THER THRESHOLD» OF THE GODS. 93 
I felt our pirogue leap and shiver; I heard 
awful noises, as of battles and storms and tu- 
multuous applaudings, as of a million clapping 
hands, as we rushed down into the rent hill. 
St, stczuvat ire sub umbras! All above us the 
mist and spume boiled and rolled; all below 
us the mad waves leaped and fought; all 
round us the gray, wet fragments of granite 
offered destruction. Nature’s wildest frenzy 
of passion was bearing us down, down, down! 
O, the calm madness that seized me! It was 
awe traced in marble—it was terror frozen in 
ice! O, the sweet vision, so suddenly mine, 
so abruptly gone! A mysterious joy, like the 
memory of a heavenly dream, lingered in my 
heart, down deeper than any fear of death 
could go. i 
Deeper and deeper we plunged down be- 
tween the dank, fantastically grooved jaws of 
the gorge, till the mist and darkness blended 
into one, and the thunder of the stream in its 
agony was appalling. Even this did not 
drown the metailic laugh of the halcyon as it 
led on through that horrid tumult. I felt a 
wet wind rushing over me, I saw the spume 
sparkle like phosphor, whilst the shark-like 
teeth of the walls on either hand drew closer 
upon me. | 
How deep the ecstasy below us! How far- 
reaching the immitigable storm-mist above us! 
How old and worn the stolid stones about us ! 
O threshold of the gods, what a distance be- 
hind us! O sweet, calm, every-day world, 
how infinitely removed from us! 
Finally we felt a mighty swell lift us and 
savagely shake us. A heavy spray dashed 
over us, and our frail vessel quivered and 
