I never felt at home in a town. Up river when the night dropped over me, somehow I always felt comfortably, kindly housed. Towns, after all, are machines to facilitate getting psychically lost.

When I started for the head of navigation a friend asked me what I expected to find on the trip. "Some more of myself," I answered.

And, after all, that is the Great Discovery.

Transcriber's Note:

The original text has a number of typographical errors and spelling inconsistencies, which have been maintained in this text. The following list details these errors:

Original
Page No.		Typographical error
4[marvelled] for marveled
8[tighen] for tighten
9[Danube's] for Danubes
14"... [to me that Theseus.] ..." "that" should read "than"
24[pealing] for peeling
32[terriffic] for terrific
47[lamp] for lamb
60[egshell] for eggshell
[terriffic] for terrific
61[inded] for indeed
66[ride] for pride
70[voluntered] for volunteered
78[sad] for said
92[intelligble] for intelligible
109[gunwhale] for gunwale
119["I was tired cranking."] for "I was tired of cranking."
131[tenson] for tension
166[Kansis] for Kansas
171[skulled] for sculled
180[Thirce] for Thrice
195[unintelligble] for unintelligible

Inconsistent spellings

cross-cut / crosscut
Encleadus / Enceladus
færie / faërie
half-way / halfway
Hole-in-the-Wall / Hole-in-the-wall
log-book / logbook
mid-stream / midstream
sand-bar / sandbar
"Texas" / Texas
wind-like / windlike