cease to be so, breathing tumult out of their repose. Would it were
possible to affix a wind-instrument to the nose, and thus make
melody of a snore, so that a sleeping lover might serenade his
mistress or a congregation snore a psalm-tune! Other, though
fainter, sounds than these contributed to my restlessness. My head
was close to the crimson curtain,--the sexual division of the boat,
--behind which I continually heard whispers and stealthy footsteps;
the noise of a comb laid on the table or a slipper dropped on the
floor; the twang, like a broken harp-string, caused by loosening a
tight belt; the rustling of a gown in its descent; and the unlacing
of a pair of stays. My ear seemed to have the properties of an eye;
a visible image pestered my fancy in the darkness; the curtain was
withdrawn between me and the Western lady, who yet disrobed herself
without a blush.

Finally all was hushed in that quarter. Still I was more broad
awake than through the whole preceding day, and felt a feverish
impulse to toss my limbs miles apart and appease the unquietness of
mind by that of matter. Forgetting that my berth was hardly so wide
as a coffin, I turned suddenly over and fell like an avalanche on
the floor, to the disturbance of the whole community of sleepers.
As there were no bones broken, I blessed the accident and went on
deck. A lantern was burning at each end of the boat, and one of the
crew was stationed at the bows, keeping watch, as mariners do on the
ocean. Though the rain had ceased, the sky was all one cloud, and
the darkness so intense that there seemed to be no world except the
little space on which our lanterns glimmered. Yet it was an
impressive scene.

We were traversing the "long level," a dead flat between Utica and