Creek

“ Where that little creek runs singing over its mossy bed, and the cedar-boughs bend down so thick and close that only a gleam of the bright water can be seen, even in the sunlight, there the fireflies crowd, and the damp foliage is all alive with their dazzling light. ”

“ A Londoner reading of the crossing of a creek would naturally imagine the scene to be in the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, instead of being perhaps some hundreds of miles in the interior, and would dream of salt water, perriwinkles and sea-weed, when he should be thinking of slimy mud-holes, black snakes and gigantic gum-trees. ”

“ Standing by the rippling, gushing waters of the creek, and raising your eyes to the arch, massive and yet light and beautiful from its height, its elevation apparently increased by the narrowness of its piers and by its projection on the blue sky, you gaze on the great work of nature in wonder and astonishment. ”

“ A creek flowing sluggishly through the alluvial districts of the South is insipid compared to a mountain stream in New England. Your mountain brook is a strong, salient personality which dominates the landscape. It sweeps in bold curves about the base of cliffs, and contracts into a mere mill race cut in the distorted schist and gneiss. Its suggestion is wholly of savage strength, a rude, forceful thing of the wilderness; its song a masterful strain, a triumphant chant of power. Again, there are merry little streams tinkling in the sunlight. ”

“ We are rowed on the beautiful river every day that it is warm enough—a very winding river not much broader than your favourite creek—flowing sometimes through level meadows, sometimes round rocky promontories & steep wooded hills which, with their wonderful autumn tints, are like a gay flower border mirrored in the water. ”

“ There was warm sunshine, a clear blue sky, the winding creek, now almost free from ice and glittering like polished gold; and everywhere faint traces of green showed in the sheltered nooks, where the warmth of the sun was held as one might hold water in the hollow of the hand. The air, the trees, the leafless shrubbery, alike were filled with birds. Over the meadows gathered the redwings fluting merrily ”

“ Over the little creek which dashes far adown from pine-dressed mountain peaks, and trails its shining waters through the flowering land, is built another structure—of logs, strongly and carefully erected, and thatched by a master hand with bark and grass. ”

“ From the precipitous, wooded mountain-side where you stand, the eye follows the little creek as it glides with less and less disquietude down through the protruding bases of the diminishing foothills, into the slowly broadening valley where the willows are more dense, and the heather and small bushes have taken on brilliant colors to vie with the splendor of aspen-patches higher up; on to the hay-meadows fenced with the many-elbowed and scraggy faggots of red cedar ”

“ She loved every inch of it—the silvery strips of water that led between bold, rocky headlands out to the broad Atlantic; the tall mountain peaks that showed so rugged an outline against the sky; the brown, peat-stained river that came brawling down from the uplands, and poured itself noisily into the creek; the wide, lonely moors, with their stretches of brilliant green grass and dark, treacherous bog pools; and the craggy cliffs that made a barrier against the ever-dashing waves, and round which thousands of sea birds flew, with harsh cries and whir of white wings. ”

“ After a while the ascent grew steeper, the creek became a mere rill that issued from beneath loose, moss-covered rocks and stones, and with much labor and puffing we drew ourselves up the rugged declivity. ”

“ Creeks, edged with low hills, wind away from the estuary. When the tide is low, great stretches of mud and sand lie on either side, and here may be seen black cormorants and crowds and crowds of gulls, here and there a heron, and quantities of smaller birds. The scene changes entirely at the mouth of the creek, for here the banks rise into high rugged cliffs, and the water frets restlessly over sunken rocks. ”

“ Our horses fed all night close at hand, and we were in our saddles early enough. I wanted to go west, and the further west the better; but we decided to follow the creek and see what became of it, and if any more waters existed in it. We found that it meandered through a piece of open plain, splendidly grassed, and delightful to gaze upon. How beautiful is the colour of green! What other colour could even Nature have chosen with which to embellish the face of the earth? ”

“ When the noon sun blazed down on them they found the creek dwindling rapidly and, glancing ahead down the sandy valley they could make out the dark, moist place where the last of it disappeared in the sands. ”

“ Imagine, if you please, the forest primeval; yes, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks of the poem as well, by the side of a rapidly rushing mountain torrent fed by the eternal snows of the lofty peaks of the great range. A level stretch of grassy land where a mountain brook joined the creek was dotted with clumps of pines and great boulders rolled down from the everlasting hills—half an acre of open clearing. On the opposite side of the brook the cañon wall rose almost sheer for perhaps five hundred feet, ending in jagged, needle-edged pinnacles of rock, sharp, picturesque and beautiful. ”

“ They kept continually turning in a zigzag fashion almost at every step, to avoid the waving vine, the close thicket, or the half-stagnant creek, crowded with decayed fragments of an older and an overthrown forest. ”

“ A water-pipe, usually above ground, paralleled the trail, which he concluded led upstream to the bed of the creek. The wall of the canon was several hundred feet from top to bottom, and magnificent were the untouched trees that the place was plunged in perpetual shade. ”

“ At the creek’s mouth the water spreads itself out, so that the small stream looks, from a distance, like a strong river, but one coming along the beach—running along the beach, in the moonlight, let us say—from the west would run almost to the eastern bank in the shallow water, that came only to the shoe tops. ”

“ Neat white houses and elegant mansions are seen on the open plain, or peeping above the dense vegetation when constructed upon a gentle rising hill. As far as the eye can reach over the tranquil [140] waters, small wooded islands stud the ocean, and more distant, land indistinctly appears. The river, or creek, is animated by numerous native boats of all classes, passing and repassing, engaged in various occupations, or lying tranquilly at rest, like the sea-bird upon the waters, after its toil is over. ”

“ The fish come into the creek with the tide, and bite best before the ebb commences. If the sea lions who cover the rocks just outside, follow them into the creek, the fish all run out—and there is no more sport that day. ”

“ The morning was cold, and the wind from the northwest. We passed at sunrise, three large sandbars, and at the distance of ten miles reached a small creek, about twelve yards wide, coming in from the north, above a white bluff: this creek has obtained the name of Plum creek, from the number of that fruit which are in the neighbourhood, and of a delightful quality. Five miles further, we encamped on the south near the edge of a plain; the river is wide, and covered with sandbars to-day: the banks are high and of a whitish colour; the timber scarce, but an abundance of grapes. ”

“ —But I remember seeing a mess of leaves suddenly go skittering in the wind and into the creek, then floating rapidly down the creek towards the sea, making me feel a nameless horror even then of “Oh my God, we're all being swept away to sea no matter what we know or say or do”—And a bird who was on a crooked branch is suddenly gone without my even hearing him. ”

“ Various points settled we hove anchor or rather hauled up the block of granite doing anchoral duty, and with the usual hubbub and strife, the orders which every man gives and the advice which no man takes, we paddled in half an hour to a shingly and grassy creek, defended by a sandpit and backed by a few tall massive trees. ”

“ That thread of willows marks the only creek in the valley. It runs from a big spring like ours here, and the lake drinks it up. They call the lake ‘The Last Drink.’ We’ll walk fifteen minutes before we get to it. We hit the southeast shore just about where you see that little bay with the cliffs coming down close. There’s a trail along the base of them cliffs; we follow that worse’n six miles fu’ther. ”

“ For every part of the bottom of each valley will, on this view, have long stood at the head of a sea creek, into which the then existing torrents will have delivered fragments of rocks, where, by the action of the tides, they will have been rolled, sometimes encrusted, rudely stratified, and the whole surface levelled by the blending together of the successive beach lines. ”

“ The thinly-wooded banks of the creek [270] resounded to the loud notes of the robin, and the more varied and melodious song of the mocking-bird; the stern features of nature, which we had long contemplated with a feeling almost of terror, seemed to relax into a momentary smile to cheer us on our toilsome journey.
On the morning of the 29th, our course (S. 35° E.) brought us at the distance of three miles from our camp, to the foot of the cliff which separates the valley from the high plain. ”

“ We steered south, and by that course left the small creek on which we had encamped, and reached another creek with here and there water in its channel. We followed the creek up nearly to its source in the fine range of hills I mentioned in yesterday's journal. Having left the creek we came nearly east for three and a half miles to the left bank of a watercourse with plenty of water in it and encamped. The country we saw today was very rich with undulating features and the best grasses; the timber upon it consisting of myall, western-wood acacia, brigalow, white-wood and box. ”

“ After breakfast started over a fine flat, well wooded with box, myall, gum, with numbers of small creeks running into it; water in many of them. We went on our course 305° for eleven miles, and crossed a fine creek going to the north; then changed our course five points, and crossed one spinifex ridge on to a splendid open flat with beautiful grass, high ranges to the east, and camped on the first creek, with abundance of water in it. ”

“ Even the river of his boyhood, whose broad expanse he conquered in a swimming contest at the tender age of ten—as he views it after an absence of a quarter-century—has dwindled to little more than a creek, across which one easily may hurl a stone. ”

“ Sweet winds blew from the sunny lake beside her, and small waves sputtered on the meadowy shore. She leaped a tiny creek bowered in pussy-willow buds. She was nearing a frivolous grove of birch and poplar and wild plum trees. ”

“ It is a remarkable fact that such high hills as I have been following should send out no creek whose course extends farther than ten or twelve miles. I could trace the creek I am now on by its timber for only a few miles, its course appearing south of west. The country in its immediate neighbourhood is open, and timbered with fine casuarina trees; the grass is dry and long, and the triodia approaches to within a quarter of a mile of it. The line of hills I previously mentioned as running along to the south of us, we had now run out. ”

“ Beautiful grass, plenty of water in the lower part of the creek, and useful timber, unite to recommend this locality for such a purpose. The creeks to the east and south-east are also equally adapted for cattle stations. After passing a stony ridge covered with spotted-gum, from which the remarkable features of the country around us--the flat-topped mountain wall, the isolated pillars, the immense heaps of ruins towering over the summits of the mountains--were visible, we descended a slope of silver-leaved Ironbark, and came to a chain of water-holes falling to the east. ”

“ They can be cool in summer and enjoy a view of mountains and plains. Then they may speculate, too, upon what preceded the pines and grass-covered earth about them. The gorge just back of them, and the meagre creek tumbling out from it, give a hint, and as we move quickly down the narrow valley dolmens here and there indicate that the little creek is only the remains of a river of ice. These monuments of the centuries are very abundant hereabouts. ”

“ A small creek between the precipices on the shore filled with fertile mud, or it may be only a deposit of mud upon the rocks themselves, forms the paltry farm which he cultivates. The owner of a creek is rich compared with his poor neighbour who can call himself master only of a mere mud-bed. ”

“ Towards evening a great portion of the flat is being covered with water from the creek, beyond the creek there is nothing visible but lines of trees, marking the course of the lesser channels, and stone hills, all else is a perfect sea. ”

“ Along the river on the south, is a low land covered with rushes, and high nettles, and near the mouths of the creeks, supplied with oak, ash, and walnut timber. On the north the land is rich and well situated. We made seventeen and a half miles this day. The river is falling slowly. We continued our route the next morning early: a small creek called Lead creek, on the south; another on the north, known to the French by the name of Little Good Woman's creek, and again Big Rock creek on the south were the only streams we passed this morning. ”