.), on which they were originally written, has been so fascinating a task for me that I feel confident the subject-matter will interest other lovers of Whitman. I don't know that they need any other foreword than just the telling how they came into my hands for publication.
In the autumn of 1900 I wrote to my old friend, the late Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke (the senior member of Walt Whitman's literary executors), suggesting that he join me in bringing out a" Read- ers' Handbook to Leaves of Grass," in the preparation of which I had been engaged for a number of years, by contributing any material he might have that was available. He responded with enthusiasm to this proposal for cooperative work. But, alas! a year later Jie had passed into eternity.* By his son, Dr. Edward Pardee Bucke, however, I was generously
• He fell on the icy floor of a veranda of hi* residence, •truck on the back of his head, and never regained consciousness. Few knew that this gay-hearted optimUt, with hi* magnificent physique, had to fight his way through life (after twenty) without the aid of feet, other than artificial. Hia feet were amputated after being frozen in a (finally successful) attempt to CTOM the Sierra Nevada Mountain* hi the winter of 1866, in company with one of the two original discov- erers of ailrer in Nevada. I have the romantic printed account of that daring
EDITOR'S PREFACE
furnished with such manuscripts of Walt Whitman as seem to have been intended for our purpose, and from them the following diary and other notes were selected. The publication of the Readers' Hand- book is held over for the present.
In his " Specimen Days," Whitman devotes only a couple of pages to the St. Lawrence and Saguenay trip, — a condensed abstract of his journal.
The portrait used as a frontispiece to this book is reproduced from a photograph by Edy Brothers of London, Ontario, made during the visit to Dr. Bucke recorded in the diary. It has never before been published. All the notes in the volume are by the editor.
W. S. K.
BELMOJTT, MASS.,
November, 1904.
f
WALT WHITMAN'S DIARY IN CANADA
London, Ontario, June 18, 1880.1 Calm and glorious roll the hours here — the whole twenty-four. A perfect day (the third in succession) ; the sun clear ; a faint, fresh, just palpable air setting in from the south- west ; temperature pretty warm at mid- day, but moderate enough mornings and evenings. Everything growing well, espe- cially the perennials. Never have I seen verdure — grass and trees and bushery — to greater advantage. All the accompaniments joyous. Cat-birds, thrushes, robins, etc., sinking. The profuse blossoms of the tiger- lily (is it the tiger-lily ?)2 mottling the lawns
1 Whitman left Camden on June 3 (" on a first- class sleeper ") for Canada. Passed Niagara June 4, and has described his impressions of it as seen on this particular occasion (Specimen Days, p. 160, 1st ed.) On June 4 he writes, *' I am domiciled at the hospi- table house of my friends Dr. and Mrs. Bucke, in the ample and charm ing garden and lawns of the asylum." * Probably the Turk's Head lily (Lilium tuper- bum).
1 1
WALT WHITMAN'S
and gardens everywhere with their glowing orange-red. Roses everywhere, too.
A stately show of stars last night: the Scorpion erecting his head of five stars, with glittering Antares in the neck, soon stretched his whole length in the south ; Arcturus hung overhead ; Vega a little to the east ; Aquila lower down ; the constellation of the Sickle well toward setting ; and the half- moon, pensive and silvery, in the southwest.
June and July, Canada. Such a proces- sion of long-drawn-out, delicious half-lights nearly every evening, continuing on till 'most 9 o'clock all through the last two weeks of June and the first two of July ! It was worth coming to Canada to get these long-stretch'd sunsets in their tem- per'd shade and lingering, lingering twi- lights, if nothing more.
[No date.'] It is only here in large por- tions of Canada that wondrous second wind, the Indian summer, attains its amplitude and heavenly perfection, — the temperature ; the sunny haze ; the mellow, rich, delicate, almost flavored air:
" Enough to live — enough to merely be."
DIARY IN CANADA
June 19. On the train from London to Sarnia — 60 miles.1 A fine country, many good farms, plenty of open land, the finest strips of woods clean of underbrush — some beautiful clusters of great trees ; plenty of fields with the stumps standing ; some bustling towns.
[Same date, Sarnia.'] Sunset on the St. C/air. I am writing this on Front Street, close by the river, — the St Clair, — on a bank. The setting sun, a great blood-red hall, is just descending on the Michigan shore, throwing a bright crimson track across the water to where I stand. The river is full of row-boats and shells, with their crews of young fellows, or single ones, out practis- ing,— a handsome, inspiriting sight Up north I see at Point Edward, on Canada side, the tall elevator in shadow, with tall- square turret, like some old castle.
As I write, a long shell, with its crew of four stript to their rowing shirts, sweeps
1 Sarnia (the former home for ten years of the late Dr. R. M. Bucke, when a practising physician) is a town of about 7000 inhabitants lying on the St. Clair River (Canadian side) near Lake Huron, about ~>~) miles northeast of Detroit.
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WALT WHITMAN'S
swiftly past, the oars rattling in their row- locks.
Opposite, a little south, on the Michigan shore, stretches Port Huron. It is a still, moist, voluptuous evening, the twilight deep- ening apace. In the vapors fly bats and myriads of big insects. A solitary robin is whistling his call, followed by mellow clucks, in some trees near. The panting of the locomotive and measured roll of cars comes from over shore, and occasionally an abrupt snort or screech, diffused in space. With all these utilitarian episodes, it is a lovely, soft, voluptuous scene, a wondrous half-hour for sunset, and then the long rose-tinged half- light with a touch of gray we sometimes have stretched out in June at day-close. How musical the cries and voices floating in from the river! Mostly while I have been here I have noticed those handsome shells and oar-boats, some of them rowing superbly.
At nearly nine it is still quite light, [the atmosphere] tempered with blue film, but the boats, the river, and the Michigan shores quite palpable. The rose color still falls upon everything. A big river steamer is crawling athwart the stream, hoarsely hiss-
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D I AR Y IN CANADA
ing. The moon in its third quarter is just up behind me. From over in Port Huron come the just-heard sounds of a brass band, practising. Many objects — half-burnt hulls, partially sunk wrecks, slanting or upright poles — throw their black shadows in strong relief on the clear glistering water.
[Sarnia], June 20. A FAR-OFF REMI- NISCENCE. I see to-day in a New York paper an account of the tearing down of old SL Ann's Church, Sands and Washington streets, Brooklyn, to make room for the East River Bridge landing and roadway. Away off, nearly 1000 miles distant, it roused the queerest reminiscences, which I feel to put down here. St. Ann's was twined with many memories of youth to me. I think the church was built about 1824, the time when I (a little child of six years) was first taken to live in Brooklyn, and I re- member it so well then and for long years afterwards. It was a stately building with its broad grounds and grass, and the aristocratic congregation, and the good clergyman, Mr. Mcllvaine (afterwards bishop of Ohio), 1 and
1 Perhaps the best known and most popular preacher in Ohio a quarter-century ago. The son
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WALT WHITMAN'S
the long edifice for Sunday-school (I had a pupil's desk there), and the fine gardens and many big willow and elm trees in the neighborhood. From St Ann's started, over 50 years ago, a strange and solemn military funeral, — of the officers and sailors killed by the explosion of the steamer Fulton at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I remember well the impressive services and the dead- march of the band (moving me even then to tears), and the led horses and officers' trappings in the procession, and the black- draped flags, and the old sailors, and the salutes over the grave in the ancient cemetery in Fulton Street just below Tillary (now all built over by solid blocks of houses and busy stores).1 I was at school at the time of the explosion and heard the rumble which jarred half the city.
Nor was St Ann's (Episcopal) the only church bequeathing Old Brooklyn remi- niscences. Just opposite, within a stone's throw, on Sands Street, with a high range of steps, stood the main Methodist church,
of Whitman's friend, John Burroughs, in 1902 mar- ried a grand-daughter of this Bishop Mcllvaine.
2 The Whitmans then lived in Tillary Street, where the father had built them a house.
6
DIARY IN CANADA
always drawing full congregations (always active, singing and praying in earnest), and the scene of the powerful revivals of those days (often continued for a week night and day without intermission). This latter was the favorite scene of the labors of John N. Ma flit, the famous preacher of his denomi- nation. It was a famous church for pretty girls.
The history of those two churches would be a history of Brooklyn and of a main part of its families for the earlier half of the nineteenth century.
Sarnia, June 21. A MOONLIGHT EX- CURSION UP LAKE HURON. We were to start at 8 p. M., but after waiting forty min- utes later for a music band, which to my secret satisfaction did n't come, we and the Hiawatha went off without it
Point Edward on the Canada side and Fort Gratiot on the Michigan — the crossing- line for the Grand Trunk Railway, and look- ing well alive with lights and the sight of shadowy-moving cars — were quickly passed between by our steamer, after pressing through currents of rapids for a mile along here, very dashy and inspiriting, and we
7
WALT WHITMAN'S
were soon out on the wide, sea-room of the Lake. The far and faint-dim shores, the cool night-breeze, the plashing of the waters, and most of all the well-up moon, full and round and refulgent, were the features of this pleasant water-ride, which lasted till midnight.
During the day I had seen the magnifi- cent steamboat, City of Cleveland, come from above, and, after making a short stop at Port Huron opposite, sped on her swift and stately way down the St. Clair. She plies between Cleveland and Duluth, and was on her return from the latter place — makes the voyage in three (?) days. At a Sarnia wharf I saw the Asia, a large steam- boat for Lake Superior trade and passengers ; understood there were three other boats on the line. Between Samia and Port Huron some nice small-sized ferry-boats are con- stantly plying. I went aboard the Dor- mer and made an agreeable hour's jaunt to and fro, one afternoon.
A SARNIA PUBLIC SCHOOL. Stopt im- promptu at the school in George (?) where I saw crowds of boys out at recess, and went in without ceremony among them,
8
DIARY IN CANADA
and so inside for twenty minutes to the school, at its studies, — music, grammar, etc. Never saw a healthier, handsomer, more intelligent or decorous collection of boys and girls, some 500 altogether. This twenty minutes' sight, and what it inferred, are among my best impressions and recol- lections of Sarnia.
[Sarnia]. Went down to an Indian set- tlement at Ah-me-je-wah-noong (t. e., the Rapids) to visit the Indians, the Chippewas. Not much to see of novelty — in fact noth- ing at all of aboriginal life or personality ; but I had a fine drive with the gentleman that took me — Dr. McLane, the physician appointed by the government for the tribe. There is a long stretch, three or four miles, fronting the St Clair, south of Sarnia, run- ning back easterly nearly the same distance, good lands for farming and rare sites for build- ing — and this is the " reservation " set apart for these Chips. There are said to be four hundred of them, but I could not see evi- dences of one quarter of that number. There are three or four neat third-class wooden dwellings, a church, and council-house, but the less said about the rest of the edifices
9
WALT WHITMAN'S
the better. " Every prospect pleases," as far as land, shore, and water are concerned, how- ever. The Dominion government keeps entire faith with these people (and all its Indians, I hear), preserves these reservations for them to live on, pays them regular annuities, and, whenever any of their land is sold, puts the proceeds strictly in their funds. Here they farm languidly (I saw some good wheat), fish, etc. ; but the young men generally go off to hire as laborers and deck-hands on the water. I saw and con- versed with Wa-wa-nosh, the interpreter, son of a former chief. He talks and writes as well as I do. In a nice cottage near by lived his mother, who doesn't speak any- thing but Chippewa. There are no very old people. I saw one man of thirty in the last stages of consumption. This beautiful and ample tract, in its present undeveloped con- dition, is quite an eyesore to the Sarnians.
[London, Onf], June 24. TENNYSON'S " DE PROFUNDIS." To day I spent half an hour (in a recluse summer-house embowered) leisurely reading Tennyson's new poem " De Profundis." I should call the piece (to coin a term) a specimen of the mystical-recherche
10
DIARY IN CANADA
— and a mighty choice specimen. It has several exquisite little verses, not simple like rosebuds, but gem-lines like garnets or sapphires, cut by a lapidary artist. These, for instance (some one has had a baby) :
" O young life Breaking with laughter from the dark ! "
" O dear Spirit half-lost In thine own shadow and this fleshly sign That thou art thou — who wailest being born."
Then from " The Human Cry " attached :
" We feel we are nothing — for all is Thou and in
Thee;
We feel we are something — that also has come from Thee."
Some cute friends afterward said it was altogether vague and could not be grasped. Very likely ; it sounded to me like organ- playing, capriccio, which also cannot be grasped.
Night of Saturday, July 3d. Good night for stars and heavens ; perfectly still and cloudless, fresh and cool enough ; evenings very long ; pleasant twilight till nine o'clock all through the last half of June and first half of July. These are my most pleasant hours. 11
WALT WHITMAN'S
The air is pretty cool, but I find it enjoyable, and like to saunter the well-kept roads. Went out about 10 on a solitary ramble in the grounds, slow through the fresh air, over the gravel walks and velvety grass, with many pauses, many upward gazings. It was again an exceptional night for the show and sentiment of the stars, very still and clear, not a cloud, and neither warm nor cold. High overhead the constellation of the Harp ; south of east the Northern Cross ; in the Milky Way the Diadem ; and more to the north Cassiopeia ; bright Arcturus and silvery Vega dominating aloft. But the heavens everywhere studded so thickly — layers on layers of phosphorescence, spangled with those still orbs, emulous, nestling so close, with such light and glow everywhere, flooding the soul.
Sunday evening, July 4. A very enjoy- able hour or two this evening. They sent for me to come down in the parlor to hear my friend M. E. L., a deaf and dumb young woman, give some recitations (of course by pantomime, not a word spoken). She gave first an Indian legend, — the warriors, the women, the woods, the action of an old chief,
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DIARY IN CANADA
etc., very expressive. But best of all, and indeed a wonderful performance, she ren- dered Christ stiUing the tempest (from Luke, is it ?)
[London], Canada, July 6, '80. HAY- MAKING, JULY 5, 6, 7. I go out every day two or three hours for the spectacle. A sweet, poetic, practical, busy sight Never before such fine growths of clover and timothy everywhere as the present year ; and I never saw such large fields of rich grass as on this farm. I ride around in a low easy basket- wagon drawn by a sagacious pony. We go at random over the flat just-mown layers and all around through lanes and across fields. The smell of the cut herbage, the whirr of the mower, the trailing swish of the horse-rakes, the forks of the busy pitchers, and the loaders on the wagons — I linger long and long to absorb them all. Soothing, sane, odorous hours ! Two weeks of such.
It is a great place for birds. No gunning here, and no dogs or cats allowed. I never before saw so many robins, nor such big fellows, nor so tame.1 You look out over
1 The editor of this diary has the same to record of the robins of southern Wisconsin in the same lati- 13
WALT WHITMAN'S
the lawn any time and can see from four or five to a score of them hopping about. I never before heard singing wrens (the com- mon house wren, I believe), either, to such advantage — two of them, these times, on the verandahs of different houses where I have been staying. Such vigorous, musical, well-fibred little notes! (What must the winter wren be, then ? — they say it is far ahead of this.)
July 8. I am in the midst of haymaking, and, though but a looker-on, I enjoy it greatly, untiringly, day after day. Any hour I hear the sound of scythes sharpening, or the distant rattle of horse-mowers, or see loaded wagons, high-piled, slowly wending toward the barns ; or, toward sundown, groups of tan-faced men going from work. To-day we are indeed at the height of it here in Ontario.
[No date."] A muffled and musical clang of cow-bells from the grassy wood-edge not far distant.
tude. They have a larger and fresher look than Eastern robins.
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DIARY IN CANADA
July 10-14, Canada. In blossom now: Delphinium, blue, four feet high, great pro- fusion ; yellow-red lilies [written down for him in a lady's handwriting as Lilium auran- tinm and Lilium Buschaniuiri] ; a yellow coreopsis-like flower [Cosmidium Burridge- anum\ same as I saw Sept. '79 ; wild tansy, weed from 10 to 15 inches high, white blos- som, out in July (middle) Canada ; straw- colored hollyhocks, many like roses, others pure white — beautiful clusters everywhere in the thick dense hedge-lines ; aromatic white cedars at evening ; Canadian red honey- suckles ; the fences, verandahs, gables, cov- ered with grapevines, ivies, honeysuckles ; a certain clematis (the Jackmanni) bursting all over with deep purple blossoms, each with its four or five great leaves, delicate as some court lady's dress, but tough and durable — day after day ; I afterwards saw a large six- leaved (?) one of pure satin-like white — as beautiful a flower as I ever beheld.
Canada, July 18, '80. SWALLOW-GAM- BOLS. I spent a long time to-day watching the swallows — an hour this forenoon and another hour afternoon. There is a pleasant, secluded, close-cropt grassy lawn of a couple 15
WALT WHITMAN'S
of acres or over, flat as a floor and surrounded by a flowery and bushy hedge, just off the road adjoining the house, — a favorite spot of mine. Over this open grassy area im- mense numbers of swallows have been sail- ing, darting, circling, and cutting large or small 8's and s's, close to the ground, for hours to-day. It is evidently for fun alto- gether. I never saw anything prettier — this free swallow-dance. They kept it up, too, the greater part of the day.
[Here follows Whitman's journal of his midsummer trip with Dr. R. M. Bucke down the St. Lawrence and up the Sague- nay rivers (Montreal, Quebec, Thousand Islands, Cape Eternity, Trinity Rock, etc.). The journal is written on the pages of a thick pocket " heft " (as the Germans call an extemporized book of stitched leaves), 5 by 8J^ inches in dimensions, and is labelled " St. Lawrence and Saguenay Trip, July and Aug. 1880." It is prefixed by a table of distances and a skeleton itinerary (which here follow), has three maps pasted in, covering the entire route, and contains various minor memoranda (names, addresses, 16
DIARY IN CANADA
etc.) scattered here and there, usually on the verso of the sheet]
DISTANCES.
Miles.
From Philadelphia to London about . 520
London to Toronto 120
Toronto to Kingston 161
Kingston to Montreal 172
Montreal to Quebec 180
Quebec to Tadousac 134
Tadousac to Chicoutimi 101
1888
[Itinerary.]
Started from London 8.40 A. M. July 26 by
R. R. to Toronto; arrived in T. same
day. Left Toronto by steamboat Algerian July
27, arrived at Kingston 5 A. M. 28th ;
stopt at Dr. W. G. Metcalf 's ; down at
the Thousand Islands three days —
"Hub Island." Left Kingston 6 A. M. Aug. 3 ; arrived at
Montreal same evening. Left Montreal Aug. 5 ; down to Quebec in
steamer Montreal.
2 17
WALT WHITMAN'S
Left Quebec 7 A.M. Aug. 6 in steamer Saguenay ; down the St. Lawrence ; splendid scenery.
Night of 6th and 7th up the Saguenay to Chicoutimi and Ha Ha Bay; Cape Eternity and Trinity Rock.
Then down, and, on our return, Aug. 8 early A. M. arrived in Quebec ; staid two days.
Aug. 10 early A. M. in Montreal ; left [same day] in Algerian ; had a pleasant voy- age (two days and nights) to Toronto.
Aug. 12 arrived in Toronto ; 3 hours at Queen's Hotel; left 11 A.M.
Aug. 12, 13, 14, in Hamilton.
Back home to London Aug. 14.
July 26. Started this morning at 8.40 from London for Toronto, 120 miles by R. R. I am writing this on the cars, very comfortable. We are now (10-11 A. M.) passing through a beautiful country. Rained hard last night, and showery this morning ; everything looking bright and green. I am enjoying the ride (in a big easy R. R. chair in a roomy car). The atmosphere cool, moist, just right, and the sky veiled. All pleasant fertile country, sufficiently diver-
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DIARY IN CANADA
sified, frequent signs of land not long cleared, — black stumps (often the fields fenced with the roots of them), patches of beauti- ful woods, beech, fine elms, thrifty apple orchards, the hay and wheat mostly har- vested, barley begun, oats almost ready ; some good farms (a little hilly between Dundas and Hamilton, and the same on to Toronto). Corn looking well, potatoes ditto ; but the great show-charm of my ride is from the unfailing grass and woods.
Hamilton a bustling city.
As we approach Toronto everything looks doubly beautiful, especially the glimpses of blue Ontario's waters, sunlit, yet with a slight haze, through which occasionally a distant sail
In Toronto at half-past one. I rode up on top of the omnibus with the driver. The city made the impression on me of a lively dashing place. The lake gives it its character.
In Toronto, July 27, '80. Long and ele- gant streets of semi-rural residences, many of them very costly and beautiful. The horse-chestnut is the prevalent tree: you 19
WALT WHITMAN'S
see it everywhere. The mountain ash now with its bunches of red berries.
[Same dateJ] I write this in Toronto, aboard the steamboat the Algerian, two o'clock p. M. We are presently off. The boat from Lewis- ton, New York, has just come in ; the usual hurry with passengers and freight, and, as I write, I hear the pilot's bells, the thud of hawsers unloosened, and feel the boat squirm- ing slowly from her ties, out into freedom. We are off, off into Toronto Bay (soon the wide expanse and cool breezes of Lake Ontario). As we steam out a mile or so we get a pretty view of Toronto from the blue foreground of the waters, — the whole rising spread of the city, groupings of roofs, spires, trees, hills in the background. Good- bye, Toronto, with your memories of a very lively and agreeable visit. [Entry here of name of James W. Slocum, of Detroit, Wagner car conductor, and memorandum " your James Slocum."]
July 27. A DAY AND NIGHT ON LAKE ONTARIO. Steamboat middling good-sized and comfortable, carrying shore freight and summer passengers. Quite a voyage [Toronto to Kingston], the whole length of
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DIARY IN CANADA
Lake Ontario ; very enjoyable day, clear, breezy, and cool enough for me to wrap my blanket around me as I pace the upper deck. For the first sixty or seventy miles we keep near the Canadian shore — of course no land in sight the other side ; stop at Port Hope, Coburg, etc., and then stretch out toward the mid-waters of the lake.
I pace the deck or sit till pretty late, wrapt in my blanket, enjoying all, — the coolness, darkness, — and then to my berth awhile.
July 27 [28]. Rose soon after three to come out on deck and enjoy a magnificent night-show before dawn. Overhead the moon at her half, and waning half, with lustrous Jupiter and Saturn, made a trio- cluster close together in the purest of skies — with the groups of the Pleiades and Hyades following a little to the east. The lights off on the islands and rocks, the splashing waters, the many shadowy shores and passages through them in the crystal atmosphere, the dawn-streaks of faint red and yellow in the east, made a good hour for me. We landed on Kingston wharf just at sunrise.
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WALT WHITMAN'S
LAKE ONTARIO. Lake O. is 234 feet above sea-level (Huron is over 500, and Superior over 600). The chain of lakes and river St. Lawrence drain 400,000 square miles. The rainfall on this vast area averages annually a depth of thirty inches — so that the existence and supply of the river, fed by such inland preceding seas, is a matter of very simple calculation after all.
July 28. To-day Dr. M [etcalf ] took me in his steam yacht a long, lively, varied voyage down among the Lakes of the Thou- sand Islands. We went swiftly on east of Kingston, through cuts, channels, lagoons (?) 1 and out across lakes ; numbers of islands always in sight ; often, as we steamed by, some almost grazing us ; rocks and cedars ; occasionally a camping party on the shores, perhaps fishing; a little sea-swell on the water ; on our return evening deepened, bringing a miracle of sunset.
I could have gone on thus for days over the savage-tame beautiful element. We had some good music (one of Verdi's composi- tions) from the band of B battery as we
1 These query marks are always Whitman's. If I use one, it shall be in brackets. 22
DIARY IN CANADA
hauled in shore, anchored, and listened in the twilight (to the slapping rocking gurgle of our boat). Late when we reached home. July 29. This forenoon a long ride through the streets of Kingston and so out into the country and the lake-shore road. Kingston is a military station (B battery), shows quite a fort, and half a dozen old martello towers (like big conical-topt pound cakes). It is a pretty town of fifteen thou- sand inhabitants.
July 31, Evening, Saturday, Lakes of the Thousand Islands. I am writing this at and after sundown in the central portion ("American side," as they call it here) of the Lakes of the Thousand Islands, twenty- five miles east of Kingston. The scene is made up of the most beautiful and ample waters, — twenty or thirty woody and rocky islands (varying in size, some large, others small, others middling), the distant shores of the New York side, some puffing steamboats in the open waters, and numerous skiffs and row-boats, all showing as minute specks in the amplitude and primal naturalness.
The brooding waters, the cool and delicious air, the long evening with its transparent 23
WALT WHITMAN'S
half-lights, the glistening and faintly slap- ping waves, the circles of swallows gam- bolling and piping.
[In the back of the Canada diary is the following, evidently a first draft or memoran- dum for a letter to some one.]
Aug. 1. I write this in the most beauti- ful extensive region of lakes and islands one can probably see on earth. Have been here several days ; came down, leisurely cruising around, in a handsome little steam-yacht which I am living on half the time. The lakes are very extensive (over 1000 square miles) and the islands numberless, . . . here and there dotted with summer villas.
{Same date.~\ Sunday noon. Still among the Thousand Islands. This is about the centre of them, stretching twenty-five miles to the east and the same distance west. The beauty of the spot all through the day, the sunlit waters, the fanning breeze, the rocky and cedar-bronzed islets, the larger islands with fields and farms, the white- winged yachts and shooting row-boats, and over all the blue sky arching copious — make a sane, calm, eternal picture, to eyes, senses, and my soul.
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DIARY IN CANADA
Evening. An unusual show of boats gaily darting over the waters in every direc- tion ; not a poor model among them, and many of exquisite beauty and grace and speed. It is a precious experience, one of these long midsummer twilights in these waters and this atmosphere. Land of pure air ! Land of unnumbered lakes ! Land of the islets and the woods !
Lakes of Thousand Islands, Aug. 2. Early morning ; a steady southwest wind ; the fresh peculiar atmosphere of the hour and place worth coming a thousand miles to get. O'er the waters the gray rocks and dark-green cedars of a score of big and little islands around me; the added splendor of sunrise. As I sit, the sound of slapping water, to me most musical of sounds.
One peculiarity as you go about among the islands, or stop at them, is the entire absence of horses and wagons. Plenty of small boats, however, and always very hand- some ones. Even the women row and sail skiffs. Often the men here build their boats themselves.
Forenoon. A run of three hours (some thirty miles) through the islands and lakes
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WALT WHITMAN'S
in the Princess Louise to Kingston. Saw the whole scene, with its sylvan rocky and aquatic loveliness, to fine advantage. Such amplitude — room enough here for the sum- mer recreation of all North America.
Aug. 4. In Montreal ; guest of Dr. T. S. H.1 Genial host, delightful quarters, good sleep. Explore the city leisurely, but quite thoroughly : St. James Street, with its handsome shops ; Victoria Bridge ; great French church ; the English Cathedral ; the old French church of Notre Dame de Bon Secours ; the handsome, new, peculiarly and lavishly ornamented church of Notre Dame de Lourdes ; the French streets of middle life, with their signs. A city of 150,000 people.
But the principal character of Montreal, to me, was from a drive along the street looking down on the river front and the wharves, where the steamships lay, — twenty or more of them, — some as handsome and
1 Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, who first brought Whitman's writings to the notice of Dr. Bucke. He is described by Dr. B. in Walt Whitman Fellowship Papers, No. 6, as Mineralogist to the Geological Survey of Canada.
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large as I ever saw ; beautiful models, trim, two or three hundred feet long ; some mov- ing out, one or two coming in ; plenty of room, and fine dockage, with heavy masonry banks.
Aug. 5, Forenoon. Three hours on Mount Royal, the great hill and park back of Montreal ; spent the forenoon in a leisurely most pleasant drive on and about the hill ; many views of the city below ; the waters of the St Lawrence in the clear air; the Adirondacks fifty miles or more distant; the excellent roads, miles of them, up hill and down ; the plentiful woods, oak, pine, hickory ; the French signboards — Passez a droite — as we zigzag around; the splendid views, distances, waters, mountains, vistas, some of them quite unsurpassable ; the con- tinual surprises of fine trees, in groups or singly; the grand rocky natural escarp- ments ; frequently open spaces, larger or smaller, with patches of goldenrod or white yarrow, or along the road the red fire- weed or Scotch thistle in bloom ; just the great hill itself, with its rocks and trees unmolested by any impertinence of ornamentation.
WALT WHITMAN'S
Sunrise, the St. Lawrence near Quebec, Aug. 5-6. Have just seen sunrise (standing on the extreme bow of the boat), the great round dazzling ball straight ahead over the broad waters, — a rare view. The shores pleasantly, thickly, dotted with houses, the river here wide and looking beautiful in the golden morning's sheen. As we advance northeast the earth-banks high and sheer, quite thickly wooded ; thin dawn-mists quickly resolving ; the youthful, strong, warm forenoon over the high green bluffs ; little white houses seen along the banks as we steam rapidly through the verdure ; occasionally a pretensive mansion, a mill, a two-tower'd church (in burnish'd tin). A pretty shore (miles of it, sitting up high, well-sprinkled with dwellings of habitans, — farmers, fishermen, French cottagers, etc.), verdant everywhere (but no big trees) for fifty miles before coming to Quebec. These little rural cluster-towns just back from the bank-bluffs, so happy and peaceful looking. I saw them through my glass, everything quite minutely and fully. In one such town of perhaps two hundred houses on sloping ground, the old church with glistening spire stood in the middle, and quite a large grave-
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yard around it. I could see the white head- stones almost plainly enough to count them. Approaching Quebec, rocks and rocky banks again, the shores lined for many miles with immense rafts and logs and partially hewn timber, the hills more broken and abrupt, the higher shores crowded with many fine dormer-window'd houses. Sail-ships appear in clusters with their weather-beaten spars and furl'd canvas. The river still ample and grand, the banks bold, plenty of round turns and promontories, plenty of gray rock cropping out Rafts, rafts, of logs everywhere. The high rocky citadel thrusts itself out — altogether perhaps (at any rate as you approach it on the water, the sun two hours high) as picturesque an appearing city as there is on earth.
Aug. 6, Quebec. To the east of Quebec we pass the large fertile island of Orleans — the fields divided in long lateral strips across the island and appearing to be closely culti- vated. In one field I notice them getting in the hay, a woman assisting, loading and hauling it. The view and scene continue broad and beautiful under the forenoon sun ; around me an expanse of waters stretches 29
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fore and aft as far as I can see ; outlines of mountains in the distance north and south ; of the farthest ones the bulk and the crest lines showing , through strong but delicate haze like gray lace.
Aug. 6. [By daylight down the St. Lawrence.] Night — we are steaming up the Saguenay.
Ha Ha Bay [?] I am here nearly 1000 miles slightly east of due north from Phila- delphia, by way of Montreal and Quebec — in the strangest country. Had a good night's sleep ; cold, — overcoat, but up before sunrise, — northern lights every night, as with overcoat on or wrapt in my blanket, I plant myself on the forward deck.
[Note at end of diary.] Walt Whitman is at Ha Ha Bay. He says he would like to spend a month every year of his life there on the Saguenay River and near Cape Eternity and Trinity Rock.
Aug. 6 and 7, Ha Ha Bay. Up the black Saguenay River, a hundred or so miles — a dash of the grimmest, wildest, savagest scenery on the planet, I guess ; a strong, deep (always hundreds of feet, sometimes thou- sands), dark- water 'd river, very dark, with
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high rocky hills, green and gray edged banks in all directions — no flowers, no fruits (plenty of delicious wild blueberries and raspberries up at Chicoutimi, though, and Ha Ha Bay).
THE PRIESTS. Saw them on every boat and at every landing. At Tadousac came a barge and handsome yacht, manned and evidently owned by them, to bring some departing passengers of their cloth and take on others. It looked funny to me at first to see the movements, ropes and tillers handled by these swarming black birds, but I soon saw that they sailed their craft skilfully and well. [The people are] simple, middling industrious, merry, devout Catholic, a church everywhere (priests in their black gowns everywhere, often groups of handsome young fellows), life toned low, few luxuries, none of the modern improvements, no hurry, often big families of children, nobody "progressive," all apparently living and moving entirely among themselves, taking small interest in the outside world of politics, changes, news, fashions ; industrious, yet taking life very leisurely, with much dancing and music.
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[Here follows what is evidently a thumb- nail sketch for the first part of Fancies at Navednk.] Again I steam over the Saguenay. The bronze-black waters, and the thin lines of white curd, and the dazzling sun-dash on the stream, the banks of grim- gray mountains and the rocks — I see the grim and savage scene.
Made a good breakfast of sea-trout, finish- ing off with wild raspberries. Hotels here ; a few fashionables, but they get away soon ; it is almost cold, except the middle of a few July and August days.
[Undated fragment.'] The inhabitants peculiar to our eyes ; many marked charac- ters, looks, by-plays, costumes, etc., that would make the fortune of actors who could reproduce them.
A more or less aquatic character runs through the people. The two influences of French and British contribute a curious by-play.
Contrasts all the while. At this place, backed by these mountains high and bold, nestled down the hamlet of St. Pierre, ap- parently below the level of the bay, and
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very secluded and cosy. Then two or three miles further on I saw a larger town high up on the plateau. At St. Paul's Bay a stronger cast of scenery, many rugged peaks.
[A'b date.] On the Saguenay. THE
NOTICEABLE ITEMS ON LAND: the long
boxes of blueberries (we had over a thousand of them carried on board at Ha Ha Bay one day I was on the pier) ; the groups of " boarders " (retaining all their most refined toggery) ; the vehicles, some " calashes," many queer old one-horse top- wagons with an air of faded gentility. Ox THE WATER :