We were working our way through a watermelon even as I came across this quotation.  Never thought of them as rolling casks.  A little heavy to carry of course, but if you only have get them as far as your boat, and can then rest them there until you reach your picnic mooring, that needn’t be a problem.  You could even snag one in a net and hang it over the side of the boat to keep it cool.

PS  Twenty minutes after writing this, Luiz brought a plate of watermelon chunks to my desk.  How marvelous the ways of the universe.

‘Carried watermelons for drink. What more refreshing and convenient! This richest wine in a convenient cask, and so easily kept cool.’ 12 August 1853

Source: Henry David Thoreau, The Journal 1837-1861, Damion Searls (ed.), preface by John R. Stilgoe (New York: New York Review Books, 2009), p. 222

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