214 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of difficulty, to put the possibility of an accident clearly before the 

 mind, and to decide beforehand what ought to be done should the ac- 

 cident occur. Thus wound up in the present instance, I entered the 

 water. Even where it was not more than knee-deep its power was 

 manifest. As it rose around me, I sought to split the torrent by pre- 

 senting a side to it ; but the insecurity of the footing enabled it to 

 grasp the loins, twist me fairly round, and bring its impetus to bear 

 upon the back. Further struggle was impossible ; and, feeling my 

 balance hopelessly gone, I turned, flung myself toward the bank I had 

 just quitted, and was instantly swept into shallower water. 



The oil-cloth covering was a great incumbrance ; it had been made 

 for a much stouter man, and, standing upright after my submersion, 

 my legs occupied the centres of two bags of water. My guide ex- 

 horted me to try again. Prudence was at my elbow, whispering dis- 

 suasion ; but, taking every thing into account, it appeared more im- 

 moral to retreat than to proceed. Instructed by the first misadven- 

 ture, I once more entered the stream. Had the alpenstock been of iron 

 it might have helped me ; but, as it was, the tendency of the water to 

 sweep it out of my hands rendered it worse than useless. I, however, 

 clung to it by habit. Again the torrent rose, and again I wavered ; 

 but, by keeping the left hip well against it, I remained upright, and at 

 length grasped the hand of my leader at the other side. He laughed 

 pleasantly. The first victory was gained, and he enjoyed it. "No 

 traveller," he said, " was ever here before." Soon afterward, by trust- 

 ing to a piece of drift-wood which seemed firm, I was again taken off 

 my feet, but was immediately caught by a protruding rock. 



We clambered over the bowlders toward the thickest spray, which 

 soon became so weighty as to cause us to stagger under its shock. 

 For the most part nothing could be seen ; we were in the midst of be- 

 wildering tumult, lashed by the water, which sounded at times like 

 the cracking of innumerable whips. Underneath this was the deep, 

 resonant roar of the cataract. I tried to shield my eyes with my 

 hands, and look upward ; but the defence was useless. My guide con- 

 tinued to move on, but at a certain place he halted, and desired me to 

 take shelter in his lee and observe the cataract. The spray did not 

 come so much from the upper ledge as from the rebound of the shat- 

 tered water when it struck the bottom. Hence the eyes could be pro- 

 tected from the blinding shock of the spray, while the line of vision to 

 the upper ledges remained to some extent clear. On looking upward 

 over the guide's shoulder I could see the water bending over the ledge, 

 while the Terrapin Tower loomed fitfully through the intermittent 

 spray-gusts. We were right under the tower. A little farther on, the 

 cataract, after its first plunge, hit a protuberance some way down, and 

 flew from it in a prodigious burst of spray; through this we staggered. 

 We rounded the promontory on which the Terrapin Tower stands, and 

 pushed, amid the wildest commotion, along the arm of the Horseshoe, 



