THE PAPER CANOE

 A Paper Canoe?
   Here is some rainy day writing for those who might require some rainy day reading. I will begin at "The Paper Canoe" which is located on the Currituck Sound in Duck, N.C. We were fortunate to recently have dinner there, but it was a busy night and I wasn't able to inquire about the name, "The Paper Canoe." 
   I was reminded of some notes I had about the book, The Voyage of the Paper Canoe: A Geographical Journey of 2500 Miles From Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, During the Years 1874-5, by Nathaniel Holmes Bishop. I do not know if the name of the restaurant relates to the title of the book, but I do know that you will enjoy reading it.
   You will find The Voyage... for varying prices on Amazon where someone has printed it for you and you will find more on AbeBooks. The very expensive ones will be copies of the original, not knockoffs. Or, you can simply read the e-version quickly found on Gutenberg or the Internet Archive, which has a fine copy that is easily read and searched. But, if you prefer paper, live in London and have access to the Western Libraries, one will be found for you in storage.

The Paper Part
   Bishop began his voyage from Quebec in a very heavy wooden boat, but swapped it for a paper one on the upper Hudson River. You can learn more about it in Chapter V., "The American Paper Boat and English Canoes." This description is from the Introduction: Having proceeded about four hundred miles upon his voyage, the author reached Troy, on the Hudson River, New York state, where for several years E. Waters & Sons had been perfecting the construction of paper boats.  The advantages in using a boat of only fifty-eight pounds weight, the strength and durability of which had been well and satisfactorily tested, could not be questioned, and the author dismissed his assistant, and " paddled his own canoe " about two thousand miles to the end of the journey…..

An additional bit from the Introduction will help you determine if you want to search for the book or even buy it: 
   To an unknown wanderer among the creeks, rivers, and sounds of the coast, the courteous treatment of the Southern people was most gratifying. The author can only add to this expression an extract from his reply to the address of the Mayor of St. Mary's, Georgia, which city honored him with an ovation and presentation of flags after the completion of his voyage :
" Since my little paper canoe entered southern waters upon her geographical errand, — from the capes of the Delaware to your beautiful St. Mary's, — I have been deeply sensible of the value of Southern hospitality. The oystermen and fishermen living along the lonely beaches of the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia ; the surfmen and lighthouse keepers of Albemarle, Pamplico, and Core sounds, in North Carolina ; the ground-nut planters who inhabit the uplands that skirt the network of creeks, marshes, ponds, and sounds from Bogue Inlet to Cape Fear ; the piny- woods people, lumbermen, and turpentine distillers on the little bluffs that jut into the fastnesses of the great swamps of the crooked Waccamaw River ; the representatives of the once powerful rice-planting aristocracy of the Santee and Peedee rivers ; the colored men of the beautiful sea-islands along the coast of Georgia ; the Floridians living between the St. Mary's River and the Suwanee — the wild river of song ; the islanders on the Gulf of Mexico where I terminated my long journey ; — all have contributed to make the * Voyage of the Paper Canoe' a success."

Chasing the Paper Canoe
   From the description above one notices that the 'Paper Canoe" travelled in the area of the restaurant, so there may be a connection. There is mention of the crooked Waccamaw River also found in the introduction and that was noticed by someone at Coastal Carolina University. ln 2012 faculty and students at Coastal Carolina traced the wake left by Bishop and identified places he mentioned. The result is the book, Chasing the Paper Canoe, which was published by Athenaeum Press at Coastal Carolina. To learn more about the project see, Chasing the Paper Canoe. If you look under "Bishop" you will learn more about him and the voyage of the "Paper Canoe." If you would rather just look at beautiful photos from the coastal Carolina area, click on "Gallery." The book can be purchased on Amazon, from which this description is taken:
  This inaugural publication from The Athenaeum Press reimagines Nathaniel Bishop’s journey down the Waccamaw River in a paper canoe more than a century ago. The book is the culmination of a year’s collaboration between students and faculty at Coastal Carolina University. Chasing the Paper Canoe portrays the culture, desolation and stoic beauty of the Waccamaw River. Within its pages, readers find the historic rice fields contrasted to bankside home construction; the weathered waterfront of Georgetown and portraits of modern fisherman. It is a true portrait of what Bishop described as that “most crooked waterway.” The project takes readers on a journey across history and form. Throughout the printed book, readers can see the stunning photographs come to life as streaming video through a feature called augmented reality. Both photographs and multimedia components were designed and produced by students in Coastal Carolina University’s pre-professional studio.

The Bonus:

    Nathaniel Bishop is an interesting fellow and was a very active one. Two more of his books are found in storage in the Western Libraries (for now, at least) and they can also be read online or purchased in print. 
Four Months in a Sneak-box: A Boat Voyage of 2600 Miles Down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and Along the Gulf of Mexico, 1879:

"A 2,600 mile voyage in 1875 from Pittsburgh to Florida down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in a 12 foot duck hunting boat called a "Barnegat Bay Sneak Box."This curious and staunch little craft, though only 12 feet in length, proved a most comfortable and serviceable home while the author rowed it more than 2,600 miles down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, until he reached the mouth of the wild Suwanee River."

If you prefer works about walking: 

The Pampas and Andes: A Thousand Miles' Walk Across South America, 1855:
"Bishop was a mere lad of 17 in 1855 when, with $45 in his pocket, he left Massachusetts bound for South America. Pursuing a love of natural history, he arrived in Buenos Aires, ascended the Plata and Parana Rivers, walked across the pampas and the Saline Desert, hiked over the Andes into Chile, and at Valparaiso caught a boat for home. Barely able to speak the language, he slips quietly through South America, eyes open. The ultimate boy's adventure."

For more from MM about long walks, see John Muir who took a Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf  from Ontario.  To read more about things From Far Away and Long Ago, in South America see: "W.H. Hudson and the Hail Storm."
  If you are now feeling enthused and considering your own trek, see "The Trans Canada Trail." 

On Ophiology

The Sounds of Snakes

   
   While I have not felt like writing much lately, I have continued to read and that allows me to present you with items more interesting than I could otherwise provide. This piece is about snakes and it is from the same book from which I copied, about a month ago, a description of hail storms. In this instance, W. H. Hudson recalls the snake sounds he heard as a child. They were coming from under the floor beneath his bed. 

   I grew up in an area where there were a lot of snakes, but I can't say I ever heard any, and apart from the ones that rattle, I didn't think snakes made much noise. You will learn from the piece below that they do make sounds and I learned from it what 'ophiology' is. If you are not a fan of snakes, you are warned that the symphony of snakes described here, may give you the shivers.

   "Snakes were common enough about us; snakes of seven or eight different kinds, green in the green grass, and yellow and dusky-mottled in dry and barren places and in withered herbage, so that it was difficult to detect them. Sometimes they intruded into the dwelling-rooms, and at all seasons a nest or colony of snakes existed in the thick old foundations of the house, and under the flooring. In winter they hibernated there, tangled together in a cluster no doubt; and in summer nights when they were at home, coiled at their ease or gliding ghost-like about their subterranean apartments, I would lie awake and listen to them by the hour. For although it may be news to some closet ophiologists, serpents are not all so mute as we think them. At all events this kind, the Philodryas aestivus--a beautiful and harmless colubrine snake, two and a half to three feet long, marked all over with inky black on a vivid green ground--not only emitted a sound when lying undisturbed in his den, but several individuals would hold a conversation together which seemed endless, for I generally fell asleep before it finished. A hissing conversation it is true, but not unmodulated or without considerable variety in it; a long sibilation would be followed by distinctly-heard ticking sounds, as of a husky-ticking clock, and after ten or twenty or thirty ticks another hiss, like a long expiring sigh, sometimes with a tremble in it as of a dry leaf swiftly vibrating in the wind. No sooner would one cease than another would begin; and so it would go on, demand and response, strophe and antistrope; and at intervals several voices would unite in a kind of low mysterious chorus, death-watch and flutter and hiss; while I, lying awake in my bed, listened and trembled. It was dark in the room, and to my excited imagination the serpents were no longer under the floor, but out, gliding hither and thither over it, with uplifted heads in a kind of mystic dance; and I often shivered to think what my bare feet might touch if I were to thrust a leg out and let it hang down over the bedside."

Source:
  Far Away and Long Ago: A Childhood in Argentina, W. H. Hudson. Eland Books, 1982, pp.207-208.

The Bonus:
   It gets worse. I also happen to be reading Hudson's, Idle Days in Patagonia. Early on in the book Hudson describes an incident when he accidentally shoots himself in the leg and has to wait in a windowless cabin while his friend goes for help. He learns that he is not alone:

 "At length, about midnight, I was startled by a slight curious sound in the intense silence and darkness. It was in the cabin and close to me. I thought at first it was like the sound made by a rope drawn slowly over the clay floor. I lighted a wax match, but the sound had ceased, and I saw nothing. After awhile I heard it again, but it now seemed to be out of doors and going round the hut, and I paid little attention to it. It soon ceased, and I heard it no more. So silent and dark was it thereafter that The hut I reposed in might have been a roomy coffin in which I had been buried a hundred feet beneath the surface of the earth. Yet I was no longer alone, if I had only known it, but had now a messmate and bedfellow who had subtly crept in to share the warmth of the cloak and of my person—one with a broad arrow-shaped head, set with round lidless eyes like polished yellow pebbles, and a long smooth limbless body, strangely segmented and vaguely written all over with mystic characters in some dusky tint on an indeterminate grayish-tawny ground...."

[When his friend returns, Hudson learns he has been sleeping with the snake.]

"Not until the sun was an hour up did my friend return to me to find me hopeful still, and with all my faculties about me, but unable to move without assistance. Putting his arms around me he helped me up, and just as I had got erect on my sound leg, leaning heavily on him, out from beneath the poncho lying at my feet glided a large serpent of a venomous kind, the Craspedocephalus alternactus, called in the vernacular the 'serpent with cross.' Had my friend's arms not been occupied with sustaining me he, no doubt, would have attacked it with the first weapon that offered, and in all probability killed it, with the result that I should have suffered from a kind of vicarious remorse ever after. Fortunately it was not long in drawing its coils out of sight and danger into a hole in the wall."

Sources: 

   'Ophiology' is a sub-field of Herpetology and the Wikipedia entry for that is here.

   You will learn from this very interesting article that cobras growl: "6 Sssecrets of a Snake-Sound Scientissst," Kate Horowitz, Mental Floss, Sept. 21, 2015. 

CANCON

   Snakes, lots of them, can be found at the Narcisse Snake Dens which are located about an hour from Winnipeg. "Snakes On A Plain: A Visit to Manitoba's Narcisse Snake Dens: A Bucket List Experience Observing the World's Largest Concentration of Snakes," Robin Esrock, Canadian Geographic, Mar. 2, 2023.

W. H. Hudson and the Hail Storm

   We have just had a slight ice storm so I have been inside reading Far Away and Long Ago. In it, there is a description of a devastating hail storm. Hundreds of birds were killed, as were many sheep and even large animals, as well as a child. 

  The passage (provided below) reminded me of a post I did back in May, 2021 (see: Hail Storms.)  From it you will learn that it is predicted that we may begin to experience more, and more damaging, hail storms as a result of climate change. The storm below was witnessed by Hudson as a child, while living on the pampas in Argentina.

It was in sultry summer weather, and towards evening all of us boys

and girls went out for a ramble on the plain, and were about a quarter

of a mile from home when a blackness appeared in the south-west, and

began to cover the sky in that quarter so rapidly that, taking alarm,

we started homewards as fast as we could run. But the stupendous

slaty-black darkness, mixed with yellow clouds of dust, gained on us,

and before we got to the gate the terrified screams of wild birds

reached our ears, and glancing back we saw multitudes of gulls and

plover flying madly before the storm, trying to keep ahead of it. Then

a swarm of big dragon-flies came like a cloud over us, and was gone in

an instant, and just as we reached the gate the first big drops

splashed down in the form of liquid mud. We had hardly got indoors

before the tempest broke in its full fury, a blackness as of night, a

blended uproar of thunder and wind, blinding flashes of lightning, and

torrents of rain. Then as the first thick darkness began to pass away,

we saw that the air was white with falling hailstones of an

extraordinary size and appearance. They were big as fowls' eggs, but

not egg-shaped: they were flat, and about half-an-inch thick, and

being white, looked like little blocks or bricklets made of compressed

snow. The hail continued falling until the earth was white with them,

and in spite of their great size they were driven by the furious wind

into drifts two or three feet deep against the walls of the buildings.

It was evening and growing dark when the storm ended, but the light

next morning revealed the damage we had suffered. Pumpkins, gourds,

and water-melons were cut to pieces, and most of the vegetables,

including the Indian corn, were destroyed. The fruit trees, too, had

suffered greatly. Forty or fifty sheep had been killed outright, and

hundreds more were so much hurt that for days they went limping about

or appeared stupefied from blows on the head. Three of our heifers

were dead, and one horse--an old loved riding-horse with a history,

old Zango--the whole house was in grief at his death! ...

To return to the hailstones. The greatest destruction had fallen on

the wild birds. Before the storm immense numbers of golden plover had

appeared and were in large flocks on the plain. One of our native boys

rode in and offered to get a sackful of plover for the table, and

getting the sack he took me up on his horse behind him. A mile or so

from home we came upon scores of dead plover lying together where they

had been in close flocks, but my companion would not pick up a dead

bird. There were others running about with one wing broken, and these

he went after, leaving me to hold his horse, and catching them would

wring their necks and drop them in the sack. When he had collected two

or three dozen he remounted and we rode back.

Later that morning we heard of one human being, a boy of six, in one

of our poor neighbours' houses, who had lost his life in a curious

way. He was standing in the middle of the room, gazing out at the

falling hail, when a hailstone, cutting through the thatched roof, struck him on the head and killed him instantly.

(From: Far Away and Long Ago, (Eland Books), pp.73-76)

W.H. Hudson & The Western Libraries

The copy of Long Ago and Far Away I am reading is borrowed from the collections in the Western Libraries. Listed below are the books by Hudson found in those libraries in early 2023. There are almost fifty of them and there are some multiple copies of different editions held in various locations and the affiliated libraries. Given that the Western Libraries is getting rid of many books, I thought it worth providing a snapshot of what was a rather rich collection of printed books. I doubt if Hudson was taught about in many courses, but it is fitting that a university library has a surplus of them. Soon, these printed volumes are likely to be scarce on campus, but admittedly the students can read them in electronic form. As well, many of the copies were already in storage so it was unlikely that a curious student would ever have discovered them by browsing.

Hudson, W. H. A Hind in Richmond Park. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Hind in Richmond Park. J.M. Dent, 1922. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Shepherd's Life : Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Shepherd's Life : Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs. Methuen, 1926. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1921. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. E. P. Dutton, 1920. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. J.M. Dent, 1951. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J.M. Dent & Sons, 1939. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J.M. Dent & Sons. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. Alfred A. Knopf, 1920. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. Duckworth, 1927. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in London. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in London. Duckworth, 1928. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in Town & Village. AMS Press, 1968.(Storage) 

Hudson, W. H. Birds in Town & Village. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1919. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a Childhood in Argentina. Eland Books, 1982. (Weldon)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. E. P. Dutton & Co., 1923. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago. 1941. (King’s)

Hudson, W. H., et al. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. Printed by G. Kraft Ltda., 1943. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. 1945 (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Modern Library, 1916. (Brescia)

Hudson, W. H. Idle Days in Patagonia. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Idle Days in Patagonia. J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. La Tierra purpuréa. Ministerio De Instrucción Pública y Previsión Social, 1965. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Nature in Downland. Longmans, Green, 1906. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Book of a Naturalist. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Book of a Naturalist. J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1924. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Land's End : a Naturalist's Impressions in West Cornwall. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Purple Land : Being the Narrative of One Richard Lamb's Adventures

in the Banda Orientál in South America, as Told by Himself. Creative Arts Book Co., 1979. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Purple Land : Being the Narrative of One Richard Lamb's Adventures

in the Banda Orientál in South America, as Told by Himself. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1951. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H., and E. Mcknight Kauffer. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Random House, 1944. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and E. Mcknight Kauffer. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Random House, 1945. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H., Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. 1968 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Edward Grey Grey of Fallodon. Dead Man's Plack, An Old Thorn,

& Miscellanea. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Frank E. Beddard. British Birds. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Morley Roberts. A Hind in Richmond Park. E.P. Dutton, 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H.,  A Hind in Richmond Park.1968 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H.,  A Hind in Richmond Park. 1922 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Morley Roberts. Men, Books and Birds. J. Cape, 1928. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H., and R. B. Cunninghame Graham. Birds of La Plata. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

H Spenser, Edmund, and William Henry Hudson. Spenser's Faery Queene. Book I. Dent. (Storage)