142 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



in width as we advanced, whilst the cliiFs on each 

 side became so precipitous that it required no great 

 stretch of imagination to conceive that at one time 

 the sacred stream must have burst, or riven asunder 

 its subterranean bed, and rent the fissure in the 

 solid rock through which it flows. Indeed, there 

 were places where I fancied that I could even trace 

 the same inclination of strata on both faces of the 

 precipices, with prominences on the one side, and 

 corresponding cavities on the other, which seemed 

 to substantiate my theory that the mass had been 

 rent by some violent convulsion. Both my com- 

 panions coincided with me in this opinion, and the 

 doctor recalled to mind, and repeated Coleridge's 

 admirable simile on broken friendship : 



" They parted — ne'er to meet again ; 



They stood aloof, the scars remaining, 

 Like cliflfs which had been rent asunder, 



A dreary sea now flows between, 

 But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, 



Shall ever do away, I ween, 

 The marks of that which once had been." 



The chasm was extremely narrow in comparison 

 with its depth, in some places being less than forty 



