“Water, sir: lots of it,” said the captain bluffly.
“Of course,” said the young man impatiently.
“We sailed up for three days.”
“Yes?”
“And then we sailed down again.”
“Oh, absurd! But the shores: what were they like?”
“Don’t know, my lad. I never saw them.”
“What?”
“Too far away on either hand. It was like being at sea off that coast, where the water’s all muddy. That river and the big ones that run into it, according to the charts, from north, south, and west all seem as if they were hard at work washing all the land away and carrying it out to sea. It’s bad enough here, but down south yonder it’s wonderful: the water’s muddy for miles away out to sea.”
“Oh, but you couldn’t sail far up that great river without seeing something interesting if you kept your eyes open,” said the young man contemptuously.