140 FRAGMENTS Off SCIENCE. 
certainly hold you." Remarking that he might count on 
this, I waded in, and stretched the staff to rny companion. 
It was firmly grasped by both of us. Thus helped, though 
its onset was strong, I moved safely across the torrent. 
All danger ended here. We afterward roamed sociably 
among the torrents and boulders below the Gave of the 
Winds. The rocks were covered with organic slime, which 
could not have been walked over with bare feet, but the 
felt shoes effectually prevented slipping. We reached the 
cave and entered it, first by a wooden way carried over the 
boulders, and then along a narrow ledge, to the point eaten 
deepest into the shale. When the wind is from the south, 
the falling water, I am told, can be seen tranquilly from 
this spot; but when we were there, a blinding hurricane 
of spray was whirled against us. On the evening of the 
same day, I went behind the water on. the Canada side, 
which, after the experiences of the morning, strucTTnle as 
anim posture. 
Still even this latter is exciting to some nerves. Its 
effect upon himself is thus vividly described by Mr. 
Bakewell, Jr.: "On turning a sharp angle of the rock, 
a sudden gust of wind met us, coming from the hollow be- 
tween the fall and the rock, which drove the spray directly 
in our faces, with such force that in an instant we were 
wet through. When in the midst of this shower-bath the 
shock took away my breath: I turned back and scrambled 
over the loose stones to escape the conflict. The guide 
soon followed, and told me that I had passed the worst 
part. With that assurance I made a second attempt; but 
so wild and disordered was my imagination that when I 
had reached halfway I could bear it no longer."* 
To complete my knowledge I desired to see the fall from 
the river below it, and long negotiations were necessary to 
secure the means of doing so. The only boat fit for the 
undertaking had been laid up for the winter; but this 
difficulty, through the kind intervention of Mr. Townsend, 
was overcome. The main one was to secure oarsmen 
sufficiently strong and skillful to urge the boat where I 
wished it to be taken. The son of the owner of the boat, 
a finely built young fellow, but only twenty, and therefore 
not sufficiently hardened, was willing to go; and up the 
* "Mag. of Nat. Hist.," 1830, pp. 121, 122. 
