The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-08-15
THE SEA-MARSHI.
The Delights of Solitude in a Boat.

A fanciful writer has developed the
theory that 1t is easier than 1t was
hundred years ago to find solitude
in civilized countries. Then agri-
culturists ranged naturally over the
great spaces; now the traffic of life
keeps to the prescribed routes. The
writer made no allowance for the fact
that the tourist. with a sense OF ma
tural beauty more consciously culti-
waited than ever before, has rushed In
where the agriculturists has ceased to
tread. The tourist calls grand"
what his ancestor of the eighteenth
century called savage" and 1t is
unjust 10 his enterprise to say that
he does not wander far from the rail-
ways. The rucksack, though It has
not yet won the place in our esteem
II will have one day, has already en-
abled thousands of Englishmen in
their own country to become inde-
pendent of every means of transport.
But even in a ruoksack you cannot
carry a bed, and the present writer
(who would promise that he is not
averse to reasonable comfort) has
learned from experience a method of
making the most romantic solitude
habitable. The secret, which is APP
plicable only to estuaries, rivers and
lakes, lies in the use of beamy boat
as headquarters. A boat between If
teen and twenty tons does very we'll.
If orderly habits be observed-if, for
instance, you do not eat your break
fast before your bunk is made, and
do not turn in at night before the
dinner things are washed up--it will
be found that there is more room in
such boat than in many cottages
the bulk of which is a hundred times
greater. The architectural problem
of admitting many cupboards into
small buildings was solved ages ago
by naval architects, though it still
puzzles us on land, where we have
been less hotly pressed by necessity.
The incompatible advantage of a
boat is that it can be moved from
place to place. Even If it be a hulk
without sails 1t can be towed The
most convenient cottage ever built
remains in the same place.
The boat was lying in a creek on
the Norfolk coast, secure from the
highest wind that a winter night
could bring. To be truthful, the high
tide just Tapped her sides without
making her float The sensation OF
hearing a gale blow outside a room
where the curtains are drawn and
| the fire burns bright has become a
kind of traditional satisfaction, cele.
brated for us everywhere in litera.
ture. But to those who are bad sail.
ors, at all events, there is still more
curious satisfaction in hearing squalls
in rigging while the ship remains firm
as a rock.
There is no bit of coast in Eng
land quite like that which stretchc;
from Wolferton to Wells. 1t is the
Norfolk margin of the shallow Wash
1t is gaining on the sea, in accord
ance 18th the principle that oul
coast gains where it lies low and re
ceives continual accretions of sand
and loses where it is high and is IN
dermined by the sea beating on the
base of cliffs. To a stranger who
has not studied his map, it is al
ways puzzling to find thai though
he is on the East Coast he may see
the sun set in the sea, and latch 6
heavy sea roll in when the Wind Il
from the west. The unrivalled charm
of this wild coast, however, is the
salt marshes and flats guarded by
barriers of sand further out to sea
These marshes and mud flats arc
filled with an extraordinary variety
of birds, and are one of the favoritC
arriving places of birds in the autumn
immigration. The present writer
has watched the immigrants arrive OF
an autumn day, not volleying across
the sky in delirious fight, as they
are sometimes said to do, but fyint
with the measured, deliberate air o.
rather tired but still resolute pill
grims; Topping and lolloping the.
came, yet never deviating from tn.
straight line.
AS one looked seaward beyond the