Thoreau further develops the mountain imagery of A Week in "Tuesday," in which he describes his ascent, on another trip, of Mount Greylock ("Saddle-back Mountain") in western Massachusetts. He writes metaphorically of meeting and surmounting obstacles on such a journey, remarking that travelers frequently overestimate difficulties along the path. A person lost is not actually lost — he is simply where he is. Thoreau thus emphasizes the importance of openness to experience, observation, and understanding, of avoiding a predetermined route. He explores the subject of perspective in relation to mountains again, and — here and elsewhere in A Week — in relation to fog, mist, haze, and clouds. Mountain heights impart clarity; mist magnifies what is seen. Thoreau also develops the image of the all-encompassing river. Although it subsumes the tiny streams that empty into it, it nevertheless allows each to retain some of its own music, which remains audible as the river flows into the sea.
The local history of the region through which the brothers pass once again provides tales of Indian/white interaction. Thoreau is reminded by a "brawny New Hampshire man" of an earlier encounter, on another trip, with a "rather rude and uncivil man" named Rice. In his character sketch of Rice, he underscores the insignificance of what is commonly considered civility. Rice's character has grown naturally in the wild environment he inhabits. He is "as rude as a fabled satyr," direct, honest, and possesses a primal dignity and civility, as opposed to the acquired politeness of more civilized men. Back on the river, the sight of boatmen leads Thoreau into a discussion of the value of simple occupations. Resting at noontime, he takes up the Travels and Adventures in Canada by Alexander Henry, in whose life he finds a naturalness and lack of pretense and whose writing is characterized by directness, avoidance of exaggeration, and an abundance of natural fact. He finds that Henry's Travels express "perennials" — broad truth — beyond the straight historical fact of "annals." The two brothers kill, cook, and eat a pigeon, a small drama that causes some guilt, but that also prompts Thoreau to comment on the fulfillment of fate and on the detection of "the secret innocence of these incessant tragedies which Heaven allows." The chapter ends with a description of the "wild and solitary" landscape through which the travelers pass. They camp in Bedford, New Hampshire.
