iS6 Life of Audubon. 



accompanied the lumberers to the place. Two of the 

 men, on reaching it, threw off their jackets, tied hand- 

 kerchiefs round their heads, and fastened to their bodies 

 a long rope, the end of which was held by three or four 

 others, who stood ready to drag their companions ashore, 

 in case of danger or accident. The two operators, each 

 bearing an axe, walked along the abutments, and, at a 

 given signal, knocked out the wedges. A second blow 

 from each sent off the abutments themselves, and the men, 

 leaping with extreme dexerity from one cross-log to an- 

 other, sprung to the shore with almost the quickness of 

 thought. Scarcely had they effected their escape from 

 the frightful peril that threatened them, when the mass of 

 waters burst forth with a horrible uproar. All eyes were 

 bent towards the huge heaps of logs in the gorge below. 

 The tumultuous burst of the waters instantly swept away 

 every object that opposed their progress, and rushed in 

 foaming waves among the timber that everywhere blocked 

 up the passage. Presently a slow heavy motion was per- 

 ceived in the mass of logs ; one might have imagined that 

 some mighty monster lay convulsively writhing beneath 

 them, struggling, with a fearful energy, to extricate him- 

 self from the crushing weight. As the waters rose this 

 movement increased ; the mass of timber extended in all 

 directions, appearing to become more and more en- 

 tangled each moment ; the logs bounced against each 

 other, thrusting aside, submerging or raising into the air, 

 those with which they came in contact. It seemed as if 

 they were waging a war of destruction, such as the 

 ancient authors describe the efforts of the Titans, the 

 foaming of whose wrath might, to the eye of the painter, 

 have been represented by the angry curlings of the wa- 

 ters, while the tremulous and rapid motions of the logs, 

 which at times reared themselves almost perpendicularly, 

 might by the poet have been taken for the shakings of 



