44 



The recent rains had increased very much the volume of the water 

 without making it muddy, and thus the fall and the river were seen to the 

 greatest advantage. It had just that slight stain so pleasant to the eye 

 of a fisherman which made some of the gentlemen wish for their trout 

 rods. 



But it is not the waterfall, nor is it the dark rocky chasm that gives its 

 name to the place. It is the deep black pool at some little distance from the 

 foot of the fall itself. " I can't see the bottom here " said a young lady at the 

 pool. No, indeed, how should she ? The great doubt has ever been as to whether 

 there was a bottom to it. Tradition says that, once upon a time, some bold 

 natives resolved to fisd out. They got the four bell ropes from a neighbouring 

 church and tied them together, with the big bell at the end, and thus they 

 tried in vain to fathom it. The legend is very imperfect. "Whether the weight 

 of the bell pulled down all the unbelievers from above ? whether the bell itself 

 ever came up again ? or what doleful result happened to give the pool its myste- 

 rious name, none can tell; tradition sayeth not. Nor was there much time to 

 ponder on the subject, for the voice of the practical Griffiths was heard— "It's 

 nine feet deep ; I measured it myself." After this, visitors began to breathe 

 easily once more, and sketching became the order of the day. In one book an 

 excellent artistic effect was produced in a very short time, but in another 

 scratches here and scratches there, no doubt held the germ of everything, but 

 it did require a large exercise of the imagination to see anything. One gentle- 

 man, however, was not sketching, though closely examining the spot; nor was 

 he giving the reins to romance, though in deep thought. Neither fairies, nor 

 gnomes, nor goblins of any sort troubled him. "How to get salmon up there" 

 was the practical turn his ideas took, and he concluded it could be done by a 

 suecession of pools beginning at some distance off. This idea, disposing at once, 

 as it did, of the fine waterfall and the black pool together — or some other unex- 

 pressed feeling— sent everybody up the rook in a hurry to the hampers and cloaks. 



Below the upper or great fall, there is another a hundred yards or so 

 further down, but which cannot be compared in beauty to the upper fall. It is 

 broader, more broken, and probably not more than sixteen feet high. Below it 

 there is a wide deep pool. We were told that in the winter time large numbers 

 of salmon come up from the Wye to this fall, but never could get over it. 

 They are often killed here as they jump vainly at the barriers, and so, conser- 

 vators, you must be on the look out. Fish ladders, though possibly quite 

 practicable, are not to be recommended here ; we must first remove or make 

 accessible, artificial obstacles, before we touch those natural barriers, our beautiful 

 waterfalls. 



When half way up the steep ascent you almost look into a hawk's nest, 

 built in a hole in the opposite precipice. The cries of the young ones were heard, 

 too. It was probably a kestril's, but the old birds kept out of sight. Not so 

 some sparrow-hawks which were flying about the hazels in much anxiety. They 



