7 August 1911 – 13 August 1911

Very hot, so went to S----, and bathed in the salmon pool. Stretched myself out in the water, delighted to find that I had at last got to the very heart of the countryside. I was not just watching from the outside--on the bank. I was in it, and plunging in it, too, up to my armpits. What did I care about the British Museum or Zoology then? All but the last enemy and object of conquest I had overcome--for the moment perhaps even Death himself was under heel--I was immortal--in that minute I was always prostrate in the stream--sunk deep in the bosom of old Mother Earth who cannot die!