388 DARTMOOR AND THE DART. 



to see such a body of water, far exceeding the limits 

 of the rocky bed, and filling a wide expanse of the 

 bordering valley. It would then be a large river, and 

 worthy of the lovely scenery by which it is encom- 

 passed ; and, pouring down with its characteristic impe- 

 tuosity, an impetuosity justifying its name of "Dart," 

 it must, I say, be a grand sight. The floods of this 

 river are extraordinarily sudden. After heavy rains 

 in its elevated sources, far up in Dartmoor, of which 

 perhaps not a drop has fallen here, the swollen waters 

 come bearing down, all without warning, in the form 

 of a mighty wall, like the bore of the Ganges in the 

 monsoon. 



Like the Lea, near London, the Dart has the repu- 

 tation of being peculiarly fatal, not a year passing 

 without one or more persons being engulphed by it. 

 This belief is embodied in a provincial distich : 



" River of Dart ! River of Dart ! 

 Every year thou claimest a heart." 



The swiftness of its course, and the great unevenness 

 of its bottom, full of treacherous holes and pits, com- 

 bine with these sudden floods to give it such a cha- 

 racter. People speak of its shrill wailing rushing 

 sound as "the river's cry ;" and say that during the 

 stillness of night they hear it a long way from its 

 banks. 



Some little distance above the bridge the shale 

 forms a noble precipice, rising with a rough face al- 

 most perpendicularly from the water's edge. It is 

 crowned with fine timber, which descends on either 



