But the fish we angled for were of a
metaphysical species, and we angled as often as not in one another's
baskets. Once, in the midst of a serious talk, each found there was
a scrutinising eye upon himself; I own I paused in embarrassment at
this double detection; but Jones, with a better civility, broke into
a peal of unaffected laughter, and declared, what was the truth, that
there was a pair of us indeed.
EARLY IMPRESSIONS
We steamed out of the Clyde on Thursday night, and early on the
Friday forenoon we took in our last batch of emigrants at Lough
Foyle, in Ireland, and said farewell to Europe. The company was now
complete, and began to draw together, by inscrutable magnetisms, upon
the decks. There were Scots and Irish in plenty, a few English, a
few Americans, a good handful of Scandinavians, a German or two, and
one Russian; all now belonging for ten days to one small iron country
on the deep.
As I walked the deck and looked round upon my fellow-passengers, thus
curiously assorted from all northern Europe, I began for the first
time to understand the nature of emigration. Day by day throughout
the passage, and thenceforward across all the States, and on to the
shores of the Pacific, this knowledge grew more clear and melancholy.
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