The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-07-28
For The Cecil Wig.
Qnilp's Diary, that He Kept as Il Bohemian.
He Bids Goodbye TO the OctOrarO Hills
and Returns Home.

Bidding goodbye to the kind friends
where we had been stopping, we started
for Rowlandsville to bid goodbye to the
pretty Octoraro again. We had hidden it
farewell two or three times before, but like
a fond lover we felt impelled to return and
say goodb again. When we reached
Rowlandsville, we left our luggage at the
little depot peIched away up on the top of
the bank and started down the stream to
see the place where the Susquehanna meets
and greets its child, but were surprised to
find the place was yelled from mortal view,
as if the scene was one too touching and
too sweet for mortal eyes to look upon.
In passing down the Octoraro we saw
fish trap, or fish pot " they call them here.
This is Continuance for catching fish, con-
sisting of a frame work of Stats so con-
structed as to retain the fish that are
forced to enter it by means of two long
rude walls of stone running obliqucly from
the "pot' to either shore. The whole
thing looked like the letter A with the
Being disappointed in not seeing the
junction of the two streams, we started up
the old Maryland Canal to see the locks.
This Canal is about eight miles long, and
was constructed by company of lumber
men who had a saw mill and flour mill
here, which were run by the water from
the canal. In connection with the canal
was log pond covering several acres Of
ground, and in the hey day of prosperity
the canal and pond were often covered with
RATS and arks. 1t was lively times here
then, when the rough raftsmen and arkmen
congregated here, for they were rough
and uncouth set, though their roughness
often covered warm, generous and manly
hearts. The locks have been deserted for
years, and
"The silence that crawls round the spot as
you gaze,
Takes the place Of the olden DIM
Five old and dlapidated cottages stand
here. They appeared to be inhabited by
American citizens of African descent, whose
lives would seem to be a sad battle with
privation and poverty. A few cows lie
lstlessly in the door yard of one of them,
or where the yard might, or could, or should,
or ought to have been; for there was no
yard there. Another one had sort of
poor apology for garden, which was
fenced with grape vines stretched from
stakes driven into the ground, and seemed
to be a poor protection from the hungry
kline that lie so listlessly hard by.
The old canal was empty, save a trinkling
rivulet that calmly flowed along its other
wise deserted channel. We could hear the
murmuring music of the Susquehanna on
our left, but could not see its waters, and
so listening to its music, which, like Father
Ryan's poetry "sounds like sigh," we
walked on up the bank of the old canal
till we came to an opening through the
trees, where the underground was not so
dense as further down, and turned our foot
steps towards its bank and sat down on
fallen tree top, beside the gaunt old trunk
of hollow maple tree that had recently
been burned out, and whose interior was
charred and blackened by the fire. As we
sat there we saw boat passing on the
other side of the river, where the Tide
Water Canal winds its crooked way along
the western bank of the picturesque river,
the construction of which led to the deser
ton of the old Maryland Canal on the east
side. While sitting here we heard the
winding of the merry boatmen's horns
from other boats further up the canal.
The trees of the pretty grove where we
sat were gashed and scared by the ice that
had crashed against their trunks when the
river was on the rampage, some months
before Close by was an acre or two of
ground in cultivation, and the rudest kind
of cottage and stable showed that some
body appreciated the wild, romantic beauty
of the place, and had made home there.
We afterwards learned that this place was
near the fine farm of VIM. Porter, glimpse
of which we had from the bank of the old
canal. NIessrs. VIM. Preston and John
Gillespie have fine farms close by Mr.. Por-
ter's and near the lower railroad bridge.
On the west bank of the Octoraro our at