.lASPKU ST. Anns. .-io:; 



sliccr ami precipitous tVoin tlu- very brink of the stream, rifted 

 and broken into anjjnlar blocks and tall colunuiar masses, from 

 the clefts of wliicli, wlierever tlu y coidd find soil cnotii;li to 

 support their scamty {growth, a few stunted oaks slu)t out almost 

 horizontally with their gnarled arms and dark-green foliage, and 

 here and there the silvery bark and <|uivcriiig tresses of the 

 bireli relieved tlu* monotony of colour by their gay briglitness. 

 Above, the clifts were crowned \^itb the beautiful purple 

 heather, now in its vi'ry glow of sunuuer bloom, about wliicii 

 were bu/zing myriads of wild bees, sipping their nectar from its 

 cups of amethyst. 



" The hither side, though rough and steep and broken, was 

 not in the place where Jasper stood precipitous; indied it 

 seemed as if at some distant period a sort of landslip had 

 occurred, by which the summit of the rocky wail bad been 

 broken into massive fragments, and hurled down in an 

 inclined plane into the bed of the stream, on which it had 

 encroached with its shattered bh)cks and rounded boulders. 



"Time, however, bad covered all this abrupt and broken 

 slope with a beautiful growth of oak and ha/.i-l coppice, among 

 which, only at distant intervals, coidd the dun wiather-beaten 

 Hanks of the great stones be discovered. 



" At tljc hn.sc of this descent, a lunulri'd and fdty feet perhaps 

 below tljc stand of the young sportsman, Mowed tlie dark arrowy 

 stream — a wild and perilous water. As clear as crystal, yet as 

 dark as the brown cairn-gorm, it came pouring down among 

 the broken rocks with a rapidity and force which showed what 

 must be its fury when swollen by a storm among the mountains, 

 here breaking into wreaths of rippling foam where some uns( ( n 



